Early days on the Dunstan / John McCraw.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-310) and index.

The earliest inhabitants : moa and Maori -- The first year : old Clyde -- Tragedy but no triumph : early mining on the east bank -- Wing dams and diversions : mining the Manuherikia River -- From tin hut to mansion : John Allan and Springvale -- Making tucker : Tucker Hill diggings -- Gone for good : Butchers Gully diggings -- From golden beach to white sands : Chapmans Gully -- Hidden valley : Blackmans Gully -- Lost and found : the Alexandra reef -- The lost village : Chamounix -- The good life : Como Villa and its people -- Struggle for power : electricity comes to Central -- Scuttling a scam : J.P. Lane's irrigation scheme -- The co-operator : Archie Ashworth and the Co-op -- Relics of the past : early buildings of Bald Hill Flat -- Where's that? : miners' names for landscape features -- Principles and personalities : the Whelan affair -- Alexandra's first school : what was its fate? -- A world of difference : unique landscape features.

This book examines for the first time the gold-mining history of a number of localities close to Alexandra and Clyde. In places such as Springvale, Tucker Hill, Chapman's Gully and Blackman's Gully, the evidence of mining activity is clear visible, yet when the author arrived in Alexandra in 1949, he found few people who could tell him anything about sites. This book is an attempt to fill that gap.