Myths surrounding the Central Otago gold rush will be exploded during a conference in Cromwell later this year which marks the 150th anniversary of the discovery of gold in the region.
The University of Canterbury, together with the Otago Goldfields Heritage Trust, is hosting "150 Years of Riches: The Central Otago Gold Rush 1862-2012", from August 29 to 31.
Conference convener Lloyd Carpenter said, although it was a significant academic event, it would be far from "dry and dusty".
"What we're wanting to do is to bring history to life. The brief to speakers is for an academic presentation, but not done in a boring way.
"The gold rush was an exciting event, and you can't take an exciting thing and kill it with words."
He was delighted with the wide range and calibre of the 29 speakers, he said.
"It's attracted all of the key goldfields historians, archaeologists and tourism people in Australasia."
Topics being covered include everything from the origins of the names of the Otago goldfields and survival factors of the Otago Chinese goldminers, to gold fields tourism, Charles Thatcher's songs of the New Zealand diggings and novels set during the gold rush.
The two keynote speakers are Dr Warwick Frost, of La Trobe University in Melbourne, and Professor Tom Brooking of Otago University.
"In fact, I had a dream team of people I hoped would speak at this, the first ever Central Otago gold rush conference, and all of those on my list have agreed to take part, so it's exceeded my expectations."
The event would separate the myths about the gold rush from reality, he said.
"The conference will crack it open, strip it of the myths and show it for what it was and how it created this amazing place we live, called Central Otago."
