A few lone fruit trees and abandoned rock huts hidden by trees and scrub beside the Kawarau River were all that remained to hint at the life of some of the Gibbston Valley's early characters until local enthusiast Susan Stevens starting uncovering them.
A Gibbston resident and chairwoman of the Gibbston Community Association, Mrs Stevens has been working on the project as part of the Gibbston River Trail and has been clearing the site helped by kayakers and community workers in preparation for an archaeological mapping exercise by the Otago Anthropological Society Otago at Easter.
The measuring and mapping exercise, organised and supervised by archaeologist Peter Petchey, has been funded by a $4000 grant from Queenstown Lakes District Council as part of the council's heritage and culture funding.
Also helping out with heavy machinery, when it is needed to clear big logs and rubble, has been fellow Gibbston Valley resident Brandon O'Callaghan, of B and A Digging.
While one of the old huts, known as Rum Currie's hut, had earlier been restored, the remains of another hut and associated rock-work was yet to be completely uncovered and mapped.
Rum Currie's hut was originally created by rabbiters from stables built by one of the area's original settlers, Hughie Harvey, Mrs Stevens explained.
They converted the stables into a hut by keeping the cobbled floor, along with the lean-to where oats and chaff were stored, then built up the structure with river stone and added a stone chimney.
The hut was used by rabbiters until Jack Currie took it over in the 1930s.
"He was later known as Rum Currie, due to his drinking habits," Mrs Stevens added.
It was sometime after Rum left Gibbston in the 1950s that his hut was restored and it was now used by kayakers and rafters, she said.
Rum Currie's hut is identified as a protected feature and is a Category 1 Heritage Item in the QLDC Partially Operative District Plan and as a Category I building on the New Zealand Historic Places Trust Register, so was eligible for the grant from the QLDC, she explained.
The area around the other old hut is still covered in briar, broom, hawthorn, and seedling sycamores, which are smothering the archaeological sites associated with the hut and need to be cleared before the site can be mapped.
Rather than do a "dig" on the site, the aim of the grant was to leave items of interest intact and measure and map them once the site was cleared, Mrs Stevens explained.
It was only with the site clearance that the fruit trees and extent of the old orchard became apparent.
"We knew Hughie Harvey had a large orchard on the property, because some of the fruit trees still existed around Rum Currie's hut, but we found all these other fruit trees as well."
Also uncovered were several features associated with the occupation of the area, such as stone walls, adjacent to and surrounding the hut, that will be classed as archaeological sites, because they are associated with human activity that occurred before 1900, she added.
Once the site is cleared and mapped, it will be protected to keep it from deteriorating further and there are plans to install interpretation signs.
In a bid to preserve the fruit trees, some of which date back to the 1800s, they will be GPS -mapped and new trees propagated from the existing material, she added.
"It's just such an important and exciting area that would be easy to miss."
Once cleared, mapped and protected, the area will eventually become part of the Gibbston Walkway, Mrs Stevens said.
In addition to the input from the Gibbston Community Association, community workers and kayakers, the project has been given support and assistance by the Department of Conservation, the Queenstown and District Historical Society, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, the Lakes District Museum, the Arrowtown Horticultural Society, the Otago Polytechnic and the Otago Anthropological Society.
• To help with the clearance, a working bee is being held on site at the end of Rafters Rd this Saturday, starting at 9.30am. All invited.
