1901 Shotover River bridge opened
At 96 metres long and 90 metres high, the
suspension bridge over the Shotover River near Queenstown in Central Otago is one of the
most spectacular bridges in New
Zealand. In recent times it has become an
iconic tourist destination and one of the world’s premier bungy-jumping sites.
Each year thousands of tourists jump from it with a length of elastic rope tied
to their ankles – something those who attended its opening in 1901 could never
have imagined in their wildest dreams.
Suspended on 14 wire cables, this bridge
marked the entrance to the Skippers gold-mining settlement, which was once the
largest on the Shotover
River. Its opening was
celebrated with a ball and banquet, but in many respects it came too late.
Miners had already started to abandon the Skippers Canyon
area and it ultimately became a bridge to nowhere. The settlement became yet
another of the ghost towns that dot the Central Otago
landscape.
At the peak of the gold rush some described
the Shotover River as the richest river in the world.
Thousands were lured to its banks after gold was discovered there in 1862. A
precarious pack track was the only access to the Skippers settlement for more
than 20 years. Pressure grew for a dray road in the 1880s when quartz mining generated
the need to transport heavy machinery to the area. A 3-kilometre stretch of the
road involved hand drilling and blasting solid rock to create a road platform
nearly 200 metres above the Shotover
River. This was no job
for the faint hearted and men working on this road had to hang on ropes to
complete much of the task. The bridge, with its sheer drop to the Shotover River below, illustrates the difficult
conditions encountered by those who sought to seek their fame and fortune in
this rugged region.
Image: Shotover bridge (Shotover Jet)
1 March
