Arrowtown Chinese Settlement

The Arrowtown Chinese Settlement was one of at least ten Chinese settlements that grew up adjacent to gold mining towns in nineteenth-century Otago.

In 1865 many miners left Otago for the newly discovered West Coast goldfields, leading the Otago Provincial Council to invite Chinese miners from the Australian goldfields of Victoria to work the fields in Otago.

The first Chinese miners arrived in Otago in 1866. The heyday of Chinese mining was during the 1870s and 1880s, when many Chinese began reworking gold-bearing areas that had been deserted by European miners.

The Arrowtown settlement is the last remaining Chinese settlement in a relatively intact state in Otago, the others having been affected by residential, horticultural or hydroelectric development.

The area is a significant reminder of the Chinese presence on the Central Otago goldfields, and the way in which the miners lived.