Paerau is a small settlement in inland

Central Otago Central Otago is an area located in the inland part of the Otago region in the South Island of New Zealand. The motto for the area is "A World of Difference". The area is dominated by mountain ranges and the upper reaches of the Clutha River ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

. It is located in the

Strath Taieri The Strath Taieri (sometimes spelt Strath-Taieri) is a large glacial valley and river plateau in New Zealand's South Island. It is surrounded by the rugged hill ranges to the north and west of Otago Harbour. Since 1989 it has been part of the cit ...

, the upper valley of the

Taieri River The Taieri River (a misspelling of the original Māori name ''Taiari'' ) is the fourth-longest river in New Zealand and is in Otago in the South Island. Rising in the Lammerlaw Range, it initially flows north, then east around the Rock and Pill ...

, at the foot of the

Rock and Pillar Range The Rock and Pillar Range (), is a range of high hills is located in the Maniototo, an area of inland Otago, New Zealand. The range is surrounded on three sides by the Taieri River, which has its source in the Lammerlaw Range. The river flows ...

. "Paerau" is a Māori-language name meaning "one hundred ridges". Despite being geographically close to

Middlemarch ''Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life'' is a novel by English author George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Ann Evans. It appeared in eight installments (volumes) in 1871 and 1872. Set in Middlemarch, a fictional English Midlands town, in 1829 ...

and

Roxburgh Roxburgh () is a civil parish and formerly a royal burgh, in the historic county of Roxburghshire in the Scottish Borders, Scotland. It was an important trading burgh in High Medieval to early modern Scotland. In the Middle Ages it had at lea ...

, the terrain and roads mean that Ranfurly and Patearoa are the more closely related communities of interest. Paerau is also colloquially referred to as ''Styx''.

History

As well as the Taieri River the district is also home to the Styx Creek, a small

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

of the

. The creek was given the name Styx by

John Turnbull Thomson John Turnbull Thomson (10 August 1821 – 16 October 1884) was a British civil engineer and artist who played an instrumental role in the development of the early infrastructure of nineteenth-century Colonial Singapore, Singapore and New Zealan ...

(1821–1884) chief surveyor of Otago after what is in mythology, the name of one of the five rivers which all converge at the centre of the Greek underworld on a great marsh, which sometimes is also called the Styx. Upstream of the confluence of the Taieri River with the Styx Creek, the Taieri is forded by the Old Dunstan Road (Dunstan Trail) which provided the most direct route in the 19th century from

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...

to the

goldfields. The trail crosses the Rock and Pillar Range from Clark's Junction (near

) and descends into the Upper Taieri, whence it crosses the Taieri River. From the Paerau district the Old Dunstan Road continued on via the Serpentine goldfields to the

Poolburn Reservoir Poolburn Reservoir, also known as Poolburn Dam, is a reservoir in Central Otago, New Zealand. Built during the Great Depression for irrigation but also as an employment initiative, the water is used by farmers in the Ida Valley. Geography The re ...

and eventually to

Alexandra Alexandra () is a female given name of Greek origin. It is the first attested form of its variants, including Alexander (, ). Etymology, Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; genitive, GEN , ; ...

. Originally the second overnighting stop from Dunedin (after Clark's Junction), Styx's importance meant two

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

s operated on either side of the river in case there was a flood. Besides one of the hotels was a stable and a jailhouse. When gold was discovered in Central Otago the provincial government was quick to take over the responsibility of moving the precious metal safely to Dunedin. When they used the Old Dunstan Road an overnight stop was usually made at Styx. As a result a stone stable was built in the 1860s to cater for the horses of the gold escort and other travellers, while they stayed at the Styx Hotel which was located next door. The nearby stone jailhouse was also built in the 1860 and while it may have housed some prisoners in transit or an occasional local troublemaker it was mostly used by the gold escort to store the gold overnight. The strongbox that contained the gold was secured to the inside wall by chains. The opening of other routes which while longer were open all year and the

Otago Central Railway The Otago Central Railway (OCR) or in later years Otago Central Branch Railway, now often referred to as the Taieri Gorge Railway, was a secondary railway line in Central Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand. Construction Construction o ...

and Alexandria caused the Old Dunstan road to fall into disuse and thus patronage of the crossing at Styx. In keeping with this theme, the hotel had a coin embedded in the bar, alluding to the coin required for the ferryman across the river to the underworld.

Geography

Paerau is located in a large

scroll plain A scroll plain occurs where a river meanders across an area with a very low gradient, usually with a fairly continuous discharge. In addition to meanders, scroll plains are also characterised by many oxbow lakes. See also *Strath A strath is a ...

called the Styx Basin crossed by the Taieri River, Logan Burn, Serpentine Creek and Styx Creek. The meanderings of the water ways are extremely complex, leaving many small

oxbow lake An oxbow lake is a U-shaped lake or stream pool, pool that forms when a wide meander of a river is meander cutoff, cut off, creating a free-standing body of water. The word "oxbow" can also refer to a U-shaped bend in a river or stream, whether ...

s. These wetlands stretch from near Paerau to Canadian Hut. The area includes the 136 ha Serpentine Wildlife Management Reserve. The site of the Styx crossing of the Taieri River is several kilometres from the modern 'hub' of Paerau, where the school was once located. Located in the southern end of the

, about 12 km south of Paerau, is the Loganburn Dam which impounds the Great Moss Swamp (also known as the Loganburn Reservoir to provide irrigation for 9,300 ha to water for the Paerau hydro power station.

Economy

The economy is based on agriculture. The district is also home to the Paerau hydro power station.

Education

The Paerau school was established in 1915 and closed in 2012 due to a falling roll. At one time the Tacon family contributed 60% of the school roll, it was never the same after they left in the early 1980's.

References

External links

Paerau

{{Central Otago Populated places in Otago