Roads To Nowhere 1969 Central Otago

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Roads To Nowhere was written and produced by Prudence Gregory, assisted by Peggy Roberts, for the Overseas Programme Exchange Service of the N.Z.B.C. A radio programme about the early days in Central Otago with recollections by miners, waggoners and blacksmiths, who lived and worked along now half-forgotten roads. (Most participants names are not included in the programme but their names have been added here from the programme's transcripts in Prudence Gregory's papers held in the Alexander Turnbull Library.) Interviews by Prudence Gregory and Graeme Anderson (possibly recorded c. 1956) are interspersed with short excerpts from David McKee Wright's ballad, "At the Foot of the Old Dunstan Track" (1897) put to music by by Graeme Anderson and performed by The Dunstan Trio. The early roads of central Otago are discussed by several men who recall walking them towards the goldfields. After the gold petered out, they became 'the roads to nowhere’. They recall the heavy snow in 1903 at Lake Hayes, and the sound of trees cracking and the road from Arthurs Point into Queenstown, which was always bitterly cold. A woman (probably Helen Ritchie of Arrowtown) recalls the harsh winter of 1878 and her 60 years living at the Nevis. Men remember that winters were harsher at that time - you could go for weeks without seeing the sun. George Wishart recalls his work as a blacksmith and how horses were shod - and occassionally bullocks - and replacing wheels on wagons. Other men and Brenda Bell share memories of blacksmith's shops and coach builders. Brenda Bell talks about seeing boxes of gold being carried into banks in central Otago and the armed gold escort which accompanied them. She also talks about bushrangers. Women talk about 'swaggers', providing food and shelter for them and the barter system used for food supplied by stations. A man who drove wagons talks about wearing wool-lined wooden clogs to keep his feet warm and coping with icy roads.

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.