Blue Lake is a small lake adjacent to the town of St. Bathans in Central Otago, New Zealand. History See also History of Otago The Otago Settlement sponsored by the Free Church of Scotland, materialised in March 1848 with the arrival of the first The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. A geographic coordinate system enables every location on the Earth to be specified in three coordinates using mainly a spherical coordinate system. A lake (from Latin lacus) is a Terrain feature (or Physical feature) a body of Liquid on the surface of a world that is localized to the A reservoir is most broadly a place or hollow vessel where Fluid is kept in Reserve, for later use A drainage basin is an extent of Land where Water from Rain or Snow melt drains downhill into a body of water such as a River, A lake (from Latin lacus) is a Terrain feature (or Physical feature) a body of Liquid on the surface of a world that is localized to the The former Gold and Coal mining town of St Bathans lies deep in the heart of the Maniototo in New Zealand 's Otago region Administration The Central Otago District Council based in Alexandra controls territorial authority matters while the Otago New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island The lake is man-made, the result of sluicing operations that began in 1873 when John Ewing (1844-1922) formed the St. Hydraulic mining, or hydraulicking, is a form of Mining that employs Water to dislodge rock material or move sediment Bathans Channel Company, to mine the Kildare Hill Gold Claim in St Bathans. His company constructed a tailings channel and introduced hydraulic elevating to work the claim. As this work progressed the Kildare Hill Claim became the site of the deepest hydraulic elevating operation in the world, that would turn a 120 metre hill into a 68 metre hole. Work stopped in 1902 when there was insufficent fall in the tailings channel to carry away the tailings. By 1905 John Ewing was bankrupt as a result of poor investments in other locations. The Kildare Hill Claim was then taken up by the Scandanavian Water Race Company in that year. This company restarted operations and worked the claim until 1932, when it was finally abandoned due to the fear of undermining the town of St Bathans. Natural drainage from the surrounding hills filled the hole with water and created the present day lake. The Blue Lake is a key feature of modern day St. Bathans and is used for swimming, fishing, bodyboarding, and kayaking.

Sources

• Guide to the Otago Goldfields Heritage Trail, Gerald Cunningham, 2004