Looking back - Cromtrans
Cromtrans - Volvos in Central
Based in Cromwell, Cromtrans were notable for their brightly coloured Volvo-fleet, in a region that was dominated by Mack in the 1980’s and 90’s, with both Alexandra Transport and Tuapeka Transport at Lawrence being very pup-heavy.
These shots were commissioned as Lake Dunstan was filling in the mid-nineties and were shot at the old-quarter.
The historic gold-rush era buildings that were to be flooded over as the Dunstan Dam filled, were moved from their old site where they would been drowned, to another, a few hundred metres away and a bit higher, and faithfully restored. This historic street, which is now a major tourist attraction is a must see, and probably unique being the original era buildings – just relocated.
Viking Raider, the bath-tubbed tractor was a famous truck of the region, and with its alloy bull-bars and A-train semi-trailer and dog, cut a handsome sight contrasting against the arid Central Otago scenery.
The company was heavily engaged with the construction of the Clyde Dam, and this gallery will be added to as other images are unearthed from the archive.
The shots above were taken not long after the old township had been relocated and restored.
However, old Cromwell was situated on one of the last gold bearing alluvial pans in Central Otago, at the junction of the Clutha and Kawarau rivers.
The Clutha was finally blocked off at the Clyde Dam, downstream in 1992, and Lake Dunstan started to form, but before the lake reached the site of the old town, it was dug up and mined and produced a considerable amount of gold.
Both the Clutha and Kawarau, along with the nearby Shotover River were three of the all-time richest gold-bearing rivers in the world, and these alluvial gravel pans were both easy to work and gold rich.
This parcel of land wasn’t even worked by the dredges that followed and reached the gold that conventional mining couldn’t (the dredge was invented here in Otago), which worked these rivers for another half a century after the gold rushes. Given it had a town on top, the land was untouchable, and stayed that way for a century.
However, once the Clyde Dam and power-station was signed-off, and the town was to be relocated, the miners got stuck in again, a century after the first big finds.
