New Zealand Dredge

The river bends in shingle, lupin straggling
around the remains of a New Zealand dredge* ,
a remnant of former glory told in blackened spars
and rusting buckets, abandoned in a deep hole
in the backwater, now to be dug out again,
so many years later, and displayed beside
the same river where once it clattered,
clanking its way into technical history.
Worn out now, it sits forlorn, signposting
a passage in history, a story fast forgotten —
drowned in deep water, covered with weeds.

© Helen Lowe

Highly Commended:
Poetry on the Theme of the Past, Australia, 2006

* Note on the New Zealand Dredge:

Gold winning by bucket dredge (commonly known as the New Zealand dredge) was a New Zealand development that began in Otago province during the nineteenth century, and included the pioneering of steam and electric dredge technology, as well as mining below the hard layer on the surface of the river bed.  By 1900 there were 187 recorded gold dredges operating on Otago’s Clutha River, which is said to be the largest assembly of gold dredges the world has ever seen.

– – from Engineering Heritage, Institute of Professional Engineers of New Zealand, www.ipenz.org.nz  

About the Poem:

Recently I was on holiday in the Central Otago and Queenstown/Lakes regions of New Zealand, where gold mining dominated the 19th and early 20th centuries. Part of gold’s vast historic heritage legacy is that of technological innovation and in a recent post I mentioned the early use of electricity at Bullendale Reef on the Shotover River. The New Zealand dredge was another technological innovation that saw worldwide adaptation, but like so many other artefacts associated with the region’s gold mining history, has now almost completely disappeared. The particular NZ dredge remnant that inspired this poem was discovered as part of an archaeological assessment when L&M Mining diverted a portion of the Tokomairiro River in the late 1990s. The remnant discovered has been preserved and can be viewed, together with an interpretation plaque, in a reserve beside the river.

A fellow NZ poet observed that it was “an odd topic for a poem.” If so, I am grateful the Australians were not put off by the oddity. 😉