Lance Corporal John Hanrahan The Central Otago Heritage Trust received funding in 2019 for the Oral History Project. Our goal is to develop a collection of oral histories capturing the unique stores of Central Otago. At the heart of this project is a group of volunteers trained to national and international standards and best practice in oral history. There were exciting developments in the project over the summer period. We completed the first stage of interviewer training for 13 new volunteers who are now completing practice interviews in readiness for follow up training. We’re fortunate to have been gifted [...]

Central Otago has its fair share of grim place names such as ‘Deadman’s Point’, ‘The Lonely Graves’, ‘Drybread Cemetery’ and the ‘Linger and Die’ reserve in Alexandra. We explore the origins of ‘Linger and Die’ and whether this bleak name is justified. The Linger and Die is a public reserve on the Manuherekia riverbank in Alexandra. According to the story board at the reserve the exact origins of the name are unknown but assumed to be related to the site’s unsuccessful mining history. Golden Link Dredge, Manuherekia, Alexandra Photo: Courtesy of the Alexandra Turnbull Library Between 1899 and 1902 [...]