2. The Lowburn Wasteland
Further downriver at Sandy Point we saw no trace of the settlement of that name which once rivalled Wanaka and Albert Town. In the great flood of 1878, when the river rose several metres overnight, the small ferry-town was swept into oblivion. After fifty kilometres the river narrowed as we entered rocky Maori Gorge through a circulating rapid called “Smokin’ Joe’s”.
Entering "Smokin' Joe's", Maori Gorge.
We swept by the usual take-out point for commercial raft trips on the Upper Clutha, and approached the “Hundred Islands” section below the Lindis River Crossing. In 1864, George Hassing, a log-raft pioneer, once negotiated these islands in the dark. These days, the addition of willows and countless snags necessitates some quick navigating.
Willow Snags, near the Lindis River Crossing.
Late in the afternoon, we reached Bendigo, a former gold-mining settlement on the true left of the river. Bendigo would become the upper limit of the future Dunstan reservoir, already dubbed "Lake Dunstan" by the spin doctors of the dam builders. Ominous clouds appeared to hint at the devastation ahead.
Passing Bendigo, with a kayak escort.
We landed at Lowburn at 6pm, setting up camp beside the old bridge – the only remnant of the former ferry town levelled prior to the filling of the Dunstan reservoir behind the Clyde dam. The much threatened Clutha River would soon yield the once ruggedly beautiful Cromwell Gorge.
Landing at Lowburn, levelled prior to inundation behind the Clyde dam.
We set up camp beside the old bridge. Opened in 1938 to replace the heavily used ferry, the Lowburn Bridge was a single-lane concrete structure with an unusual arch. The approaches to the bridge on both sides were ramped with the possible intention of allowing floodwaters to pass either side. The bridge was sited where the ferry had been, with an avenue of trees on the western side leading directly to the nearby Welcome Home Hotel, established in 1865. The hotel had faced the ferry and the main street. Permanent homes and holiday houses had been interspersed among the trees.
Camping beside the 1938 Lowburn Bridge.
The Lowburn area had now been entirely cleared of trees and buildings, but the bridge was left, in preparation for inundation. Before the waters rose over the bridge, someone would park a car on it, to be submerged as a ghostly curiousity for future divers.
Long before construction of the Clyde dam began, local knowledge suggested huge problems would arise. But the power planners would so confident that they persevered blindly in the face of widespread protest. The subsequent cost to the taxpayer and the environment has proved staggering. It is sobering to realize that most of the remaining unspoiled sections of the Clutha River are threatened with similar destruction. The proposed Luggate, Queensberry and Tuapeka projects, if they proceeded, would flood the river from Albert Town, near Wanaka, to the Tuapeka Mouth, forming a chain of five hydro-electric reservoirs across the heart of Otago.
