“ARAWATA BILL'S” LAST JOURNEY DEATH OF OTAGO PIONEER

Lake County Mail, Issue 25, 12 November 1947, Page 1

“ARAWATA BILL'S” LAST JOURNEY DEATH OF OTAGO PIONEER

With the death in Dunedin hospital on Saturday of last week of Mr William O’Leary—better known perhaps as “Arawata Bill”—South and West Otago lost one of its most colourful identities. For 60 of his 85 years the late Mr O’Leary lived a wanderer s existence in the territory beyond lakes and between Milford and Hokitika; and not so long ago the call of the country he had known so well drew him back on a last visit from the Sacred Heaft Home at Anderson’s Bay, Dunedin, where he had lived N. > fo^thep|st four yqars.

that difficult and lai'gely country so well as Mr O’Leary, v whose nickname of “Arawata Bill ” came from his adopted home of the Arawata country. Nor was there anyone so eager to praise the prospects of this part of New Zealand. “ It’s wonderful country,” he often said, and mineral specimens he brought to Dunedin on his annual visit in prewar days helped to substantiate his claims. Born .in the gold country of Wetherstones at the height of the boom, he grew with the township. Gabriel’s Gully had just been opened up and the fever that attracted miners from Australia and California lasted until he

he believed that dredges would one day work about 18 miles of the bed. But, besides gold, he found rubies, garnets, and white sapphires between Copland Springs and Lake McKerrow. Alarming Experiences On several occasions he had alarming experiences. For three days he was trapped on a narrow strip of land when two lakes about eight miles apart were practically joined by flood waters. He kept himself alive on eels, which he caught with great difficulty with a gaff. Another time he fell over a 70-foot cliff without suffering any permanent injury. After an unduly long stay in the bush (where he was largely self-sufficient for food), concern was expressed for him, and the police asked an experienced traveller going through to the Coast to “ cover the remains,” The traveller, a Mr Cashmere, duly found “Arawata Bill’s ” tent, but when he attempted to shift the “body,” a very much alive Mr O’Leary protested vigorously. There are numerous stories of Arawata Bill told by those who were fortunate to meet him in his element and he remained a good raconteur during his last years at the Sacred Heart Home. He carried his years well, but always had a desire to return to the bush tracks and quiet hills of the “ misty blue country ” of Otago.

was well into his teens. The mysteries of the bush country exercised a stronger attraction, and at the age of 12 he “ went bush ” with a companion, whose ambition to become a bushranger was reinforced by the possession of a rifle. Their excursion ended abruptly whfcn a search party was attracted by the light of their camp fire. Earned His Title Mr O’Leary spent most of his youthful days in the Lawrence district eventually migrating to the West Coast where he took a job as ferryman on the ferry which plied the Arawata River which flows into Jackson’s Bay on the West Coast. This job lasted for about five years and it was there that Mr O’Leary earned the title of “ Arawata Bill.” From there he took up a roaming existence prospecting in the vicinity of the Arawata and Red Mountains on the West Coast. While he never struck it rich he claims that ho was never really “ broke.” On a big flat alongside the Arawata lie had his main home, a tent pitched in a. thriving garden. Currant bushes and parsnips are still Iwlieved to be growing there. It was a base from which ho explored the territory, sometimes on foot, and again dh horse, the one companion he welcomed. The Amwata River was a profitable Aowreo of gold for Mr O’Leary, and