Daffodils at Hart’s Black Horse Brewery - Lawrence
Central Otago - New Zealand

Guardian of the Daffodils- presents -
Daffodils at Hart's Black Horse Brewery

NEWSLETTER 2010

It’s time to join us for our
Daffodil Dayze Gala on Sunday September 26
10am – 5pm.

Visit the tranquil ruins of Otago’s most successful provincial brewery.
Springtime heralds flowering fields of  golden daffodils and
100-year-old rhododendrons.

Sample the New Generation Black Horse Brew - Buy bunches of blooms for charity -
Taste traditional girdle scones and saveloys -
Quench your thirst with Darlings juices or billy tea - Buy Rawleighs Remedies and Wild Walnut Preserves - Postcards and Souvenirs - Sing along to old time music -
Baby Animals, Teddy Bears Picnic, Old Fashioned Games - And More......

Site open from September 4th & throughout Spring

Come along with
Dusty - your Lusty, Busty Barmaid

Visit Bell View Farm where our heritage is being preserved.
Look over Gabriel’s Gully - where it all started -
 from the Ghost town of Blue Spur.
Travel past Munro’s Gully & the Chinese Camp.

I invite you to visit to the brewery while once again it is resplendent with colour. 
All my crew dress in costume (lots of showgirls) creating an atmosphere of days past -
when Weatherstons was known as the ‘Fun Capital of the Goldfields’,
all making for a fabulous day full of fun and laughter.

 For the first time in over 50 years, all three fields of daffodils will be on display.
With the aid of funding through the Otago Communities Trust - Community Employment Initiative and teams of workers from the Department of Corrections, plus a working bee with the Balclutha Round Table, we are a whole year ahead in developing the site. 

 If you were impressed with the vista in previous years, you should see it now!! 
A user-friendly walking track now leads from the main field and into the top field, coming down behind the brewery ruins before continuing through areas reminiscent of Narnia, complete with wardrobe, and back into the North field – a 1.5km moderate circuit.


The last of the gorse and broom has been removed from the Main field leaving room for more daffy’s to show their pretty heads.
Who knows, maybe we will be able to identify the Ben Hart or maybe the Lady Fenwick daffodil,
which we surmise is named after the wife of New Zealand Press Association stalwart, Sir George Fenwick.

 Research has uncovered four daffodil types bred on site that are registered with the Royal Institute of Horticulture in London,
plus some of the named varieties originally planted on site.
Daffodil enthusiasts are invited to help identify and plot these breeds during this season.

Come and see the enormous amount of progress made in the last five years and look at what we have planned for the future.
Tell all your friends and associates - spread the word.  You will be amazed!!

Tour around the town of Lawrence - rich in stories.
Enjoy a meal and sample the New Generation
BLACK HORSE BREW
Amongst the ruins of the brewery at Weatherstons

(Group Tour POA)

“Hart's Black Horse Brewery"
Remaining in the Hart Family since 1884, when in a partnership with J.K. Simpson (who was later County Council Chairman
& Mayor of Lawrence), they ran Otago’s most successful provincial brewery - throughout prohibition!

Even after NZ Breweries closed the brewery in 1923 it was still a popular destination in the spring - attracting more than 1500 people by road and rail in 1937. This enormous feat required 3 trains from Dunedin. These excursions ended in the mid 1950’s.

Although only ruins remain of this once grand site, they provide a stunning backdrop to a spectacular woodland garden featuring a 110 year old rhododendron forest.

Originally planted in 1895, uncounted varieties of daffodils on 25 acres have
cross pollinated over the last 110 years into a truly unique showing.

Historically the daffodils on the brewery site were picked for charity.

For people celebrating spring and travelling through to Central Otago,
the brewery ruins with the daffodils and rhododendron forest will be a point of interest on the way.

Group tours are available with ‘Dusty’, creating an atmosphere of days past -
when Weatherstons was known as the ‘Fun Capital of the Goldfields’.

( All Photography © JK LightCreations)

Entry Only: 

$5 Adult; $3 Concession/Senior
$2 Child (Under 5 Free)
All proceeds toward the resurrection of the brewery as a tourist site
Group Tours Available - POA

All proceeds towards the resurrection of the brewery as a tourist site.

Brewery Tour Options: (Group Tours - minimum 10 people)

30 min Guided Tour:
Afternoon Tea:
Buffet Luncheon:
Buffet Dinner:
Tea & Coffee:

$10 Adult; $5 Child
$18 Adult; $12 Child
$38 Adult, $18 Child
$50 Adult; $25 Child
$3 pp

Directions:
Turn right at the petrol station in Lawrence, opposite the corner store
 - follow the road about 2 km and what a glorious sight you will see

Your Host: Kim “Dusty” Murtagh Address:  Hart’s Black Horse Brewery, Weatherstons Postal address: 11 Lismore Street, Lawrence, Tuapeka 9532, Otago, New Zealand Telephone: +64 3 485 9968 Mobile: 027 687 8641 Fax: +64 3 485 9968 E-mail: blackhorsebrewery@xtra.co.nz Website www.hbhb.co.nz Private property - Access by Arrangement Only.

.

ODE TO THE MINERS

To a land, rich and plentiful, full or potential they came.
To these valleys eleven thousand and more,
Struggled their way from distant shores.
Over hill, through mud and rain,
With a cart and tent, possessions few
The miners came with determination too.

In search of elusive gold, they toiled and strived.
Water was run form mile after mile,
To blast away hillsides, making them unrecognizable .

In the cold hard ground they labored
Frozen fingers, bodies steaming
Starving, cold and tired
Initiative, courage and strength in plenty.

The key for many an inspired idea
Right here our Anthem was wrought,
New Zealand’s first bike and hydraulic elevator.

Not a sign is left of where they all lived.
But for one little town that stayed to survive.
A town rich with stories,
History alive,
A constant reminder of a time gone by.

The legacy that the miners left?
Community spirit a conscience, a heart,
Where each and every person can play a part.
Where people from all over the world
Come to find a relation
In the miners registration.

Kim ‘Dusty’ Murtagh