Martin Curtis

New Zealand Singer / Songwriter

Gin & Raspberry

The story behind the song and the infamous goldmine

"Gin & Raspberry" is perhaps Martin's most renowned song. It is one of the most popular songs in New Zealand folk music of the last 40 years, and has been covered by many other musicians in NZ, Australia, USA, Canada and Britain.

The song tells the story of the "Gin and Raspberry" mine. In 1862 a group of prospectors searching for the elusive William Fox (who had discovered gold on the Arrow River), stumbled upon alluvial gold in the Cardrona Valley, near Wanaka. The Gin & Raspberry mine was reputedly the richest of the claims, acquiring its name from the drink with which the miners used to celebrate when they struck an ounce of gold per bucket of paydirt. A more detailed account of the mine can be found at the bottom of this page.

The song was first released in 1982 on Martin's debut album "Gin & Raspberry" and has since been rereleased on several other albums including "Live at Greendale" and "Below the High Country". It is also featured on the "Otago my Home" DVD. See Albums & DVD page.

A short sample of the original album version (MP3 format) can be heard here

A 2022 re-recording of the full song (MP3 format) can be heard here

A live performance of the song by Martin can be viewed below, or from his YouTube channel

The history of the song

Martin and Kay Curtis arrived in Cardrona in May 1976 after moving from Australia where they had emigrated to in 1969. Martin became quite well known as a folk singer around the folk clubs and festivals in Western Australia and the Northern Territory where they had lived and worked. Until Martin met up with singer songwriter Eric Bogle in Perth in 1974, his repertoire was mainly traditional English, Scottish and Irish songs and latterly Australian bush songs and the humorous bush poetry so popular in the outback. His friendship with Eric changed all that and he became a big fan of the brilliant song writing of this ex-Pat Scot. He learnt a lot of Eric’s songs and on arrival in New Zealand often sang them at folk clubs and festivals, always crediting Eric as the composer.

Eventually Eric was invited to New Zealand for a tour and as they knew each other, Martin was asked to do a support act for a couple of Eric’s gigs. This left him with a bit of a problem of what to sing. He had never attempted writing his own songs, but after settling in the almost uninhabited Cardrona Valley became very interested in the gold mining history of Central Otago.

One evening in 1977, Martin was babysitting for the new owners of the derelict Cardrona Hotel. The only “liveable” building at the time was the old Post Office next to the hotel. Martin took his guitar and once the children were asleep, settled down in front of the log fire for a quiet evening of playing songs. He started thinking about the history which was all around him and began his first attempt at writing a song about it. The colourful story of the Gin & Raspberry mine just across the road seemed a good choice. He began with a chorus “Oh but it’s hard, cruel and cold, searching Cardrona for nuggets of gold. An ounce to a bucket and we’ll all sell our souls for a taste of the Gin & Raspberry.” The song was started and by the end of the evening was almost finished.

He little expected the reaction to it when he first sang it at a folk festival. New Zealand folk singing legend Phil Garland approached him to say how much he liked it and several people wanted the words. With the chorus so easy to pick up, the whole audience soon joined in and Martin’s song writing career started. Writing a few more songs about the local area, by 1982 he had enough material to record his first album which was obviously called “Gin & Raspberry.” It was released by City Folk records, a new small company based in Hastings, and sales took off. It seemed to be the right album at the right time. As far as we can tell it is possibly one of the best-selling albums of folk music in New Zealand, with sales now approaching 5,000. It was initially on vinyl only but soon afterwards came out in cassette form. In 2013 Martin had it digitally remastered and released it on CD.

The international folk scene picked up on the song too, having been covered by many musicians in NZ, Australia, USA, Canada and Britain, including American folk legend Gordon Bok.

Lyrics

GIN & RASPBERRY

While hunting for Fox, we first came this way

From Lake Pembroke’s township, took many long days

To cut through the bush and we found a new rush

With a mine called the “Gin and Raspberry”

Oh but it’s hard, cruel and cold

Searching Cardrona for nuggets of gold

An ounce to a bucket and we’ll all sell our souls

For a taste of the Gin & Raspberry

The rumours went out and thousands poured in

A handful grew rich, but many grew thin

They all hoped to find their own patch of tin

As rich as the Gin & Raspberry

Oh but it’s hard, cruel and cold

Searching Cardrona for nuggets of gold

An ounce to a bucket and we’ll all sell our souls

For a taste of the Gin & Raspberry

At first it was summer and we all thought it grand

With no shirts on our backs as we sluiced and we panned

But then came the snow and the southern winds blow

And there’s ice in the Gin & Raspberry

Oh but it’s hard, cruel and cold

Searching Cardrona for nuggets of gold

An ounce to a bucket and we’ll all sell our souls

For a taste of the Gin & Raspberry

Billy McGrath, he worked hard and worked long

Ready to smile and to give us a song

But then he struck gold and was found dead and cold

Down in the Gin & Raspberry

Oh but it’s hard, cruel and cold

Searching Cardrona for nuggets of gold

An ounce to a bucket and we’ll all sell our souls

For a taste of the Gin & Raspberry

So I’ll work at the mine and I’ll stay out of strife

I’ll save all my gold to send home to my wife

And when the gold’s won, I’ll leave at the run

And to hell with the Gin & Raspberry

Oh but it’s hard, cruel and cold

Searching Cardrona for nuggets of gold

An ounce to a bucket and we’ll all sell our souls

For a taste of the Gin & Raspberry

So drink up your Gin & Raspberry

The legend of the Gin & Raspberry mine

The Gin & Raspberry claim was reputedly the richest claim in the Cardrona Valley, and the one that started the goldrush to that field in November 1862. It is believed that the mine was located on the river flats close to the Cardrona Hotel, one of the few remaining buildings in the old village.

Legend has it that gold was first discovered in the Cardrona Valley accidentally by a group of prospectors who were searching for the elusive William Fox and his mates who had found rich gold in the Arrowtown area and who had kept their claim location secret for several months. However, it is said that whenever he came to Dunstan to sell his gold at the essayers office and buy supplies for his friends, the local miners knew the rumours of his finds and tried to follow him back to wherever he came from. It became a sport known as “hunting the Fox.” Reputedly he gave them the slip for some months, by sneaking away from his campsite in the middle of the night and leaving his tent behind. It was a group of miners looking for Fox up the isolated Cardrona Valley who accidentally stumbled across some nuggets stuck to the roots of tussocks in the spot where they camped for the night – and the Cardrona gold rush was begun. There were several other mines established in the Cardrona area, with interesting names such as “The Pirate” and “The Homeward Bound”.

The story goes that the Gin & Raspberry mine acquired its unusual name from the habit of the owners in shouting gin and raspberry to all hands if a bucket of pay dirt produced an ounce of gold. One account evens mentions a pound of gold, but that seems too far-fetched. There is also some debate about the choice of this strange drink. One theory I heard in research was that the beer cart often couldn’t get through from the Albertown ferry and all that the shanty owners had available to drink was either gin or raspberry.

The Cardrona goldrush virtually came to an end in 1878 by the great flood which drowned many miners in the whole region and the village became just a small settlement of farmers and those who serviced the area. It’s interesting that the school was built at this time and for a while was the largest school in the Upper Clutha district. The wooden school building still survives as the historic local hall and has been extensively restored to its former glory by volunteers in the last 30 years.

The goldfield was mined again in the 1920’s and 1930’s when there were dredges working the riverbed right up to and beyond the Cardrona Hotel. The Gin & Raspberry mine lived on and was still there when we moved into the (then) near deserted Cardrona Valley in 1976 – a large open pit full of water, surrounded by old walls, an occasional derelict bothy or cottage, hidden by a jungle of broom and gooseberry bushes, hawthorn and elderberry trees. It was mined again in the 1990’s by three local enthusiasts with modern machinery and still yielded good gold. The area was then cleared of scrub, trees and old derelict buildings, then levelled and sown in grass. Almost all sign of the mining history has now unfortunately been destroyed and the location of the Gin & Raspberry mine is no longer visible. However its name lives on – not only in song, but also the name of a ski run on the nearly Cardrona Skifield, and a road in a nearby subdivision (albeit quite removed from the actual location of the mine).

Martin Curtis – Cardrona resident 1976 to 2022

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse