This huge pit at St Bathans in Central Otago has a hydraulic elevator. These machines acted like large vacuum cleaners to suck water and gravel up to areas where they could be worked. This pit was once a hill 130 metres high, which was all but sliced away by 1870. The hydraulic elevator worked the pit until 1934. Mining ceased when the sides of the hole got too close to St Bathans township.
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Alexander Turnbull Library
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