Rees Homestead Park

This is a small reserve rather than a park in the usual sense. The house is long gone; what is here is its site, two stone outbuildings, two trees from the garden, a hedge grown from cuttings of the original, and paths and a bench looking out over the water. If you know what you are looking at it is worth the stop.

The homestead

The Rees homestead, built by 1865, was a very grand affair and would have appeared luxurious compared to the tiny cottages, tents and shacks of the gold miners who were flooding the district. As such it demonstrates both William Gilbert Rees' status in the district and the benefits of his payout after Queenstown was declared a goldfield and he was forced to abandon his homestead in Queenstown Bay.

It was two storeys high with a wide and welcoming front verandah and large bay windows. Inside there was a parlour, dining room, kitchen, scullery, pantry and about four bedrooms. It was built of timber with painted timber weatherboards and would have been roofed with timber shingles.

From around 1900, a curved double laurel hedge connected the jetty at the lake's edge to the front door. The hedge that you see beside the path today was grown from cuttings taken from the original hedge. The two trees in this reserve were also part of the homestead garden and were possibly planted in the early 20th century.

Why it matters

Rees ran the first sheep station in the Whakatipu basin, and his run covered the ground Queenstown was later built on. When gold was found in the Shotover in 1862 the district was declared a goldfield, his lease was cut up under him, and he was compensated and moved on. This house is what that compensation bought — and the Rees River above Glenorchy carries his name too.

Nearby

Queenstown Gardens has the other Rees memorial, put up in 1978, and Earnslaw Park is on the waterfront in town.