‘A cool idea’ – Melbourne Punch cartoon, 1863

‘A cool idea’ – Melbourne Punch cartoon, 1863

Between 1861 and 1863, tens of thousands of gold miners from Australia crowded into Otago. The winter of 1862 was particularly harsh. But many Australian miners, like the one bundled up in this cartoon, were not deterred by Central Otago’s chilly weather. In the cartoon caption, going to Dunedin was compared to spending the winter on an iceberg.