BETHUNE’S GULLY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27570, 12 December 1950, Page 9

BETHUNE’S GULLY

Some Local History Probably everyone in Dunedin has heard of Befhune’s Gully, though some may not know just where it is and all too many have never visited it. It is safe to say that few know who Bethune was and how the property came to be a civic playground. The man who knows most about these affairs is Mr J. B. Thomson, of Broad Bay, and he has now set down the information in a small publication: “ Bethune’s Gully: How I Obtained it and What I Did With It.” In early Dunedin, Bethune’s Gully was a wild and out-of-the-way place, and it was not till 1870 that a Crown grant was applied for Eight uneventful years passed before David ‘Bethune appeared, a man of vision and of energy, who took it over and created a flourishing industry in the bush. Somehow—the details are obscure— Mr Bethune did not prosper for long, and in 1884 he “ defaulted to an absentee mortgagee,” and Bethune’s reverted to something of its primitive state until Mr Thomson rather unexpectedly found himself buying it. His association with it lasted until 1930. when the City Council was far-sighted enough to accept an offer of the property. There are many interesting details recorded here. This booklet preserves local history which in a few more years would probably have been lost.