Earnscleugh Tailings Track: Walking Guide, Time & Access

Route overview

The tailings on this walk are nationally significant as the only complete record of dredging activity from 1863 to 1963. They're an awe inspiring sight, hundreds of metres wide like a giant’s ploughed field.

This DOC directory entry covers Earnscleugh Tailings Track in Otago, within Alexandra area. Where DOC groups several walks, times and grades refer to the listed options rather than a single continuous itinerary.

Distance, time and grade

• Distance: Not confirmed on the checked DOC page; see individual route sections
• Walking time: 30 min or 2 - 3 hr
• DOC grade: Easy

Access and alerts

Source checked 2026-10-08. This page is a dated snapshot, not a live track-status report. Check current DOC route information immediately before travelling. An absence of listed alerts does not establish that a route is open.

Dog access

Dogs on a leash only. Other pets on conservation land rules.

Description

The track entrance also links with the Alexandra-Clyde 150th Anniversary Walk.

The walks follow vehicle tracks. The surface is uneven and loose in places. Keep to the tracks.

A shorter, 30 minute return track to a viewpoint over the historic reserve starts at the carpark.

The longer walk takes in a circuit over different types and levels of dredge tailings and other relics. It follows a vehicle track for the first half hour until a line of more recent tailings is crossed. This marks the entry to the massive Alexandra Dredge, which was taken from the Clutha River/Mata Au in 1950. A short sidetrack here links with the Alexandra-Clyde 150th Anniversary Walk. An interpretive panel explains the tailings left by the different dredges that have worked in this area.

Half-an-hour beyond this is a loop walk over the tailings left by the Earnscleugh No 2 and 3 dredges. Points of interest include the original ground surface, dredge pond remnants, water races and old machinery, including dredge buckets and trommels used for sieving material.

At the end of the loop, return the way you came, or head towards the river to pick up the Alexandra - Clyde 150th Anniversary Walk again.

Getting there

Access is from Marshall Road, 3 km from Alexandra off Earnscleugh Road. From the car park at the end of Marshell Road, follow the Millenium Track on the true right of the Fraser River, cross the footbridge and walk back upstream to join the Earnslaugh Tailings Walk.

History and culture

By 1900 Otago’s rivers were crowded with hundreds of dredges scouring the riverbeds for gold. In the 1930s the few remaining dredges grew to immense size. They resembled giant floating factories with huge elevators dumping the residue rock high on the river flats.

The Alexandra dredge, which worked the Earnscleugh Flat until 1962, weighed 1000 tonnes and produced the sea of tailings seen today. The sequence of tailings in the Earnscleugh historic reserve is the only surviving set that tells the story of gold dredging from the1860s to 1960s.

Sources and reuse

Route descriptions and practical information reproduced from the Department of Conservation, Crown copyright, under CC BY 4.0, subject to DOC's copyright policy. Formatting has been adapted, including flattening page sections; follow the original DOC page for maps, section-specific layout, current notices and linked documents. Outdoor Next is independent and is not endorsed by DOC.

The accompanying photograph is a licensed general hiking illustration, not a photograph of this route.