Arawata Bill by Ian Dougherty

Author:Ian Dougherty
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Exisle Publishing Limited

Long-lost brothers Jack (left) and Bill O’Leary visiting the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition in Wellington, 1940.

The eight O’Leary children had gone their separate ways. This was the first time Bill O’Leary had seen his brother Jack and sister Clare for several decades. He also met a member of the next generation, Clare’s teenage daughter Stella. His oldest sister Ellen had married and settled in Fiji. Middle sister Mary had married and gone to live in Malaya. 38 No one in the family seemed to know what had happened to brother Frank, although he possibly died at an early age. 39

Like Bill, the other two brothers, Joe and Dan, had followed their father into gold mining. Both had worked claims in the Queenstown district in the 1880s and 1890s. 40 Bill was able to update his sister on the fate of Dan. He was over the West Coast getting drunk every night of the week. 41

If there was nothing mysterious about Dan’s demise, there was about the fate of Joe. It’s known that he mined at Cardrona in Central Otago and did a bit of shepherding and worked as a tourist guide around Glenorchy. Bill O’Leary was either supposed to have gone to the Glenorchy area with his big brother, or followed him there, and they knocked about together for a while. 42

Joe O’Leary also did some climbing in the area, and had a similar experience to his brother with geographical misnomers. In 1893, Joe and a companion climbed Mount Earnslaw at the head of Lake Wakatipu. In the newspaper report of the climb, which appeared under their names, he was referred to as Joseph Leary. 43 The following year, he guided a party to the top of Mount Earnslaw, the climb being notable as the first ascent of the mountain by women. On their way to the summit, they climbed to the top of a peak which, in a letter written at the time about the climb, he referred to as O’Leary’s Peak, 44 while a contemporary newspaper report of the climb called him Joseph O’Leary, and the peak both O’Leary Peak and O’Leary’s Peak. 45 The feature ended up being officially known as Leary Peak, until the New Zealand Geographic Board in 2003 finally corrected the name to O’Leary Peak, and Joseph ended up being commonly referred to as Joseph or Joe Leary. 46 According to one explanation, Joe had become a Presbyterian and dropped the filial O, 47 although this is not part of the family folklore. 48

Later on, Joe O’Leary was employed on a gold dredge on the Kawarau River which flows out of Lake Wakatipu. He was reported to have fallen overboard and was presumed drowned. They never did find the body. There were suggestions that it was no accident. Joe was the only one of the five O’Leary boys to have married, but what was described as a rather unfortunate marriage ended in the then shocking scandal of divorce. Joe was said to have been very depressed.

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