William Melody was a lively Irishman - Part 2

Melody Family Move to New Zealand in 1862
By Paul Melody

The Melody trio left from Melbourne for Port Chalmers (Dunedin). Also in their part were William (Bill) Fox, a sailor who spent 14 years gold mining in California and Victoria, John (Jack) O'Callaghan and Richard Cotter.

The newcomers headed for the Arrow River in Otago. In October of 1862 William, O'Callaghan and Cotter made up a party led by Bill Fox, which discovered the high paying goldfield along the Arrow River. The settlement they started was at first named Fox's, the Arrowtown.

At least Fox claimed he, with his party, found the exceptional field. In fact he claimed the total credit for the great discovery, though it was known there were four men in his party. Other claimants were McGregor and Low, and also Peter Stewart. Another in the picture was Jack Tewa, know as Maori Jack, who was widely acknowledged to have found gold traces as far back as November 1861, but he believed it was not a paying site.

Several gold history researchers have held differing opinions about the identity of the original finders of the Arrow field but only a matter of two days is involved.

Whatever the truth may be, it is certain that William Melody was among the earliest finders - though it does not seemed to have paved the way to immense wealth.

As an indication of the richness of the Arrow deposits, in three weeks Fox, Melody and Co. won 40 pounds weight of gold - at the time worth £2055 sterling, certainly the beginnings of a fortune for the quartet.

Gold was strewn amid the surface of the Arrow river gravel "like beans and peas", according to one writer. It was "so rich that it had to be seen to be believed".

Probably as an outcome of his share in the Fox's party proceeds, William Melody opened the only hotel on the Arrow River beach in 1863, naming it the Galway Arms (County Galway in Ireland lies below County Mayo).

In the same year he moved to Arrowtown itself to take over the Royal Oak Hotel in Buckingham Street.


Relations between the Fox party members didn't always go smoothly. An entry in the records of the Wakatip (Wakatipu) Arrow Police Station stated that William Melody and John O'Callaghan had become involved in a violent dispute. At 1.30 in the morning of May 22 1864, Melody reported to the police that he had been assaulted by O'Callaghan, who was forthwith arrested and brought before the magistrate. He was remanded on bail in two sureties of £75 each and one in himself of £100. The outcome of the affair was not known because the case went to a higher authority to be resolved.

On August 7, 1863 Eliza and Williams only son, John Patrick, was born - one of the first white boys to be born in Arrowtown.

Also in 1863 William caused a minor sensation in Arrowtown. Barmaids were in desperately short supply at the town's booming hotels. Young women flocked to the Arrow community to take up jobs behind the bars, or as dancing partners. So starved were the miners for female company that crowds of then greeted young women when they arrived for service in the pubs and many of the newcomers were married within a week.

William was so frustrated by the rapid turnover of barmaids in his hostelry that he contacted a friend in Dunedin with the urgent request: "Bring me the ugliest woman you can find!" The friend obliged and a suitably ugly woman arrived to work in his bar. She established an Arrowtown record by serving unattached for a fortnight. Then she too was married.

This amusing episode is mentioned by almost every writer about the Otago gold fields, so it was clearly a striking incident at the time (see cartoon). It also illustrates the quirky Irish humour of William Melody, which has passed through all generations of the Melody family.

As a sign of the popularity of the woman arrivals at Arrow, one woman claimed to have received 50 offers of marriage within a week!

Came 1865 and William returned to Arrow River beach to operate the Galway Arms Hotel again.
The combined population of Arrowtown and the nearby Shotover district - scene of the richest strike anywhere in the world - was estimated at 3000 by 1863. Many of the miners had crossed from Australia, although there were plenty of New Zealanders among the gold seekers. All became noisy and quarrelsome customers of the various hotels., Williams Melody's inn among them.

At times during the family stay at Arrowtown William worked on the construction of the road between Arrowtown and Macetown, the site of yet another gold strike.

In 1866 the Melody family hived off to Hokitika. By then the family numbered five: William and Mary, Sarah Maria, John Patrick and a third child born June 28, 1864, at Arrowtown.

At Hokitika William opened the Spread Eagle Hotel. This was one of the 82 pubs in Revel St, the principle thoroughfare. The total number of hotels in Hokitika in 1866-67 reached 102 and with 15,000 miners crowding the streets every night the joint must have really been jumping.

It was easy to establish a hotel in those mushroom times. Some publicans simply set up a few sapling poles on their site then draped calico over the top. The pubs themselves were often tents at the back. Better pub building came later.

Whether Melody's Spread Eagle was in the calico class isn't known, but William was in business as an innkeeper for at least three years.