Editing Strath Taieri (section)

===The gold rush and its aftermath===
From 1861, the [[Otago gold rush]]es saw the development of a stagecoach route, the [[Dunstan Trail]] leaving the coastal [[Taieri Plain]] near [[Outram, New Zealand|Outram]] advancing north and west across the plateau south of Strath Taieri proper, through Clark's Junction and on over the Rock and Pillar Range to the Maniototo. A new road north through Strath Taieri was proposed in 1863. In 1864, gold-bearing ground was reported at Hyde at the head of Strath Taieri and now the northern limit of Dunedin. Briefly, there were two thousand people there. Goldfields to the east and north saw the 'middle Taieri valley', as Strath Taieri was sometimes called, surrounded by prospering districts.

[[Edward Wingfield Humphreys]] (1841–1892) is credited with naming the valley 'Strath Taieri'. Alice Humphreys (née Hawdon, 1848–1934) moved to her husband's property in the "strath" soon after their marriage in 1869. She is credited with calling the private township laid out on their property 'Middlemarch' after [[George Eliot]]'s novel.<ref>Thomson, 1998, p.240.</ref> However, this origin of the name has been disputed. From whatever source it got its name, the private township of Middlemarch on Humphrey's property of Garthmyl had been surveyed on land adjoining the projected railway and several sections were already sold by 6 November 1880.<ref>Thompson, 1949, pp.44–45.</ref> A stone house was built and occupied by Mr. Kirk and his family by the winter of 1881.<ref>Thompson, 1949, p.105.</ref> By 1891, there was a hotel, eight houses, two blacksmith shops, two stores, a school and twenty tents occupied by workers building the railway.

Following the abolition of the New Zealand provinces in 1876 the Taieri County was formed, whose Deep Stream Riding included Strath Taieri. The county improved the road traversing the plateau from the Taieri Plain, building a bridge over Deep Stream in 1880, a suspension bridge over the Taieri River at Sutton in 1885, and the same year another over the Taieri linking Middlemarch with the Cottesbrook station. The Sutton Stream, south of the township, was bridged in 1884. There was a long pause before the 'centre road', now state highway 87, was extended north to Hyde and the Maniototo.

Construction of the [[Otago Central Railway]] from the South Island's main trunk line, which lay along the coast, began in 1879. Its route was projected to cross the Taieri Plain and follow the Taieri Gorge upstream to Strath Taieri, which it would then traverse from south to north as the main route to Central Otago. The gorge presented formidable obstacles, to which the existing bridges and tunnels are now picturesque testimony. The line reached Middlemarch in April 1891, spurring the township's development. It was extended to Hyde on 16 July 1894, where it had a similar effect. The line's eventual terminus was [[Cromwell, New Zealand|Cromwell]] in the Upper Clutha catchment, but it did not arrive there until 1921.<ref>Thompson, 1949, pp.95–7.</ref>

[[Image:Sheep grazing in dry landscape with schist rocks.jpg|thumb|right|Schist is prominent in the hills surrounding Strath Taieri]]
To develop Middlemarch the March Creek had been diverted and for many years the township was regularly flooded until channel work on the creek ameliorated the problem. A Presbyterian preacher covered the Strath Taieri district in 1886. Anglican and Roman Catholic churches were built in 1901 and a handsome church of the local [[schist]] stone was completed for the Presbyterians in 1906.