Middlemarch Museum

This humble museum on the plains at Middlemarch is, by strange accident, home to the first and only New Zealand-built submarine, the 1874 Platypus.

The submarine itself is even more strange that its posting at Middlemarch, though there is some logic in the context that it was intended to become a tool of goldmining. Designed in France in 1872, when submarines were but 20 years old as a concept, this variation was supposed to be able to dredge the bottom of rivers where the top layer of alluvial gold had already been stripped away.

It was built in Dunedin, as a trial, and tested twice in the harbour and the second time found to be functional. Two brave men worked the internal mechanisms while a bottom opening hatch with airlock worked the sea (or river) bed. However money for the project ran out and although the prototype was successful and the plans were sold for a good sum (reported to be either 400 or 800 pounds) the subs were never manufactured although there is one other prototype overseas.

A Dunedin meeting of Naval Officers in 1924 discussed the Platypus, leading to one interested gent purchasing the remains.

The middle section became a water tank at Pukerangi station, the station owner sending on the front and rear to the Strath Taieri Historical Society's Middlemarch Museum in 1991. A full account of the workings of the Platypus and it's trial in the harbour at Dunedin is in this Dive article. The Historical Society tried a give-a-little outreach in 2017, hoping to raise enough to then apply for a lottery grant to restore the machine and house it indoors, but were not very successful.

Middlemarch Museum, in the town's 1926 Masonic Lodge Building, is also rich with other local Taonga (treasures). These including a 9.4kg trout mounted after being caught nearby, and an exhibit on the Hyde Railway Disaster and one on the Salvation Army Girls home, turned Maternity Hospital then mysteriously burned down. A video accompanied by an excellent amusing story by Liz Keast provides a teaser for a museum visit. An obvious place to visit for those on the Otago Rail Trail, NZPlaces would love to see your images of the Platypus.

Image Credit: Salvation Army Girls Home, Middlemarch, circa 1911, Dunedin, by Muir & Moodie studio. Te Papa