Otautau is a small farming, forestry and milling town located inland on the western edge of the Southland Plains of New Zealand on the banks of the Aparima River.

[6] This is the historic courthouse building in Main Street from 1908, which currently houses the district's small museum and some archives from local institutions and businesses.

[7] The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "place of [an] ear pendant" for the name Ōtautau.

[10] However, in a handbook printed for use by the newly arriving miners, no such route via Otautau exists for any goldfield, from Tuapeka to Wakatipu.

[11]Early records do hold vital clues that it was mainly agricultural needs and newly arrived settlers, which provided the bulk of early travel in the area, such as the diary entries quoted and early accounts of station life in Southland, re-printed in the series, 'The Conquerors – Saga of the Stations' found in the Southland Times, (the articles of which are collated into a book of the same name, held by Riverton Heritage Society, at Te Hikoi).

In these, there is the idea that gold played some part in opening up land in the region, which it did, as miners later settled in the area, and invested their gains into many of the small towns and farming districts there, including Otautau,[12] (see also below, account of Robert Campbell).

In early news reports of the day, Riverton did advertise as being the closest port to the gold diggings, but this did not last long, as once the railway from Bluff, first to Invercargill then to Winton was completed, this moved the main of the southern goldfield traffic to that route.

[13] There are accounts of a few waggoners taking supplies both early on in the Wakatipu diggings and in later years, from Riverton, (a Mr. Cassels being one of them, and the partnership of Newsome, Rice and McIntosh,[14] another), via The Otautau area to The Lakes.

[15][16][17] The main of the traffic to and from the goldfields situated in South Otago, to the north of Otautau, was through Dunedin and Port Chalmers,[18] which is much different to what has been suggested or claimed in some contemporary accounts.

[22] Giving further weight to the idea that the town may not have been founded in the 1860s as claimed, is the fact that the first general store in the township was not opened until 1876.

[23][24][25] In records held at Archives NZ, information shows that the first land sale in the township was not made until late 1872.

The work created by and for the WCC (Wallace County Council), drew others to settle in the town with the promise of jobs.

Between this and early agriculture which had originated with the Waste Land Leases in the area during the 1850s,[29] Otautau became the hub of farming and settlement for the whole Central Western Southland District.

The planting of alien species began in 1949 and grew rapidly from the middle of the 1960s as a direct result of seasonal labour.

The You 'n' Lamb Festival[43] was an annual event organised by the now closed Otautau Lions Club, which is no longer held.