William James O'Leary

William James O'Leary (born 28 October 1865 at Tuapeka[1]).

He was a bushman, and spent many years looking for gold in the Arawata River area, and never struck it rich, dying in 1947.

[2] Together with his mare Dolly, he wandered around the Westland for decades looking for gold.

[3] In 1953 poet Denis Glover wrote Arawata Bill immortalizing him as the solitary New Zealand prospector.

[4] O'Leary's Paddock is a street in Queenstown named after him.