Mitchell’s Cottage is a charming domestic building built by brothers John and Andrew Mitchell in about 1904. It has outstanding historical significance for its connection to pioneer immigrants, who left a permanent mark on the land, both as miners, settlers, and builders in their own vernacular style. It has high aesthetic value as a beautifully and skilfully wrought example of the stonemason’s art, and social value as the centrepiece of a managed historic reserve, visited by hundreds of people every year.

Tangata whenua were long familiar with the Mata-au / Clutha Valley; as a whole, the river was an important ara tawhito, with ‘many permanent and temporary kāika (settlements) located throughout the lower stretches of the river.’ The Fruitlands / Bald Hill Flat area sits between the river to the east and the Kōpūwai / Old Man Range to the west. Discovery of gold in the Dunstan region transformed the area as it was enroute to the goldfields. In 1862 miners moved to prospect in the nearby streams. When gold was discovered, there was a rush to the area then known Speargrass Flat. According to J.H. Beattie, this area was renamed ‘Bald Hill Flat’ by 1866. Mining eventually focused on the more productive area of the Obelisk Creek flood plains, where the creek crosses the flat. James Mitchell (c. 1842-1922) a Shetland Islander, came to New Zealand around 1872 and settled in the Skippers/Macetown area where he met his wife, Jessie. He moved to Bald Hill Flat in the early- to mid-1880s following the successes his brother, Andrew, on nearby ‘White’s Reef’. Their first home was a corrugated iron-clad building, transported from Skippers and assembled near the current cottage site. Following this, the current building and associated structures were constructed with the help of stonemason Andrew Mitchell, and completed by 1904.

The Cottage is constructed in the local schist and described as ‘an outstanding example of 19th century stonemasonry’. It comprises of two main rooms at the front, and a large kitchen and two smaller rooms to the rear. According to Cochran and Murray, ‘the best building stone was used on the east…and north elevations, with more pronounced quoins on the corners of the north elevation; the west…and south elevations are built of smaller stones.’ Most interior walls are lined with vertical tongue and groove boarding, although the kitchen is partly lined with dado rails and plaster. The closely associated outbuilding is of the same schist construction, as are the stone walls and ‘smithy’ to the east.

Following James’ death in 1922, the land was sold to Clifford Matthews in 1929; in July of that year, it was sold to Robert Symes, with the cottage remining in the Symes family until it was bought in 1980 by the Crown. By this time, it had likely been unoccupied for many years. Prior to 1980, a effort had been made by the then Department of Lands and Survey (DL&S) and other locals to secure the future preservation of the building and its surrounds as part of the proposed Otago Goldfields Park, with a committee formed for this purpose. Under the aegis of the DL&S and the Committee, ‘significant work was done on all structures, and also on the grounds’, with ‘internal restoration [and some] minor repairs to the exterior [and]…outbuildings’ completed by October 1980. This allowed for the official opening of the Historic Reserve, in December 1980. From the late-1990s onwards, maintenance and repair have been carried out by the Department of Conservation, including some exterior repointing and chimney repair in 2009 and further exterior repairs and painting in 2010.