From the sleeve note of Paul Metsers 'Caution To the Wind' (1981) - The album that featured Farewell to the Gold:

FAREWELL TO THE GOLD Dedicated to the hundreds who sweated and risked life and limb in hope of striking is rich during the heyday of the New Zealand gold discoveries in the latter decades of the last century. Although the characters in the song are fictitious, the flash flood did occur - in July 1863, in fact - and claims the lives of tens of miners. The Shotover and Cardrona valleys are both in the South Island's rugged and beautiful Central Otago.

The above album features Nic Jones on this track and others incidentally.