The Mary Cotter Tree

The Mary Cotter Tree. . , Planted 1867 - The First of the Avenue , The two-year-old Mary Cotter, after whom this nearby sycamore tree is named, lived with her early gold-mining family in a house on this corner section of the reserve known from the 1860s until the 1930s as "Cotter's Corner", but now more commonly, as "The Library Corner”., Mary's Irish-born father, Richard Cotter, arrived at the Arrow with William Fox and party in 1862 but returned to Australia in 1863 to bring his wife, Frances, and two young children out to the Arrow with him after learning that an infant son had drowned., Their first canvas-roofed dwelling on the lower river terrace was destroyed in a storm which led them to build here on higher ground. Several of their family of ten made the Arrow and Lakes District their long-term home., When the trees were being planted in 1867, little Mary Cotter was told that if she danced around the sycamore tree outside her house it would be named after her. She danced around the tree, and, more than 150 years later, it continues to be known as "The Mary Cotter Tree., Planting of the Avenue in 1867 - Alexander Innes , Scotsman Alexander Innes, a local orchardist, made a generous donation of the trees on this southern side of the avenue., Alexander had emigrated to the Wakatipu in 1863 from Victoria Australia where he had been a storekeeper., Well-educated and civic-minded, he became Mayor of Amowtown in 1874, and member of the Otago Provincial Council 1874-1875, representing the Lakes electorate alongside Bendix Hallenstein., He was instrumental in the establishment and management of the Amowtown Public Library, and as an accomplished seal engraver, he was responsible for designing the Arrowtown town seal., Alexander was a life-long prohibitionist and member of the Good Templars Golden Arrow Lodge., After a period of ill-health, he died in Arrowtown on 11 December 1882 aged 52 years. This beautiful avenue remains as a tangible legacy to his generosity and foresight.,