Panning Cambrain: Welsh Gold Mining Colony in Central Otago

New Zealand's Welsh Colony of the Deep South

This essay won first prize in the Takahe Cultural Studies Essay Competition back in 2010. Like the last essay on Patagonian Welsh in Austalia's Naorthern Territory, it's just been lying around on the laptop desktop gathering cyber-dust.

But the subject matter's as relevant as ever, and even if you're not so enthused about all things Welsh, the local culture is of equal interest. It's worth taking five minutes out of your way to discover this place.

This is essentially a piece of travel writing that will entertain and briefly help you escape to another place. A beautiful place, as you'll see from the photographs.

Download the embeded PDF below and read the essay from there.

Panning Cambrian by H.T.R. Williams

5 Humourous Welsh Signage Mishaps

Sgymraeg Am Byw!

Sgymraeg - n. A poor-standard version of Welsh (Cymraeg) often used when translations need to be made from English. Frequently seen in Wales now as the nation increases its efforts to be politically correct and bilingual, whilst at the same time Welsh-language fluency levels remain low.

Welsh signs of all sorts, menus, etc. are becoming more consistently bilingual. The problem creating the phenomenon of 'Sgymraeg' is that Welsh-language fluency levels aren't on a par with widespread efforts to have just about everything written in Welsh as well as English. The Welsh Language Society (Cymdaithas Yr Iaith) views Sgymraeg as an indication of ignorance and disrespect for the language. In some cases this seems true. On the other hand, you might choose to cut people some slack, since a lot of Welsh speakers have had to learn the language from scratch and are obviously trying their best. Like this person, maybe:

You can probably figure out what happened in this case:

But how the hell does something like this one below happen?

This next one could have been just an obvious, unfortunate spelling mistake (Busnesau / Busnesa), except for the translator completely reversing the original meaning as well:

This one originates from a cannibalistic Tesco's in Haverford West:

View more Sgymraeg signs here, or buy a whole book of them here. Please also check out my latest eBook,, or download a fiction ebook for free.Hwyl!

Welsh Patagonians in Australia's Northern Territory

A lot of people know the story of the Welsh Patagonians.


Fewer know the stories of the Welsh Patagonians who left Argentina to found other colonies.


Hardly anyone knows this story!


The longing for a place where the grass is always greener conflicts with our hireath for home. Scandalous deceit on the part of the British Empire, propaganda written by a fellow Welshman with a New Zealand connection, and the misfortune that awaited those Welsh Patagonians who swallowed the lies and attempted to colonise Australia's Northern Territory.

I wrote this essay for a competition a couple of years ago. It didn't win, and I couldn't find another home for it, so now you lucky readers of my blog (all three of you) get to read it for free . . .

Download A White Ant Dreaming as a FREE PDF file:

A White Ant Dreaming