A 155-year-old homestead near Queenstown has been destroyed in a suspected suspicious fire, prompting an appeal from police for a couple seen camping at the historic spot to come forward.

Central Otago Detective Sergeant Derek Shaw is appealing for a man and woman who camped at the Aurum Homestead to come forward, in the hope they can help solve the case after the  category 2 historic places building went up in flames on Monday.

The couple were believed to have been from Queenstown and travelling in a maroon vehicle, Shaw said.

“Until we can clarify what exactly happened, what the cause of it [was] and eliminate any involvement from the couple who have not been located, it is probably deemed as being suspicious,” Shaw said.

The homestead and school house are Department of Conservation (DOC) assets. The homestead was built about 1863 and is part of a DOC campsite.

Campers called emergency services after noticing a “glow” from the homestead about 2.05am on Monday.

About 20 firefighters from Queenstown and Arrowtown were on site by 3am, which was a great response given the difficulty of accessing the area, Shaw said.

The couple police wanted to talk to were believed to have slept inside the building and left the campsite before the fire was discovered.

“We are making an appeal to them. Everyone else has been spoken to. There is no suggestion they’ve died in the fire or anything like that. They left between midnight and when the fire was discovered,” Shaw said.

The cause of the fire was not yet known.

Shaw said campers at the site “did a remarkable job” to stop the fire spreading to vegetation and other historic buildings.

They used hand pump extinguishers and stamped out flames in the short dry grass.

“They just kept going round and round the building, stopping it from spreading as best as they could. We were lucky there was little or next to no wind,” Shaw said.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze by about 4am.

Heritage New Zealand’s website states the former Mount Aurum Station homestead was “probably cobbled together from at least three other small timber buildings”.

The homestead and the school were restored by DOC in 2011.

They date from the gold-mining period of the 1860s to 1914 and were the only substantial buildings remaining in the former Skippers township.

Anyone with information about the fire is asked to call Queenstown Detective Lisa Watt on 03 4411600.

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 – Stuff

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