History of the Dunedin urban area
The villages and then city of Dunedin that lay at the head of Otago Harbour never existed in isolation, but have always been a staging ground between inland Otago and the wider world. While Dunedin's current official city limits extend north to Waikouaiti, inland to Middlemarch and south to the Taieri River mouth, this articles focus is the history of the Dunedin urban area, only mentioning Mosgiel, the Otago Peninsula, Port Chalmers and inland Otago for context.
Archaeological evidence shows the first Māori occupation of the wider Dunedin area occurred within decades of their arrival in New Zealand. The population at this time was concentrated along the southern coast and they relied on seals and to a lesser extent moa for the bulk of their food. With reduced moa and seal numbers the population slumped. Elsewhere in New Zealand it grew again with the evolution of the horticulture based Classic culture, necessitating fortified villages. However, this culture did not fully spread to the colder southern South Island. In this period there were two Māori settlements in what is now central Dunedin—Ōtepoti and Puketai.
Initially European contact was made by sealers in the 1790s and then whalers, both being focused in the lower harbour around Otakou. Both Ōtepoti and Puketai were abandoned by 1826 reflecting the massive loss of life from measles, population displacements from the Musket Wars and the new economic opportunities provided by Europeans.
In 1848 the Free Church of Scotland organised two ships to sail to the head of the Otago Harbour and found the colony of Dunedin. Soon after the discovery of gold inland from Dunedin in 1861 led to the new city becoming the New Zealand's main industrial and commercial centre. The University of Otago, the oldest university in New Zealand, was founded in Dunedin in 1869 also as a result of the Gold Rush. The successful export of frozen meat in the 1880s provided an extra impetus to Dunedin's importance and growth. During the 20th century, influence and activity moved away from Dunedin to the North Island. Dunedin then re-branded itself based on its culture, history and proximity to the wildlife of the Otago Peninsula.
The upper harbour (1300–1848)
Inevitably the upper harbour was used by Māori for nearly 500 years before Europeans arrived but very little direct evidence remains. The current location of Dunedin's central city sits on either side of a ridge of land between the Toitu Stream and Water of Leith. The estuaries of both these rivers would have been used as landing sites for waka during seasonal migrations between the Otago Peninsula and inland Otago. There would have been periods of time when the movements of the dunes of St Kilda Beach allowed the harbour to almost break through to the sea, however, there is no record of it doing so during this time. It has been speculated that the silting up of this harbour entrance lead to the abandonment of the village of Ōtepoti and its associated Pā site above Andersons Bay.For the first 150 years after settlement the population of all New Zealand remained extremely low and the southern South Island with its high seal population was a major hub of activity. However, from 1500 onward, as kumara could not be grown at Dunedin's latitude the area became depopulated in comparison with the North Island. At this time the local Māori moved with the seasons more than those further north. A complex web was developed of what tribe or family group had rights and responsibilities for what resources across Otago at different times. Villages were made up of wharerau which could be left out of season and easy repaired when the group returned.
Māori tradition speaks of Rākaihautū excavating Kaikorai Valley in ancient time, of Kahui Tipua and Te Rapuwai, ancient peoples of shadowy memory, and then Waitaha, followed by Kāti Mamoe, the latter arriving late in the 16th century, and then Kāi Tahu from about the middle of the 17th century. These migrations, incidentally attended by bloodshed, did not represent a replacement of earlier groups. The dominant group of people changed, but their ancestral lineage was still connected to previous groups. Personalities from this time and later, such as Taoka and Te Wera, Tarewai and Te Rakiihia are identified with events at Huriawa, Mapoutahi, Pukekura and Otepoti and have descendants known in the historical period. Te Rakiihia died and was buried somewhere in what is now central Dunedin about 1785.
First contacts between Māori and Europeans (early 1800s)
Captain James Cook sailed off the Otago Peninsula between February 25 and March 5, 1770 and named Cape Saunders on the Otago Peninsula and Saddle Hill. He charted the area and reported penguins and seals in the vicinity which led sealers to visit, their first recorded landings being late in the first decade of the 19th century. A feud between sealers and Māori, sparked by an incident on a ship in Otago Harbour in 1810, continued until 1823. With peace re-established Otago Harbour went from being a secret sealers' haven to an international whaling port. The sealer John Boultbee recorded in the 1820s that the 'Kaika Otargo' were the oldest and largest in the south.In a relatively short period of time the economy shifted from a communal economy where the main unit was the tribe or extended family to a capitalist economy where the main unit was the individual or corporation. In the early 1800s the subsistence and barter economy of the Māori was altered with the quick adoption of the pound as a means of exchange. The Europeans were reliant on the Māori for food right up until the late 1840s which also allowed for a specialised economy. This along with the introduction of the potato and pigs allowed Māori from the Otago Peninsula to no longer need seasonal migrations to follow food sources. Therefore, directly or indirectly sealing and whaling was the primary employer in the Otago Harbour form the earliest nineteenth century until the founding of Dunedin. In the mid 1830s the Māori population was struck by introduced illnesses, partially measles. In the early 1840s early sheep farmers from the Otago Peninsula grazed their herds in the area that was to become central Dunedin.
The village of Dunedin (1848)
As the upper harbour had no deep water port the two locations of Port Chalmers and Otakou, both in the lower harbour, were initially suggested as the colony's location. However, the lack of flat land on the Otago Peninsula and its proximity to Māori settlements lead to the upper harbour being settled as the site. The Lay Association of the Free Church of Scotland, through a company called the Otago Association, founded Dunedin at the head of Otago Harbour in 1848 as the principal town of its Scottish settlement. Initially the best 120,000 acres from the Otago block sale were divided into urban, suburban and rural blocks, 2400 properties altogether.The name comes from Dùn Èideann, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the Scottish capital. Charles Kettle the city's surveyor, instructed to emulate the characteristics of Edinburgh, produced a striking, 'Romantic' design. The result was both grand and quirky streets as the builders struggled and sometimes failed to construct his bold vision across the challenging landscape. Captain William Cargill, a veteran of the war against Napoleon, was the secular leader. The Reverend Thomas Burns, a nephew of the poet Robbie Burns, was the spiritual guide.
With the founding of Dunedin the new colony, still reliant on Māori for food, began to clear land for farming. Initially harvests were erratic but generally superior to those in Britain. Once food production was stabilised grain was exported to Australia and some settlers started practicing the trades they had specialised in before immigration.
Dunedin prior to European settlement, much of the area of The Flat was poorly drained and marshy. Early settlement of the area took place along the hill fringes at Caversham and St. Clair. The arrival at St Clair of William Henry Valpy in 1849 led to the first development of permanent roading in the area; Valpy, reputedly the wealthiest man in New Zealand, had a branch dray road built from Dunedin's central settlement to his St. Clair farm which ran along the edge of what is now South Dunedin.
In 1852 when the provinces were created Dunedin became the capital of the Otago Province, the whole of New Zealand from the Waitaki south. It was the only one of New Zealand's original six provinces to have a Māori name - a reflection of the area's European settlement in pre-colonial times. There were squabbles between 'the Old Identity' - the Scottish, Presbyterian majority, and 'the Little Enemy' - the English, Anglican minority. Specifically, there were frequent clashes between the Dunedin City Council and the Caversham Borough Council; Caversham, now a mainly residential suburb of Dunedin, was originally a thriving industrial town which had been founded by predominantly English settlers. The town quickly gained a reputation for mud and a line of branches were put down on the main street from 1848 to 1850 to make transport bearable. In 1846, an ordinance for the establishment and maintenance of a constabulary force was passed.
The gold rush (1861)
Prior to 1861, Dunedin's population was small, numbering only two or three thousand people, but in 1861 the discovery of gold at Gabriel's Gully led to a rapid influx of people, giving Dunedin by 1865 the highest rate of population increase in the country. The new arrivals included many Irish, but also Italians, French, Germans, Jews and Chinese, all lumped together by the earlier settlers as 'the New Iniquity'. This reduced the dominance of the earlier Scottish immigrants and Presbyterianism in Dunedin. In 1865 the Catholic church established a strong presence and also the Jewish population established a synagogue.In the gold rush some people made fortunes and built grand houses, however, slums also developed in the inner city. Many of Dunedin's first subdivisions had no proper sanitary arrangements. This included the housing developments of the mayor John Hyde Harris in 1867, who was warned and fined for their poor standard. At this time diseases such as typhoid and cholera were common due to poor drainage and sanitation. Assisted immigrants had to have their accommodation guaranteed for 48 hours after arrival and many spent this time in the Caversham immigration barracks built in 1872. The gold rushes of the 1860s in Otago meant police often had a difficult time keeping the peace.