Industrial History of the Otago Region

Modern New Zealand has its historical roots in the ocean; seals, whales and fish brought the first European settlers to its shores in the early 1800’s. The Maori preceded them by no more than 800 years (Barber 1996:869). Cook rediscovered New Zealand (named by Dutch East India Explorer Abel Tasman in 1642) in 1769 and the first colonists (whalers, sealers and traders) began arriving shortly thereafter, by 1839 there were 2000 permanent settlers (Sinclair 1997:24).

Polynesian/Maori Settlements

The Polynesians (known locally as Maori) arrived nearly 800-1200 years ago, bringing with them a transportable economy just as they had done throughout the Pacific. A transportable economy is a collection of plants and animals that Polynesians knowingly transported with them to new islands in order to support their way of life (Kirch 2002:109). This consisted of “seed animals and plants” such as the dog, chicken and sweet potato. However, unlike other islands throughout the Pacific, only a few of these aspects are found in New Zealand such as the sweet potato (known locally as the Kumara) and agricultural practices similar to those in other parts of the Pacific. For instance, the practice of swiddening, where large sections of forest are burnt periodically for crop rotation, has left definite changes on the environment of New Zealand. The mostly temperate climate of New Zealand promoted the growth of dense forests. The use of slash and burn agriculture here is presented with two unique problems that the Polynesians would not have encountered previously, mainly the inability to control a blaze once it had begun and the longer amount of time required for regeneration of the forests.

Along with the deforestation, numerous extinctions resulted from the Maori’s arrival; including sixteen land birds (nine species and seven subspecies including the Moa), one of only three native bat species, one fish, and at least 12 invertebrates (such as snails and insects). This reduction partially led to widespread warfare among the Maoris and as many as 5,000+ fortified villages (Pa) being built around the north island by the time the Europeans began arriving at regular intervals in the late 1790’s.


Attempts to adapt Polynesian farming practices to NZ


One Tree Hill - a famous Pa in Auckland, NZ

European Arrival

The first Europeans to stay in New Zealand were not permanent settlers, or explorers such as Cook who arrived in the late 18th century, it was sealers, whalers and traders that began locating semi-permanent settlements along the coastlines. Missionaries arrived by 1814 and the first permanent settlers arrived in the 1840’s, mostly to set-up large farms. The first sealing gang was left at Dusky Sound in 1792 by the Britannia. These men collected 4,500 skins for the Chinese market. Over the next two decades, the Americans were the leading group. The sealing gangs seldom worked farther north than Fjordland and the Otago coast because of the local extinctions of seals by the Maori to these extremes prior to European habitation. After the seal supply was exhausted (one American vessel reportedly entered Sydney harbor with 60,000 skins!), whaling became the predominant economic expression of European interests in New Zealand. These whaling ships brought men from all over the world, many of which stayed in New Zealand and took Maori wives (who supposedly preferred Native Americans) and took many Maori around the world. In retrospect, the unions and travels brought about by whaling probably had a larger impact on the developing New Zealand society than did missionary work.

Two whaling stations figure prominently in Otago’s history, the Weller Brothers settlement on the Otago Peninsula and Johnny Jones’ settlement (who at one time claimed to have seven stations employing 280 men). Since whaling is a seasonal occupation, these settlements often had farms develop in tandem. The town which grew from the farming establishment of Johnny Jones’ became Waikouaiti, the first settlement in Otago. The Weller Brother’s settlement on the Otago Peninsula provided the genesis of what would later become Dunedin when settlers began arriving from the British Isles in the 1840’s

Discovery of Gold

On February 5th, 1840 the Treaty of Waitangi was signed and full-time British immigration began. In 1848, Otago and Canterbury had their first settlements, mostly Scottish in origin with only about 350 between the two. Otago was predominantly agriculturally based, more so than Canterbury, and by the 1850s, Otago was making a profit supplying the gold rush demands of Australia. An interesting situation concerning what was to take place a decade later. In 1861, Gabriel Read, a miner who had worked in both California and Australia visited Tuapeka in May of that year, discovered gold, and sparked a gold rush that affected all of Australasia. However, while Read is often credited with the first discovery of gold, this is simply not the case. Actually, a small rush occurred on the Coromandel Peninsula, near modern day Auckland, in 1852. Gold had been found in the area as early as 1842, but was not publicized until a reward of £500 (offered by local business’ to stem the flow of workers to the Australians goldfields) in 1852 encouraged Charles Ring to come forward with samples from Driving Creek, which he collected in two or three days (Salmon 1996: 26-27). Ring’s story is an amazing one when viewed from a modern context. He was a mill owner from the Auckland region who returned to the area after a journey to San Francisco in early 1852, and may not have intended to return to New Zealand evidenced by his booking passage from California to Australia. However, his ship was wrecked in Fiji and he was picked up by another ship heading to Auckland with the two other survivors, returning to New Zealand completely unintentionally.

Read’s discovery in Otago was preceded by earlier discoveries as well. A report from Vincent Pyke to the Superintendent of Otago in 1863 reported on earlier discoveries of gold throughout the area. This report stated that a local Chief, Tuawaiki, told a Mr. Palmer that large amounts of gold were available in the interior of the island. Perhaps due to gold’s extreme malleability, the local Maori ignored it because of its inability to serve as a weapon or any other type of tool. In 1857-8 gold was reported by an assistant surveyor working for the crown in the area, Mr. Alexander Garvie, and small discoveries continued to go unheeded by the local government until Gabriel Read’s “discovery” in 1861 (AJHR D 6: 1-6).

In Otago, the initial rushes only lasted for about two years. During this time, Dunedin emerged as New Zealand’s chief town, was briefly considered to serve as the capital of the country, and established the Bank of New Zealand. By 1865, the number of gold miners was dropping from the high mark of 10,000 in 1864, and was already at 6,000 in 1867. The majority of the miners left for the West Coast, which enjoyed a less wealthy but longer gold rush in the late 1860’s and early 1870’s. The gold rushes are directly responsible for the development of roads and infrastructure throughout the Otago Region, including a stage coach (the first in New Zealand) and well-maintained roads and power generators in remote regions. In Otago, the drain of miners to the West Coast left a hole in the economy, and in 1865 the Otago Regional Council invited Chinese miners, at first from Australia, and later from China, to come and work fields abandoned by Europeans.