Everything about Dunedin New Zealand totally explained
Dunedin,
Ōtepoti in Maori, is the second-largest city in the
South Island of
New Zealand, and the principal city of the region of
Otago. It is New Zealand's fifth largest city in population, the largest in size of council boundary area, and the hub of the fifth-largest urban area. For historical and cultural reasons and its location, Dunedin is considered one of the country's four main centres, although
Hamilton has overtaken it in urban-area population and
Tauranga has the same urban-area population.
The city stands on the hills and valleys surrounding the head of
Otago Harbour. The harbour and hills are the remnants of an extinct volcano. It is the home of the
University of Otago.
History
Māori settlements
Modern archaeology favours a date round 1100 AD for the first human (Māori) occupation of New Zealand with population concentrated along the south east coast. A camp site at Kaikai's Beach, near
Otago Heads, has been dated from about that time. There are numerous Archaic (moa hunter) sites in what is now Dunedin, several of them large and permanently occupied, particularly in the fourteenth century. Population contracted but expanded again with the evolution of the Classic culture which saw the building of several
pa, fortified settlements, notably Pukekura at (
Taiaroa Head), about 1650. There was a settlement in what is now central Dunedin (Ōtepoti) occupied as late as about 1785 but abandoned by 1826.
Maori tradition tells first of people called Kahui Tipua living in the area, then Te Rapuwai, semi-legendary but considered to be historical. The next arrivals were
Waitaha followed by
Kati Mamoe late in the sixteenth century and then
Kai Tahu (
Ngai Tahu in modern standard
Māori) who arrived in the mid seventeenth century. These migration waves have often been represented as 'invasions' in European accounts but modern scholarship has cast doubt on that. They were probably migrations like those of the European which incidentally resulted in bloodshed.
The sealer John Boultbee recorded in the 1820s that the 'Kaika Otargo' (settlements around and near
Otago Harbour) were the oldest and largest in the south.
European settlement
Captain
James Cook stood off what is now the coast of Dunedin between
February 25 and
March 5 1770, naming
Cape Saunders on the
Otago Peninsula and Saddle Hill. He reported penguins and seals in the vicinity, which led sealers to visit from the beginning of the 19th century. The early years of sealing saw a feud between sealers and local Maori, from 1810-1823, sparked by an incident on Otago Harbour, but
William Tucker became the first European to settle in the area in 1815. Permanent European occupation dates from 1831 when the
Weller brothers founded their whaling station at Otago, modern
Otakou on the Otago Harbour. Epidemics reduced the Maori population. By the late 1830s the harbour was an international whaling port.
Johnny Jones established a farming settlement and a mission station, the South Island's first, at
Waikouaiti in 1840.
The Lay Association of the
Free Church of Scotland founded Dunedin at the head of Otago Harbour in 1848 as the principal town of its
Scottish settlement. 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
Robert Burns, was the spiritual guide.
Gold rush era
In 1852, Dunedin became the capital of the Otago Province, the whole of New Zealand from the
Waitaki south. In 1861 the discovery of gold at
Gabriel's Gully, to the southwest, led to a rapid influx of population and saw Dunedin become New Zealand's first city by growth of population in 1865. The new arrivals included many Irish, but also Italians, French, Germans, Jews and Chinese. The Southern Cemetery was established in 1858, the Northern Cemetery in 1872.
Dunedin and the region industrialised and consolidated, and the
Main South Line connected the city with
Christchurch in 1878 and Invercargill in 1879. The
University of Otago, the oldest university in New Zealand, was founded in Dunedin in
1869.
Otago Girls' High School (1871) is said to be the oldest state secondary school for girls in the Southern Hemisphere. Between 1881 and
1957, Dunedin was home to
cable trams, being both one of the first and last such systems in the world. Early in the 1880s the inauguration of the frozen meat industry, with the first shipment leaving from
Port Chalmers in
1882, saw the beginning of a later great national industry.
After ten years of gold rushes the economy slowed but
Julius Vogel's immigration and development scheme brought thousands more especially to Dunedin and Otago before recession set in again in the 1880s. In these first times of prosperity many institutions and businesses were established, New Zealand's first daily newspaper, art school, medical school and public art gallery
Dunedin Public Art Gallery among them. There was also a remarkable architectural flowering producing many substantial and ornamental buildings.
R.A. Lawson's
First Church of Otago and Knox Church are notable examples, as are buildings by
Maxwell Bury and
F.W. Petre. The other visual arts also flourished under the leadership of
W.M. Hodgkins. The city's landscape and burgeoning townscape were vividly portrayed by
George O'Brien 1821-1888. From the mid 1890s the economy revived. Institutions such as the
Otago Settlers Museum and the
Hocken Collections – the first of their kind in New Zealand – were founded. More notable buildings such as the
Railway Station and
Olveston were erected. New energy in the visual arts represented by
G.P. Nerli culminated in the career of
Frances Hodgkins.
Early Modern era
By 1900, Dunedin was no longer the country's biggest city. Influence and activity moved north to the other centres ("the drift north"), a trend which continued for much of the following century. Despite this, the university continued to expand, and a student quarter became established. At the same time people started to notice Dunedin's mellowing, the ageing of its grand old buildings, with writers like E.H. McCormick pointing out its atmospheric charm. In the 1930s and early 1940s a new generation of artists such as
M.T. (Toss) Woollaston,
Doris Lusk, Anne Hamblett,
Colin McCahon and
Patrick Hayman once again represented the best of the country's talent. The Second World War saw the dispersal of these painters, but not before McCahon had met a very youthful poet,
James K. Baxter, in a central city studio.
Post War developments
After
World War II, prosperity and population growth revived, although Dunedin trailed as the fourth 'main centre'. A generation reacting against Victorianism started demolishing its buildings, and many were lost, notably the Stock Exchange in 1969. Although the university continued to expand, the city's population growth slowed and then contracted, notably from 1976 to 1981. This was, however, a culturally vibrant time with the university's new privately endowed arts fellowships, bringing such luminaries as
James K Baxter,
Ralph Hotere,
Janet Frame, and
Hone Tuwhare to the city.
During the 1980s the city's popular music scene blossomed, with many acts, such as
The Chills,
The Clean,
The Verlaines, and
Straitjacket Fits, gaining national and international recognition. The term "The
Dunedin Sound" was coined to describe the 1960s-influenced guitar-led music which came out of the city at this time. The music scene continues to thrive today, with bands and musicians playing and recording in many styles, from electronica to reggae to folk.
By 1990, population decline had steadied and Dunedin had re-invented itself as a 'heritage city' with its main streets refurbished in Victorian style and R.A. Lawson's Municipal Chambers in
the Octagon handsomely restored. It was also recognised as a centre of excellence in tertiary education and research. The university and polytechnic's growth accelerated. The city has continued to refurbish itself, embarking on major developments and redevelopments of the art gallery, railway station, and Otago Settlers Museum.
Dunedin has flourishing niche industries including engineering, software engineering, bio-technology and fashion.
Port Chalmers on
Otago Harbour provides Dunedin with deep-water port facilities. The port is served by the
Port Chalmers Branch, a
branch line railway that diverges from the
Main South Line that runs from
Christchurch via Dunedin to
Invercargill.
The cityscape glitters with gems of Victorian and Edwardian architecture - the legacy of the city's gold-rush affluence - many including First Church and
Larnach Castle designed by one of New Zealand's most eminent architects
R A Lawson. Other prominent buildings include Olveston and
Dunedin Railway Station. Other attractions include
Baldwin Street, the world's steepest street; the famous Captain Cook Tavern; and the local
Speight's brewery.
Dunedin is also notable now as centre for
ecotourism. Uniquely, the world's only mainland
Royal Albatross colony and several
penguin and
seal colonies lie within the city boundaries on
Otago Peninsula. To the south, on the western side of
Lake Waihola, lie the
Sinclair Wetlands.
The thriving tertiary student population has led to a vibrant youth culture (so named 'Scarfies'), consisting of the before mentioned music scene, and more recently a burgeoning boutique fashion industry. A strong visual arts community also lives in Dunedin and its environs, notably in
Port Chalmers and the other settlements which dot the coast of the
Otago Harbour, and also in communities such as
Waitati.
Sport is catered for in Dunedin by the floodlit
rugby and
cricket venue of
Carisbrook, the New Caledonian Ground
soccer and
athletics stadium near the University at
Logan Park, the large
Edgar Centre indoor sports centre, the
University Oval cricket ground, and numerous
golf courses and parks. There are also
Forbury Park horseracing circuit in the south of the city and several others within a few kilometres. St Clair Beach is a well-known
surfing venue. Dunedin has four public swimming pools:
Moana Pool, Port Chalmers Pool, Mosgiel, and St Clair Salt Water Pool.
Geography
Dunedin City has a land area of, slightly larger than the
American state of
Rhode Island or the
English county of
Cambridgeshire, and a little smaller than
Cornwall.
It is the largest city in land area in
New Zealand. The Dunedin City Council boundaries since 1989 have extended to
Middlemarch in the west,
Waikouaiti in the north, the
Pacific Ocean in the east and south-east, and the Waipori/Taieri River and the township of
Henley in the south-west.
Dunedin is the most remote city in the world from
London at (more than
Invercargill, and more than
Christchurch), and from
Berlin at . Its
antipodes are some north of the
Spanish city of
La Coruña, in the
Bay of Biscay.
Inner city
The heart of the city lies on the relatively flat land to the west of the head of the
Otago Harbour. Here is
The Octagon - once a gully, it was filled in the mid nineteenth century to create the present plaza. The initial settlement of the city took place to the south on the other side of Bell Hill, a large outcrop which had to be reduced in order to provide easy access between the two parts of the settlement. The central city stretches away from this point in a largely northeast-southwest direction, with the main streets of
George Street and Princes Street meeting at The Octagon. Here they're joined by
Stuart Street, which runs orthogonal to them, from the
Dunedin Railway Station in the southeast, and steeply up to the suburb of Roslyn in the northwest. Many of the older, more established buildings in the city are located in the southern part of this area and on the inner ring of lower hills which surround the central city (most of these hills, such as Maori Hill, Pine Hill, and Maryhill, rise to some above the plain).
Dunedin is home to
Baldwin Street, which, according to the
Guinness Book of Records, is the steepest street in the world. Its gradient is 1 in 2.9. The long since abandoned Maryhill
Cablecar route had a similar gradient close to its Mornington depot.
Beyond the inner range of hills lie Dunedin's outer suburbs, notably to the northwest, beyond Roslyn. This direction contains Taieri Road and Three Mile Hill, which between them formed the original road route to the
Taieri Plains. The modern
State Highway 1 follows a different route, passing through Caversham in the west and out past Saddle Hill. Lying between Saddle Hill and Caversham are the outer suburbs of
Green Island and Abbotsford. Between Green Island and Roslyn lies the steep-sided valley of the
Kaikorai Stream, which is today a residential and light industrial area. Suburban settlements – mostly regarded as separate townships – also lie along both edges of the Otago Harbour. Notable among these are
Portobello and
Macandrew Bay, on the
Otago Peninsula coast, and
Port Chalmers on the opposite side of the harbour. Port Chalmers provides Dunedin's main deep-water port, including the city's
container port.
The Dunedin skyline is dominated by a ring of (traditionally seven) hills which form the remnants of a volcanic crater. Notable among them are
Mount Cargill,
Flagstaff, Saddle Hill,
Signal Hill, and Harbour Cone .
Hinterland
The hinterland within Dunedin city encompasses a variety of different landforms. To the southwest lie the
Taieri Plains, the broad, fertile lowland floodplains of the
Taieri River and its major tributary the
Waipori. These are moderately heavily settled, and contain the towns of
Mosgiel,
East Taieri, and
Allanton. They are separated from the coast by a range of low hills rising to some . Inland from the Taieri Plain is rough hill country. Close to the plain, much of this is forested, notably around
Berwick and
Lake Mahinerangi, and also around the
Silverpeaks Range which lies northwest of the Dunedin urban area. Beyond this, the land becomes drier and opens out into grass and
tussock-covered land. A high, broad valley, the
Strath-Taieri lies in Dunedin's far northwest, containing the town of
Middlemarch, one of the area's few concentrations of population.
To the north of the city's urban area is undulating hill country containing several small, mainly coastal, settlements, including
Waitati,
Warrington,
Seacliff and
Waikouaiti.
State Highway 1 winds steeply through a series of hills here, notably the
Kilmog . These hills can be considered a coastal extension of the Silverpeaks Range.
To the east, Dunedin City includes the entirety of the
Otago Peninsula, a long finger of land that formed the southeastern rim of the Dunedin Volcano. The peninsula is lightly settled, almost entirely along the harbour coast, and much of it's maintained as a natural habitat by the
Otago Peninsula Trust. The peninsula contains several fine beaches, and is home to a considerable number of rare species, such as
penguins,
seals, and
shags. Most importantly, it contains the world's only mainland breeding colony of
Royal Albatross, at
Taiaroa Head on the peninsula's northeastern point.
List of suburbs
Inner suburbs
(clockwise from the city centre, starting at due north)
Woodhaugh; Glenleith; Ross Creek; Dalmore; Pine Hill; Mt Cargill; Normanby; Mt Mera; North East Valley; Opoho; Dunedin North; Ravensbourne; Highcliff; Shiel Hill; Waverley; Vauxhall; Ocean Grove (Tomahawk); Tainui; Andersons Bay; Musselburgh; South Dunedin; St Kilda; St Clair; Corstorphine; Kew; Forbury; Caversham; Concord; Maryhill; Mornington; Kaikorai Valley; Belleknowes; Roslyn; Kaikorai; Wakari; Maori Hill; Anderson's Bay; Halfway Bush; Fernhill; Kenmure.
Outer suburbs
(clockwise from the city centre, starting at due north)
Burkes; St. Leonards; Broad Bay; Company Bay;
Macandrew Bay; Burnside;
Green Island; Waldronville; Saddle Hill;
Sunnyvale; Fairfield;
Abbotsford; Bradford; Glenross; Brockville; Halfway Bush; Helensburgh.
Towns within city limits
(clockwise from the city centre, starting at due north)
Waitati;
Waikouaiti;
Karitane;
Seacliff;
Warrington;
Purakanui;
Long Beach;
Aramoana;
Deborah Bay;
Carey's Bay;
Port Chalmers;
Sawyers Bay;
Roseneath;
Otakou;
Portobello;
Brighton;
Taieri Mouth;
Henley;
Allanton;
East Taieri;
Momona;
Outram;
Mosgiel;
West Taieri;
Waipori;
Middlemarch;
Hyde.
Technically, since local council reorganisation in the late 1980s, these are suburbs, but it's rare for Dunedinites to describe these places as suburbs. They are usually regarded locally as towns or townships, and none has the usual qualities associated with suburbs. All are separated by a considerable distance of open countryside from the central Dunedin urban area.
Climate
The climate of Dunedin in general is temperate, however the city is recognised as having a large number of microclimates and the weather conditions often vary between suburbs mostly due to the city's topographical layout. It is also greatly modified by its proximity to the ocean. This leads to warm summers and cool winters. Winter can be frosty, but significant snowfall is uncommon (perhaps every two or three years), except in the inland hill suburbs such as Halfway Bush and Wakari, which tend to receive a few days of snowfall each year. Spring can feature "four seasons in a day" weather, but from November to April it's generally settled and mild. Temperatures during summer can top, but temperatures in the high 30s are rare.
Dunedin has relatively low rainfall in comparison to many of New Zealand's cities, with only some recorded per year. Despite this fact it's regarded by many as a damp city, probably due to its rainfall occurring in drizzle over a larger number of days (northern centres such as Auckland and Wellington receive more rain overall through heavy downpours on relatively fewer days). Dunedin is one of the cloudiest centres in the country, recording approximately 1650 hours of bright sunshine per annum Prevailing winds in the city come from two directions, with cool, damp southerlies tending to alternate with warmer, dry
Foehn winds from the northwest. The circle of hills surrounding the inner city shelters the inner city from much of Otago's prevailing weather, often resulting in the main urban area having completely different weather conditions to the rest of Otago.
Inland, beyond the heart of the city, the climate is sub-continental: winters are quite cold and dry, summers hot and dry. Thick freezing ground fogs are common in winter in the upper reaches of the
Taieri River's course around
Middlemarch, and in summer the temperature frequently reaches into the mid-30s Celsius.
Transport
motorway, the ten-kilometre (6.2 mi) section of
State Highway One (SH1) from the centre of the city towards the southern suburb of
Mosgiel. Dunedin is the northeastern terminus of the
Southern Scenic Route tourist highway to
The Catlins,
Invercargill and
Fiordland.
Although Dunedin's
railway station, once the nation's busiest, is no longer served by regular commercial passenger trains, it's used by local tourist services. The most prominent of these is the Taieri Gorge Limited, a popular and famous train operated daily by the
Taieri Gorge Railway along the former
Otago Central Railway through the scenic
Taieri Gorge. Taieri Gorge Railway also operates to
Palmerston once weekly. The station is also sometimes visited by excursions organised by other heritage railway societies, and by trains chartered by cruise ships docking at Port Chalmers.
Dunedin International Airport is located southwest of the city on the
Taieri Plains at
Momona. It is primarily a domestic terminal, with regular flights to and from
Auckland,
Christchurch,
Wellington,
Rotorua,
Palmerston North, and seasonal flights to and from
Queenstown,
Wanaka, and
Fiordland, but it also has regular international flights arriving from and departing to
Sydney,
Brisbane,
Melbourne, and
Coolangatta.
Media
Local media in Dunedin include the daily
newspaper, The
Otago Daily Times, which is the country's oldest daily newspaper and is part of the Allied Press group of newspapers. Allied Press also produces a free weekly community newspaper, the
Star. There are several other local weekly and bi-weekly
community newspapers, and
Mosgiel is served by its own local paper, the
Taieri Herald.
There are numerous local radio stations, among them
Radio Dunedin and the University's station,
Radio One. Dunedin has one locally-run television station,
Channel 9, which is also part of the Allied Press group.
Panoramas
Notable people
Events
Annual events
Past events
1865 - New Zealand Exhibition (1865)
1889 - New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition (1889)
1898 - Otago Jubilee Industrial Exhibition (1898)
1925 - New Zealand and South Seas International Exhibition (1925)
Notable buildings and landmarks
Dunedin Railway Station
Larnach Castle
Cargill's Castle
Moana Pool
Cadbury World
Olveston
Speight's Brewery
Carisbrook
Otago Boys' High School
University of Otago Registry Building
Regent Theatre
Fortune Theatre
Municipal Chambers
Allied Press Building
Dunedin Public Hospital
Meridian Mall
The Octagon
Museums, art galleries, and libraries
Otago Museum
Otago Settlers Museum
Dunedin Public Art Gallery
Dunedin Public Libraries
Hocken Library
Churches
St. Paul's Cathedral
First Church
Knox Church
St. Joseph's Cathedral
Kaikorai Presbyterian Church
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Hanover Street Baptist Church — now the Monkey Bar
Trinity Wesleyan Church — now the Fortune Theatre
Places of education
Tertiary
University of Otago
Otago Polytechnic
Dunedin College of Education
Dunedin Community College
Secondary
Otago Boys High School
Otago Girls High School
Columba College
St. Hilda's Collegiate School
John McGlashan College
Kavanagh College
Bayfield High School
Logan Park High School
Kaikorai Valley College
King's High School
Queen's High School
Taieri College
Sport
Major teams
The Highlanders - Super 14 rugby team
Otago Rugby Football Union - Air New Zealand Cup rugby
Otago Volts and Otago Sparks - men's and women's cricket teams
Otago Rebels - The National Bank Cup netball team
Otago United - football (soccer) team in the New Zealand Football Championship
Otago Nuggets - National Basketball League basketball team
Major grounds and stadia
Carisbrook
University Oval
The Edgar Centre
Dunedin Stadium
Logan Park
Twinning
Dunedin is twinned with several cities throughout the world. These include:
Trivia
Dunedin was the city in which Speights beer was first brewed.
In the H. P. Lovecraft horror classic The Call of Cthulhu, the evil cult expedition into the Pacific to awaken the dark god Cthulhu sets out from Dunedin.Further Information
Get more info on 'Dunedin New Zealand'.
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