Southland
Murihiku
The southernmost region, shaped first by whaling and Scottish settlement, and later by the arguments over Manapōuri and the Fiordland wilderness.
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5 events in Southland between 1803 and 1998
The southern sealing rush
Gangs of sealers worked the far south so intensively that fur seal colonies collapsed within a generation — the first sustained European industry in New Zealand.
Dusky SoundGold found at Gabriel’s Gully
Gabriel Read’s find more than quadrupled Otago’s population in three years and made Dunedin the largest and wealthiest city in the country.
Gabriel’s Gully, TuapekaThe Homer Tunnel opens the road to Milford Sound
After eighteen years of intermittent work, a rough 1.2 km bore under the Homer Saddle gave Milford Sound its first road connection.
Homer SaddleThe Save Manapōuri petition
A petition of more than 260,000 signatures against raising Lake Manapōuri for a power scheme became the largest in the country’s history to that point.
Lake ManapōuriThe Ngāi Tahu settlement
A claim first lodged in 1849 was finally settled: $170 million, an apology, and the return of Aoraki/Mount Cook, over land covering most of the South Island.
Ōnuku Marae, AkaroaMeanwhile, nationally
8 events that reached Southland along with most of the country. They still shade the map and sit on the timeline above, but they are not Southland’s own history.
First refrigerated cargo sails for London
The Dunedin left Port Chalmers with 4,900 frozen carcasses and arrived in London 98 days later with the cargo sound. It changed the country’s economy permanently.
Port ChalmersNew Zealand enters the First World War
About 100,000 served overseas from a population of just over a million. Around 18,000 died and 41,000 were wounded — proportionally among the heaviest losses of any country.
New Zealand declares war on Germany
‘Where she goes, we go’ — 140,000 served overseas and nearly 12,000 died, from a population of 1.6 million.
Edmund Hillary summits Everest
An Auckland beekeeper and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Everest, and the news arrived in London on the morning of the Queen’s coronation.
AucklandBritain joins the EEC
New Zealand’s guaranteed British market for lamb, butter and cheese began closing after ninety years. The economy has never worked the same way since.
Rogernomics — the economy is deregulated
A Labour government floated the dollar, removed farm subsidies and tariffs, and sold state assets — the fastest liberalisation in the developed world.
Waitangi Tribunal jurisdiction backdated to 1840
The single amendment that made Treaty settlements possible: the Tribunal could now investigate Crown breaches all the way back to 1840.
The Sealord fisheries settlement
The Crown funded a Māori half-share in Sealord and allocated quota, settling commercial fisheries claims nationally in one deal.