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 1997
The southern sealing rush
Gangs of sealers worked the far south so intensively that fur seal colonies collapsed within a generation — one of the earliest European industries in New Zealand.
Dusky SoundGold found at Gabriel’s Gully
Gabriel Read’s find set off New Zealand’s first major gold rush and, by the mid-1860s, made Dunedin the country’s largest town.
Gabriel’s Gully, TuapekaThe Homer Tunnel opens the road to Milford Sound
After eighteen years of intermittent work, the 1.2 km Homer Tunnel 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 grievance first formally stated in 1849 was finally settled: $170 million, an apology, and Aoraki/Mount Cook, vested in the iwi and gifted back to the nation, 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 4,000–5,000 frozen carcasses (sources differ) and reached London 98 days later with the cargo sound. Te Ara notes the voyage is seen as a watershed in New Zealand’s economic development.
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 there were some 41,000 instances of wounding or illness; no other British dominion lost a higher share of its military-age men.
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 was released in London on the morning of the Queen’s coronation.
AucklandBritain joins the EEC
Britain had been New Zealand’s great market for lamb, butter and cheese since the first frozen-meat shipment in 1882. Now that market began to close.
Rogernomics — the economy is deregulated
A Labour government floated the dollar, removed farm subsidies and tariffs, and sold state assets in a radical programme of market liberalisation.
Waitangi Tribunal jurisdiction backdated to 1840
The Tribunal could now investigate Crown breaches all the way back to 1840, and the number of claims rose hugely.
The Sealord fisheries settlement
The Crown funded a Māori half-share in Sealord and allocated quota, settling commercial fisheries claims nationally in one deal.