page_title: History of the Dunedin urban area
section_title: Changing the landscape
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Dunedin urban area / The gold rush (1861) / Changing the landscape
caption_attribution_description: This plan shows the Otago A2 Princes Street Reserve as it was in 1855, 1868 and 1870. The Reserve had been set aside, in 1853, by Walter Mantell for Ngai Tahu to use when they visited Dunedin – to land their waka and for accommodation. The plan was created from the original survey plans for Dunedin by the Otago Provincial Survey. However, the Otago Provincial Government had also claimed rights to the use of shoreline for harbour development. The plan was part of evidence before the Native Land Court hearing held at Dunedin on 1 October 1939. The Court was asked by Teoti Timoti Karetai and others to investigate the title of the Princes Street Reserve. More background on the Reserve, ownership issues and the Court case can be found in the Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives (AJHRs), 1945 Session I, G-06b – The Native Purposes Act, 1938 – Report and Recommendation on Petition No. 49 of 1937, of Teoti Timoti Karetai and Others, Praying for an Investigation of the Native Reserve in Princes Street, Dunedin: atojs.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/atojs?a=d&amp;d=AJHR1945-I.2.... The Court case described the history of land ownership and made no recommendation. The issue of title was again investigated in Ngai Tahu's Treaty of Waitangi Tribunal Claim WAI–27: the report of the Waitangi Tribunal – Ngai Tahu Land Report – WAI–27, 1991 – forms.justice.govt.nz/search/Documents/WT/wt_DOC_68476209... - Sections 2.3 and 7. There is an article about Ann Parsonson, an historian, who researched the history of the Princes Street Reserve on Ngai Tahu's website: ngaitahu.iwi.nz/our_stories/sense-purpose-2/ as part of the claim settlement process. A brief history of Ngai Tahu is on Te Ara: www.teara.govt.nz/en/ngai-tahu. The water's edge was somewhere near Bond Street and State Highway 1 going north, also known as Crawford Street. Archives Reference: DAHG D497/22/e – Otago A.2, Princes Street Reserve No.8 [shows Maori Reserve] 1939
context_page_description: The villages and then city that lay at the head of Otago Harbor 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.
context_section_description: The money and people flowing into Dunedin at this time required and funded changes to the natural environment of the upper harbour. By the early 1870s Dunedin stood as a reconcilable equivocate of the modern city. The general street plan of a central city octagon with major north-south roads stretching the length of the city was created by the demolition of Bell Hill in the 1860s. Before 1858 the town was dived in two until a path was blasted between Princes St and the Octagon across the Nga-Moana-e-rua ridge. The material from this was used to reclaim the mudflats, starting with the Queens Gardens. The 1860s also saw the opening of the Forbury quarry to supply the city with building material. Harbour reclamation continued and isolated the Māori trading station on the waterfront which had been shown neglect from the city.
  Dunedin's first railway, the Port Chalmers Branch, was opened on 1 January 1873 and was the first railway built to the newly adopted (3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm)) narrow gauge to open in New Zealand. The Main South Line, linking Dunedin with Christchurch and Invercargill, was opened on 22 January 1879. All these required massive earthworks along half the length of the harbour.
  One of the world's oldest green belts, the Town Belt was planned in Scotland at the time of the advent of the Otago settlement in 1848. Residential areas outside the belt became separate boroughs, and were not amalgamated with Dunedin until much later. The Garden - New Zealand's oldest - was established in 1863 on a site surrounding the Water of Leith now occupied by the University of Otago. After extensive flooding in 1868, the gardens were moved to their current site in 1869. The name of the former site is still recorded in corrupted form in the now little-used name of Tanna or Tani (i.e., Botanic) Hill for the small but steep rise located close to the university's registry building).
  Ross Creek dam was built between 1865 and 1867 to provide drinking water for the city. The lower reaches of the Leith are contained within concrete channels. These, and the various weirs located in the Leith's stream—notably just to the north of Woodhaugh Gardens, were built to prevent a repeat of the serious damage to Dunedin North by the highest recorded flood in March 1929. An earlier devastating flood occurred on the river in 1868. The original course of the Leith was, in fact, a meandering track through what is now the central city, emptying into the upper harbour where Cumberland and Stuart Streets now meet. The Toitu Stream (now largely built over) used to run from Mornington down Serpentine Avenue and Maclaggan Street, turning to run south to the harbour at the
  top of Water Street. The memory of this stream is preserved in the angle High Street crosses Princes Street and the name of the Toitū Otago Settlers Museum.
caption: Dunedin in 1855 before the land reclamation, note the Māori reserve.
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