page_title: Oamaru
section_title: Points of interest
hierarchical_section_title: Oamaru / Points of interest
caption_attribution_description: A building made of "Oamaru stone" in the neo-classical style
context_page_description: Oamaru is the largest town in North Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand, it is the main town in the Waitaki District. It is 80 kilometres south of Timaru and 120 kilometres north of Dunedin on the Pacific coast; State Highway 1 and the railway Main South Line connect it to both cities. With a population of 13,150, Oamaru is the 28th largest urban area in New Zealand, and the third largest in Otago behind Dunedin and Queenstown.
  The name Oamaru derives from the Māori and can be translated as "the place of Maru". The identity of Maru remains open to conjecture.
context_section_description: Many public buildings use as their construction material the local limestone (quarried especially near Weston) and known as Oamaru stone. The Victorian precinct in southern part of Oamaru's main commercial district ranks as one of New Zealand's most impressive streetscapes due to the many prominent 19th century buildings constructed from this material. Several key historic buildings in the area centered around Harbour Street and the lower Thames Street, Itchen Street and Tyne Street have been preserved by the Oamaru Whitestone Civic Trust as part of a historic precinct. The great palladian St Patrick's Basilica is also a fine example in white Oamaru stone.
  The Victorian theme has been embraced by local shops and galleries in this part of Oamaru in terms of shopfittings and decor.  Further enhancing the "olden days" feel of the precinct are several arts & crafts shops, a transportation museum, an antique furniture shop, and traditional businesses such as book shops, antique clothing shops, and a book binder.  Many of the buildings in this area close to the harbour used to serve as commercial warehouses and stores and now provide large spaces for galleries such as the Forrester Gallery, the Grainstore Gallery, The Libratory and Steampunk HQ.  Even the playgrounds in the harbour area continue the Victorian/industrial steam theme with a giant Penny Farthing structure supporting the swings, and several Steampunk-styled playground features.
  In August 2016 Oamaru made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest gathering of steampunks in the world, a term that was coined in the 1980s and is based on imagining inventions the Victorians might have created for the modern world.
  Most of the streets in Oamaru take their names from rivers in England, particularly rivers in the northwest and southeast of the country. The main modern retail and commercial areas line Thames Street; State Highway 1 running south follows Severn Street, whereas historic commercial buildings dominate the area around lower Tyne Street.
  A colony of little blue penguins lives in a disused quarry on the harbour not far from the historic precinct.  The penguins established themselves in the early 1990s, once the rock quarry had been closed in the 1970s, and in 1992 a group of volunteers started to help make the area suitable as a breeding habitat for the penguins and provide guided tours.  Apart from the success of the penguin colony, their efforts were rewarded with the colony receiving the Otago Regional Council's Environmental Award in 1995.
  Over the course of the early 2000s, a visitors' centre and two grandstands were completed, and today the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony is Oamaru's largest tourist attraction, receiving over 75,000 visitors annually. It is owned by the Waitaki District Council and carefully managed by the Waitaki Development Board, including monitoring and comparing of behaviour and numbers with a similar penguin colony nearby which is not open to visitors.
  A steam train operated by the Oamaru Steam and Rail Restoration Society runs between a small railway station in the historic precinct and a terminus at the harbour close to the little blue penguin colony on Sundays.
  Further south just outside town, a colony of yellow-eyed penguins at Bushy Beach also attracts ecotourists. Penguins sometimes live under buildings close to the beach, including the town's music club, The Penguin Club.
  The North Otago Tree Planting Association, inaugurated by local Oamaru G.P. Dr. Eric Strawson Stubbs and North Otago farmer Mr. Syd Hurst in 1937, was a forerunner of the New Zealand Farm Forestry Association.
  Oamaru serves as the eastern gateway to the Mackenzie Basin, via the Waitaki Valley.
caption: A building made of Oamaru stone, in the neo-classical style
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