Oamaru
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pronunciation
Shibboleth: The southern (Kāi Tahu) dialect of Māori ignores the first A in the name (AUH-muh-ROO). Northern Māori speakers prefer to stress the A (o-UH-muh-ROO). It is thus possible to tell whether the speaker is from Otago - as in the audio here - or further north.
| Oamaru | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Urban Area | Population | 12,700 (2004 est.) |
| Territorial Authority |
Name | Waitaki District Council |
| Population | 19,950 (2004 est.) | |
| Extent |
Pacific Ocean to the Mackenzie Basin |
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| Regional Council |
Name | Otago and Canterbury (Canterbury includes the Waitaki catchment) |
Oamaru is the largest town in North Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand, and 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, and is connected to both by State Highway 1 and the Main South Line. Its historic status as the second centre in the Otago Region (after Dunedin) is under threat from the growth of Queenstown in Central Otago.
The name Oamaru apparently derives from Māori words meaning the place of Maru (compare with Timaru). The identity of Maru remains open to conjecture.
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[edit] History
There are important archaeological sites in the vicinity, at Waitaki River mouth and Awamoa, both from the Archaic (Moa hunter) phase of Māori culture, when New Zealand's population was concentrated along the south east coast from about 1100 AD. Waitaki River mouth was immense, with at least 1,200 ovens. Awamoa saw the first archaeological excavation in New Zealand when W.B.D. Mantell excavated there at Christmas 1847 and 1852. There are smaller Archaic sites at Cape Wanbrow and Beach Road in central Oamaru. The distinctive Archaic art of the Waitaki Valley rock shelters dates from this period. Some of it was presumably made by the occupants of these sites. There are also Classic and Protohistoric sites, from after about 1500 AD, at Tamahaerewhenua, Tekorotuaheka, Te Punamaru, Papakaio and Kakanui. (Jill Hamel, 'The Archaeology of Otago', Department of Conservation, Wellington, 2001, pp. 16, 18,22 & 82.)
Māori tradition tells of the ancient people Kahui Tipua building a canoe, Arai Te Uru, which was sent from southern New Zealand to the ancestral Polynesian homeland, Hawaiki, to obtain kumara. On its return it became waterlogged off the Waitaki River mouth, lost food baskets at Moeraki beach and was wrecked at Matakaea (Shag Point) where it turned into Danger Reef. After the wreck a crew member, Pahihiwitahi, seeking water, discovered the Waitaki River but on returning south and failing to reach the wreck before dawn he was turned into a hill in the Shag Valley. This is seen as an allegorical explanation of the fact that kumara will not grow south of Banks Peninsula.
On 20 February 1770 James Cook in the Endeavour was very close to the Waitaki mouth and 'about 3 Miles from the shore' according to his journal. He said the land 'here is very low and flat and continues so up to the skirts of the Hills which are at least 4 or 5 Miles in land. The whole face of the Country appears barren, nor did we see any signs of inhabitants.' He stayed on this part of the coast four days. Sydney Parkinson, the expedition's artist, described what seems to be Cape Wanbrow, in Oamaru. On 20 February he wrote '...we were near the land, which formed an agreeable view to the naked eye. The hills were of a moderate height, having flats that extended from them a long way, bordered by a perpendicular rocky cliff next to the sea.'
In fact there were Māori in the area, and sealers in 1814. The Creed manuscript, discovered in 2003, records
Some of the [local] people [had been] absent on a feasting expedition to meet a great party from Taumutu, Akaroa, Orawenua [Arowhenua]. They were returning. The [sealers'] boat passed on to the Bluff 8 miles north of Moeraki where they landed & arranged their boat - & lay down to sleep in their boat. At night Pukuheke, father of Te More, went to the boat, found them asleep & came back to the other Natives south of the Bluff. They went with 100 [men] killing 5 Europeans & eat them. Two of the seven escaped through the darkness of the night & fled as far as Goodwood, Bobby's Head, after being 2 days and nights on the way.
Those were killed and eaten too. The Pākehā were a party from the Matilda, Captain Fowler, under the first mate Robert Brown with two other Europeans and five lascars or Indian seamen, making eight in all, not seven as the manuscript says. They had been sent in an open boat from Stewart Island in search of a party of absconding lascars. Brown must have had some reason for searching for them on the North Otago coast.
After Te Rauparaha's sack of the large pa (fortified settlement) at Kaiapoi near modern Christchurch in 1831, refugees came south and were allowed to settle at Kakaunui (Kakanui) and the territory between Pukeuri and Waianakarua, including the site of urban Oamaru, became their domain. (Atholl Anderson, 'The Welcome of Strangers', Otago University Press, Dunedin, 1998, pp. 90 & 107.)
Whalers sometimes visited this part of the coast in the 1830s such as the Jason, probably of New London in the United States, Captain Chester, reported at 'Otago Bluff' south of Kakanui, with 2,500 barrels of oil, on 1 December 1839. (Ian Church, 'Otago's Infant Years', Otago Heritage Books, Dunedin, 2002, p.48.)
Edward Shortland visited the area in 1844 coming overland from Waikouaiti. On January 9 he recorded 'Our path to-day was sometimes along the edge of a low cliff, sometimes along the beach, till we approached Oamaru point, where it turned inland, and crossed a low range of hills, from which we looked over an extensive plain'... 'Towards the afternoon, we ascended a range of hills called Pukeuri, separating this plain from another more extensive. The sky was so remarkably clear that, from the highest point of the pathway, Moeraki was distinctly in view...' He made a map and placed Oamaru on it. He was one of several Europeans who passed through the area on foot in the 1840s. James Saunders became the first European resident of the district some time before 1850 when he settled to trade among the Māori of the Waitaki River mouth. (A.H. McLintock (ed), 'An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand', Government Printer, Wellington, 1966, vol 2 p.705.)
More European settlers arrived in the Oamaru area in the 1850s such as Hugh Robison, who built a sod hut by the Oamaru creek in 1853. The place was surveyed as a town by J.T. Thomson in 1859 and the Otago Provincial government declared 'hundreds' there on 30 November 1860. The town grew as a service centre for the agricultural/pastoral hinterland between the Kakanui Mountains and the Waitaki River, and rapidly became a major port. For many years a commercial and fishing port nestled under Cape Wanbrow.
With the development of pastoralism and the associated frozen meat industry having its historical origins in New Zealand at nearby Totara, Oamaru flourished. Institutions such as the Athenaeum and Waitaki Boys' and Waitaki Girls' High Schools were established. The locally plentiful limestone lent itself to carving and there were good designers, such as J.M Forrester (1865–1965), and craftsmen. By the time of the 1880s' depression Oamaru had become the 'best built and most heavily mortgaged town in Australasia'.
After this progress was slower but the population continued to grow until the 1970s. With the closure of the port and the New Zealand economy stalled Oamaru was hard hit. In response it started to reinvent itself becoming one of the first New Zealand towns to realise its built heritage was an asset.
A public art gallery, the Forrester, was opened in 1983, making new use of R.A. Lawson's neo-classical Bank of New South Wales building. Other buildings were restored. A trust was formed and work began restoring the historic precinct beside the port, perhaps the most atmospheric urban area in New Zealand. By the early 21st century 'heritage' had become a conspicuous industry.
[edit] Famous people associated with Oamaru
Many of the early works of Janet Frame, who grew up in the town, reflect Oamaru conditions and Oamaruvians. Other literary associations include those with Owen Marshall, Greg McGee and Fiona Farrell Poole. Others who were born and educated in Oamaru include Des Wilson, founder of the UK homelessness charity, Shelter; Australian Prime Minister Chris Watson; New Zealand politicians Arnold Nordmeyer and William Steward; church leader Thomas Cardinal Williams; Malcolm Grant, President and Provost of University College London; and current All Blacks rugby captain Richie McCaw. Fred Allen, an All Black of the 1940s who went on to coach the All Blacks to 14 wins from his 14 Tests in the 1960s, was born in Oamaru, though not educated there.
From the 1920s to the 1940s Frank Milner (1875–1944) turned Waitaki Boys' High School into one of the most admired schools in the country through his old-fashioned values, inspiring leadership and broad outlook. Notable students include Charles Brasch (1909–1973) at Waitaki 1923–6, a poet and patron of artists; Douglas Lilburn (1915–2001), 'the elder statesman of New Zealand music'; James Bertram (1910–1993), writer and academic; and Ian Milner (1911–1991), the Rector's son, a Czech and English scholar who was falsely accused of being a Communist spy. His father, known as 'The Man', died suddenly on 2 December 1944 while speaking at the opening of a stone gateway to Milner Park, Oamaru.
E.A. Gifford (1819–1894) was an artist, a Royal Academician, who lived in Oamaru from 1877 to 1885 and from 1892 until his death. A genre, portrait and landscape painter he established a national reputation. He is remembered for works like his Auckland from the Wharf of 1887, probably the best-known image of 19th-century Auckland.
Emily Gillies, a 19th-century Oamaru artist, was the daughter of C.H. Street, whose mother was the sister of Edward Lear (1812–1888), the famous English watercolourist and writer of humorous verse. Lear's sister had virtually brought her brother up. When he died childless before her she inherited his residuary collection. The internationally significant group of works was transmitted to North Otago where it remained intact until the early 1970s.
The artist Colin McCahon (1919–1987) lived for a year in Oamaru in 1930–31, attending the Middle School. The place and the North Otago landscape made an impression on him. He revisited the area several times as an adult on painting trips. Cartoonist John Kent, who authored the Varoomshka comic strip for The Guardian newspaper in England, was born in Oamaru.
There is a strong community of living artists and many dealer galleries are located in the historic precinct. One of the town's principal living artists is Donna Demente, a portraitist and mask maker. At least partly through her work there is an annual mask festival each July, the "Midwinter Masquerade". Another annual celebration is a Victorian Heritage fete, held every November.
Other noted former Oamaruvians include broadcaster Jim Mora and hockey player Scott Anderson.
[edit] Some points of interest
Many public buildings make use of a form of local limestone, quarried especially near Weston, and known as Oamaru stone. The southern part of Oamaru's main business district is justifiably regarded as one of New Zealand's most impressive streetscapes, due to the many prominent buildings constructed from this material. This and another part of the town close to the harbour have been preserved as historic precincts.
Most of the streets in Oamaru are named after rivers in England, particularly rivers in the northwest and southeast of the country. The main street is Thames Street, and Severn and Tyne Streets are also major roads in the town.
A colony of little blue penguins is on the harbour, while there is a yellow-eyed penguin colony just south of the town, attracting ecotourists. Penguins have been known to live under buildings close to the beach, including the town's music club, The Penguin Club.
Oamaru is the eastern gateway to the Mackenzie Basin, via the Waitaki Valley.
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