Invercargill. A run down Art Deco commercial building in Dee Street. Built around 1920. Radiating rays above windows, geoemtric shapes etc.
Invercargill and the province of Southland.
A puzzled question is why does a city of 50,000 people exist on the southernmost tip of NZ which has the bleakest climate? Invercargill is the coolest, most bleak and cloudiest city in NZ. It averages just 1,600 hours of sunshine a year compared with 1,500 for London, 2,050 in Christchurch, 2,800 in Adelaide and 3,200 in Perth WA. It has around 200 mm of rain every month of the year and it is a very windy city. It is in fact one of the largest southern cities in the world only surpassed by Ushuaia and Punta Arenas in Argentina and Chile respectively. But because of its latitude it has long summer days. Even in mid-October when we visit the length of day will be around 13.5 hours with the sun setting around 8:20 pm. In high summer twilight ends around 10:30 pm with a 16 hour long day like in Scotland. At this time of the year one can often see the Aurora Australis or Southern Lights an atmospheric phenomena of subarctic regions. Like Dunedin Invercargill was settled by the Scots. Many of its streets and families have Scottish names. It developed as an offshoot of Scottish Otago. The Surveyor General of Otago selected the site for a new town in 1856 and laid out the streets in a grid pattern on this very flat city. The first land was sold in 1858 and by 1861 Invercargill was a very small but flourishing town. Why? Because it had three main riches, apart from some gold found in the hinterland in 1860: it had the largest most fertile plains of NZ; it had a coastline rich with oysters, lobsters, cod fish and abalone( paua); and it had heavily forested mountains with hardwoods which were in great demand throughout the world- rimu, totara, silver beech etc. These basic factors meant that the province of Southland when it separated from Otago in 1861 had a bright future. The land, rainfall, soils and seas would provide for the people as it had done for the Maoris before the whites arrived. Southland consequently has had a rich and varied agricultural past ranging from sheep pastoralism, grain growing especially oats for porridge and barley for illicit whisky making (how could the Scots survive in this cold climate without whisky?) ,linen flax growing and milling, dairying and milk processing, fish and seafood canning, timber cutting and timber mills, and meat freezing and butchering works. These rural industries necessitated railways and like Dunedin Invercargill become a major rail head with lines going north to Lumsden, Kingston and Queenstown in the Alps, across to Gore, and west towards Fjordland and the richly forested valleys adjacent to it. Timber in particular needed the railways. Invercargill established railway workshops and the manufacturing steam engines for the railways of NZ. Its first railway line was built in 1867 to the Bluff, the port for Southland. It was connected to Christchurch by 1878.
In the 20th century Southland has developed hydroelectricity which in turn has attracted industry to the region. Possums introduced from across the Tasman in 1858 have become a major pest but they have also spawned a new industry- possum textiles and woollens; red deer were introduced from Europe in 1901 to Fjordland and now with the advent of helicopters and helicopter farming they are “farmed” for venison and processed near Invercargill. The story of Southland and Invercargill is one generally of success and success based on the climate and the resources of the land. For example, dairying has been strong since the early 1880s and continues today with Fonterra Milk processing mainly for export to Asia; linen flax milling continued until 1956; flourmills have processed wheat and the oat mill in Gore produced porridge oats; and Chewings Fescue was found to thrive in Southland and has become a major industry producing lawns for houses around NZ. Southland introduced prohibition in 1905 which lasted until 1945 and the illegal moonshine or whisky making in the hills east of Invercargill near Gore continued whilst that was in place. But the really big success has been hydroelectricity which began with Lake Monowai Power station in 1925. It still powers Invercargill and feeds into the national power grid. More recently the enormous Manapouri Power Station 200 metres below the water level of Lake Manapouri near Te Anau in Fjordland was completed in 1971 after work commenced in 1964. It is the largest hydroelectric station in NZ and the second largest power station in NZ. It was developed for Comalco to erect an aluminium smelter and refinery at the Bluff near Invercargill which is now run by Rio Tinto and employs nearly 3,000 people from Invercargill but its financial viability is shaky and the plant has been threatened with closure. Another major industry of Invercargill is fertiliser production.
•Invercargill is a Scottish settlement. 40% of Invercargill’s suburbs and nearby towns have Scottish names and the first Presbyterian Church was the leading church of the province. The current church replaced an earlier 1863 church in 1915 when it was completed. It is built of brick with a domed roof, a 100 foot high tower and it is in the Italian Romanesque style. It is on the highway from Dunedin at 151 Tay St. Next on the right is St Johns Anglican Church( 108 Tay St) in red brick built in 1887; almost next door is the impressive Town Hall and Theatre ( 88 Tay St) built 1906 in classical style; next is the YMCA building of 1910 at 77 Tay St; at the roundabout (the location of the Boer War Memorial) at the end of the street is the old Bank of NSW built in 1904 on the right whilst on the left is the former Cornerstone Bank of NZ building from 1879 ; as you turn right into Dee St. you will see a plethora of brightly painted heritage buildings all in good repair – partly because the city’s young mayor from Auckland some years ago supported and encouraged this to revitalise the city. At 136 Dee St is the Blackman building with the large black swan on the roof line and further along (178 Dee St.) is the Gothic St Pauls Presbyterian Church built in 1876 and added to in 1881. In Victoria Ave is the former but now closed Information Centre and Southland Museum. Here also is Queens Park with its rhododendron dell rock garden, magnificent trees etc. Nearby is the City water Tower (a flat city needed a tower for water pressure) built in 1888 with 300,000 red, yellow and black bricks. 101 Doon St.
Other heritage buildings include:
Invercargill. A run down Art Deco commercial building in Dee Street. Built around 1920. Radiating rays above windows, geoemtric shapes etc.
Invercargill and the province of Southland.
A puzzled question is why does a city of 50,000 people exist on the southernmost tip of NZ which has the bleakest climate? Invercargill is the coolest, most bleak and cloudiest city in NZ. It averages just 1,600 hours of sunshine a year compared with 1,500 for London, 2,050 in Christchurch, 2,800 in Adelaide and 3,200 in Perth WA. It has around 200 mm of rain every month of the year and it is a very windy city. It is in fact one of the largest southern cities in the world only surpassed by Ushuaia and Punta Arenas in Argentina and Chile respectively. But because of its latitude it has long summer days. Even in mid-October when we visit the length of day will be around 13.5 hours with the sun setting around 8:20 pm. In high summer twilight ends around 10:30 pm with a 16 hour long day like in Scotland. At this time of the year one can often see the Aurora Australis or Southern Lights an atmospheric phenomena of subarctic regions. Like Dunedin Invercargill was settled by the Scots. Many of its streets and families have Scottish names. It developed as an offshoot of Scottish Otago. The Surveyor General of Otago selected the site for a new town in 1856 and laid out the streets in a grid pattern on this very flat city. The first land was sold in 1858 and by 1861 Invercargill was a very small but flourishing town. Why? Because it had three main riches, apart from some gold found in the hinterland in 1860: it had the largest most fertile plains of NZ; it had a coastline rich with oysters, lobsters, cod fish and abalone( paua); and it had heavily forested mountains with hardwoods which were in great demand throughout the world- rimu, totara, silver beech etc. These basic factors meant that the province of Southland when it separated from Otago in 1861 had a bright future. The land, rainfall, soils and seas would provide for the people as it had done for the Maoris before the whites arrived. Southland consequently has had a rich and varied agricultural past ranging from sheep pastoralism, grain growing especially oats for porridge and barley for illicit whisky making (how could the Scots survive in this cold climate without whisky?) ,linen flax growing and milling, dairying and milk processing, fish and seafood canning, timber cutting and timber mills, and meat freezing and butchering works. These rural industries necessitated railways and like Dunedin Invercargill become a major rail head with lines going north to Lumsden, Kingston and Queenstown in the Alps, across to Gore, and west towards Fjordland and the richly forested valleys adjacent to it. Timber in particular needed the railways. Invercargill established railway workshops and the manufacturing steam engines for the railways of NZ. Its first railway line was built in 1867 to the Bluff, the port for Southland. It was connected to Christchurch by 1878.
In the 20th century Southland has developed hydroelectricity which in turn has attracted industry to the region. Possums introduced from across the Tasman in 1858 have become a major pest but they have also spawned a new industry- possum textiles and woollens; red deer were introduced from Europe in 1901 to Fjordland and now with the advent of helicopters and helicopter farming they are “farmed” for venison and processed near Invercargill. The story of Southland and Invercargill is one generally of success and success based on the climate and the resources of the land. For example, dairying has been strong since the early 1880s and continues today with Fonterra Milk processing mainly for export to Asia; linen flax milling continued until 1956; flourmills have processed wheat and the oat mill in Gore produced porridge oats; and Chewings Fescue was found to thrive in Southland and has become a major industry producing lawns for houses around NZ. Southland introduced prohibition in 1905 which lasted until 1945 and the illegal moonshine or whisky making in the hills east of Invercargill near Gore continued whilst that was in place. But the really big success has been hydroelectricity which began with Lake Monowai Power station in 1925. It still powers Invercargill and feeds into the national power grid. More recently the enormous Manapouri Power Station 200 metres below the water level of Lake Manapouri near Te Anau in Fjordland was completed in 1971 after work commenced in 1964. It is the largest hydroelectric station in NZ and the second largest power station in NZ. It was developed for Comalco to erect an aluminium smelter and refinery at the Bluff near Invercargill which is now run by Rio Tinto and employs nearly 3,000 people from Invercargill but its financial viability is shaky and the plant has been threatened with closure. Another major industry of Invercargill is fertiliser production.
•Invercargill is a Scottish settlement. 40% of Invercargill’s suburbs and nearby towns have Scottish names and the first Presbyterian Church was the leading church of the province. The current church replaced an earlier 1863 church in 1915 when it was completed. It is built of brick with a domed roof, a 100 foot high tower and it is in the Italian Romanesque style. It is on the highway from Dunedin at 151 Tay St. Next on the right is St Johns Anglican Church( 108 Tay St) in red brick built in 1887; almost next door is the impressive Town Hall and Theatre ( 88 Tay St) built 1906 in classical style; next is the YMCA building of 1910 at 77 Tay St; at the roundabout (the location of the Boer War Memorial) at the end of the street is the old Bank of NSW built in 1904 on the right whilst on the left is the former Cornerstone Bank of NZ building from 1879 ; as you turn right into Dee St. you will see a plethora of brightly painted heritage buildings all in good repair – partly because the city’s young mayor from Auckland some years ago supported and encouraged this to revitalise the city. At 136 Dee St is the Blackman building with the large black swan on the roof line and further along (178 Dee St.) is the Gothic St Pauls Presbyterian Church built in 1876 and added to in 1881. In Victoria Ave is the former but now closed Information Centre and Southland Museum. Here also is Queens Park with its rhododendron dell rock garden, magnificent trees etc. Nearby is the City water Tower (a flat city needed a tower for water pressure) built in 1888 with 300,000 red, yellow and black bricks. 101 Doon St.
Other heritage buildings include: