Journey to New Edinburgh Documentary Episodes 7 and 8

175 years ago, on March 23 1848, the immigrant ship John Wickliffe arrived at Koputai Port Chalmers carrying 97 settlers from England and Scotland looking to make a new life in what we now know as Ōtepoti Dunedin.

The seventh and eighth episodes, the final in the Journey to New Edinburgh series, examine how Scottish Presbyterian Otago offered scant welcome for Irish Catholics. But somehow, they arrived anyway, gradually expanding in numbers and offering a new ‘green’ tinge to the southern population even before the gold rushes. Profits from sheep and gold boosted provincial prosperity in the 1860s, and the dream of an exclusively Free Church colony in Otago was finally laid to rest. Otago and Southland would remain nonetheless New Zealand’s historic Scottish heartland.

Developed by Toitū Otago Settlers Museum with support from the Otago Settlers Association, this documentary series traces the footsteps of Otago’s early European pioneers from its genesis in Scotland through to the challenging realities the settlers faced when they arrived.

10.30am and 1.30pm, Saturday 24 – Sunday 25 June
Toitū Auditorium
Free
(Run time: 40 minutes)