Otago

Otago is a region and administrative region in the South Island of New Zealand. With an area of nearly 32,000km² Otago is the second largest region in New Zealand. It extends to the southeast of the South Island from the Pacific coast of arable or pasture land right up the middle of the Southern Alps.

Adjacent administrative regions are in the North Canterbury, West Coast in the northwest and Southland to the southwest.

History

The name of Otago was a small Maori settlement, located on the Otago Peninsula near the Pacific Coast. Before the first missionaries arrived in the 1820s, whale and seal hunters from across Australia came to the coast here to try their luck. Weller’s Rock was the first settlement in 1831 coming from the Weller brothers from Sydney, as a base for whaling on the shores of Otago Harbor near the Maori settlement.

After July 1844, 162 acres of land was purchased from the so-called Otago block. During the early years the settlement was concentrated. The former province extended even across the entire southern part of the island.

On 26th December 1848 the Governor of the colony of New Zealand, Sir George Edward Gray, assigned at the request of the Scottish settlers, the name of Otago Dunedin and in 1852 it officially became the capital of the province.

From 1861 the region of Central Otago and Dunedin experienced a rapid economic recovery. The significant gold discoveries by the Australian Gold Miner Gabriel Read, on 25th May 1861 near the present city of Lawrence, changed from one day to another throughout the region.

It was at the start of the Otago gold rush (1861-1863) that numerous prospectors from California and Australia, and countless people from Europe, North America and China, came with the hope that a gold discovery would give them a better and moved to Otago.

For several decades Otago and Dunedin became the economic, cultural and political center of New Zealand. The first and oldest existing newspaper in the country, the Otago Daily Times was founded at this time by Julius Vogel, who later became Prime Minister of New Zealand.

The first university was founded in 1869 the University of Otago in Dunedin. Dunedin was until shortly before the turn of the century the largest and richest city in the country.
Caused by rivalries split on 25th March 1861 the south western part, now Southland, established its own administration from the Otago province.

10 years later Southland gained its “sovereignty”. In 1876, the then-management system was abandoned and Otago was divided into several districts (see below). Southland has since become an autonomous region.

Subdivisions

Otago is divided into a city and district, four other districts (see Administrative Districts):

Dunedin City
Queenstown-Lakes District with the administration in Queenstown
Central Otago District with the administration in Alexandra
Waitaki District with the administration in Oamaru
Clutha District with the administration in Balclutha

Population

Otago in 2006 numbered approximately 193,803 inhabitants and the gender proportion was 48.9% male and 51.1% women. The proportion of the Maori population was relatively low at about 6.6% against the national average at 14.6%. The average annual income per capita stood at NZ $ 21,600 which was only slightly below the average income of the whole country (NZ $ 24,400).

Economy

Its main industries are distributed quite differently in Otago. Where present in Dunedin, the education sector, management and tourism are the main sources of income. In Otago, sheep farming, forestry, agriculture and viticulture, are the dominant economic sectors.

The exceptions are Queenstown (New Zealand), with the biggest summer and winter recreation and tourism and the small settlement of Macraes Flat, home to the Macraes Gold Mine, the largest and most successful gold mining district in New Zealand.

The Oceana Gold Corporation, specializes in the mining of gold and copper and in addition to the Macraes gold mine or gold mine in the Reefton and the gold and copper mine Didipio in Kasibu in the Philippines, has become one of the major employers in the region.

Coal mining took place in Otago from 1840 until the closure of the largest mine in 1970 in Kaitangata. Today, coal is promoted in the region only to the order of 50,000 tonnes for local consumption.