Editing Oamaru (section)

== History ==
{{More citations needed section|date=October 2017}}
===Māori settlement===
There are some important archaeological sites around Oamaru. Those at the [[Waitaki River]] mouth and at [[Heavy-footed moa|Awamoa]] both date from the Archaic (moa-hunter) phase of [[Māori culture]], when New Zealand's human population clustered along the south-east coast from about AD 1100. The Waitaki River mouth had at least 1,200 ovens. Awamoa saw the first archaeological excavation in New Zealand when W.B.D. Mantell dug there at Christmas 1847 and in 1852. Smaller Archaic sites exist at Cape Wanbrow and at Beach Road in central Oamaru. The distinctive Archaic art of the Waitaki Valley rock shelters dates from this period — some of it presumably made by the occupants of these sites. The area also features Classic and Protohistoric sites, from after about AD 1500, at Tamahaerewhenua, Tekorotuaheka, Te Punamaru, Papakaio, and [[Kakanui]].<ref>{{Cite book
  |first=Jill  |last=Hamel
  |title=The Archaeology of Otago
  |publisher=Department of Conservation  |location=Wellington
  |year=2001
  |pages=16, 18, 22 & 82
}}</ref>

Māori tradition tells of the ancient people Kahui Tipua building a canoe, ''[[Āraiteuru]]'', which sailed from southern New Zealand to the ancestral [[Polynesia]]n homeland, [[Hawaiki]], to obtain [[sweet potato|kūmara]]. On its return it became waterlogged off the Waitaki River mouth, lost food baskets at [[Moeraki]] beach and ended up 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. Modern academics have suggested this tale is an allegorical explanation of the fact that kūmara will not grow south of [[Banks Peninsula]].

{{wide image|Oamaru Coast.jpg|780px|View of Oamaru and the coast to the north, from above the south end of the town}}

===European contact===
On 20 February 1770 [[James Cook]] in the ''[[HM Bark Endeavour|Endeavour]]'' reached a position very close to the Waitaki mouth and "about 3 Miles [5&nbsp;km] 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 [6–8&nbsp;km] 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."

Māori did live in the area, and [[seal hunting|sealers]] visited the coast in 1814. The [[Sealers' War|Creed manuscript]], discovered in 2003, records:
<blockquote>
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 [13&nbsp;km] 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.
</blockquote>

Pukuheke's party killed and ate these as well. The Pākehā, a party from the ''Matilda'' (Captain Fowler), under the first mate Robert Brown with two other Europeans and five lascars or Indian seamen, made 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 [[pā (Māori)|pā (fortified settlement)]] at [[Kaiapoi]] near modern [[Christchurch]] in 1831, refugees came south and gained permission to settle at Kakaunui (Kakanui), and the territory between Pukeuri and Waianakarua, including the site of urban Oamaru, became their domain.<ref>{{Cite book
  |last1=Anderson |first1=Atholl |author1-link=Atholl Anderson
  |title=The Welcome of Strangers
  |publisher=Otago University Press  |location=Dunedin
  |year=1998
  |pages=90, 107
}}</ref>

===Nineteenth century onwards===
[[File:Oamaru Harbour 1890s SLNSW FL1051485.jpg|thumb|Oamaru from Signal Station, New Zealand, c. 1895]]
[[File:Oamaruhistoric.jpg|thumb|Part of Oamaru's historic district]]
[[Whaling|Whalers]] sometimes visited this part of the coast in the 1830s. The ''Jason'', for example, probably of [[New London, Connecticut|New London]] in the United States, Captain Chester, was reported at "Otago Bluff" south of Kakanui, with {{convert|2500|oilbbl}} of oil, on 1 December 1839.<ref>{{Cite book
  |first=Ian  |last=Church
  |title=Otago's Infant Years
  |publisher=Otago Heritage Books  |location=Dunedin
  |year=2002
  |page=48
}}</ref>

[[Edward Shortland]] visited the area in 1844, coming overland from [[Waikouaiti]]. On 9 January 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.<ref>{{Cite book
  |editor-first=A.H.  |editor-last=McLintock 
  |title=An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand
  |publisher=Government Printer  |location=Wellington
  |year=1966
  |volume=2
  |page=705}}</ref>
[[File:Oamaru Post Office.jpg|thumb|Waitaki District Council building, Thames Street, Oamaru. Formerly the Oamaru Chief Post Office <ref>{{Cite web|title=Search the List {{!}} Oamaru Chief Post Office (Former) {{!}} Heritage New Zealand|url=https://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details/2294|access-date=25 April 2021|website=www.heritage.org.nz|archive-date=28 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210428070910/https://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details/2294|url-status=live}}</ref>]]
More European settlers arrived in the Oamaru area in the 1850s. Hugh Robison built and lived in a sod hut by Oamaru Creek in 1853 while establishing his [[sheep station|sheep run]]. J.T. Thomson surveyed the place as a town in 1859, and the [[Otago Province|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. A boost was given by public works, including harbour development, and an export trade in wool and grain from the 1860s. Following the loss of a number of vessels off the coast, construction of a breakwater designed by engineer John McGregor started in 1871. The building of this breakwater was influential in the development of [[block-setting crane#Moa|new forms of crane]].<ref name="Oamaru" >{{Cite web
  |title=A short background and history of ''Moa''
  |website=Historical Crane Society
  |year=2009
|url=http://historicalcranesociety.org/Moa_at_Oamaru.html}}</ref> 

For many years there was a commercial and fishing harbour under [[Cape Wanbrow]] at Friendly Bay. With the development of pastoralism and the associated frozen-meat industry having its historical origins in New Zealand just south of the town at Totara, Oamaru flourished. Institutions such as the Athenaeum, Chief Post Office and [[Waitaki Boys' High School|Waitaki Boys']] and [[Waitaki Girls' High School]]s sprang up. The locally plentiful limestone ([[Oamaru stone]]) lent itself to carving and good designers, such as John Lemon (1828–1890), Thomas Forrester (1838–1907) and his son J.M. Forrester (1865–1965), and craftsmen utilised it. By the time of the [[Long Depression|depression of the 1880s]] Oamaru was home to an impressive array of buildings and the "best built and most mortgaged town in Australasia".<ref>{{Cite book
  |first=Richard  |last=Greenaway 
  |chapter=Limestone Buildings of Oamaru
  |editor-first=Frances  |editor-last=Porter
  |title=Historic Buildings of New Zealand South Island
  |publisher=Methuen  |location=Auckland
  |year=1983
  |isbn=0-456-03120-0
  |page=143
}}</ref>

A major factor in the near bankruptcy of the town was the construction of the Oamaru Borough Water Race,<ref>[https://collection.culturewaitaki.org.nz/objects/134877/oamaru-borough-water-race-original-contract]</ref>{{clarify|date=June 2019|reason=It seems to have been a useful project, so what led to "near bankruptcy"?}} an [[aqueduct (water supply)|aqueduct]] completed after three years' work in 1880. This major engineering feat replaced the previous poor water supply, (obtained from the local creek running through the town) with abundant pure water (and energy for industrial machinery driven by [[water engine|water motors]]) from the Waitaki river and conducted water in an open channel for almost 50&nbsp;km through hilly farmland from Kurow to the Oamaru reservoir at Ardgowan, until it was decommissioned and abandoned in 1983. Today much of the former infrastructure is still intact and can still be traced.  

The district went "dry" in 1906, and stayed that way until 1960 – the last South Island district to resume alcohol sales.

Development slowed apart from a few years in the 1920s, and in the 1950s, but the population continued to grow until the 1970s. With the closure of the port the local economy began to stall, and New Zealand then went through radical economic restructuring in the mid 1980s – known as "[[Rogernomics]]". North Otago was then hit by two droughts from 1988 to 1989 and again from 1997 to 1999. Oamaru found itself hard hit. In response it started to re-invent itself, becoming one of the first New Zealand towns to realise that its built heritage was an asset.

A public art museum, the [[Forrester Gallery]] (whose first curator in 1882 was Thomas Forrester), opened in 1983 in [[Robert Lawson (architect)|R.A. Lawson]]'s neo-classical [[Westpac|Bank of New South Wales]] building. Restoration of other buildings also took place. The Oamaru Whitestone Civic Trust was formed in 1987 with a vision of redeveloping the original commercial and business district of Oamaru's Harbour and Tyne Streets, and work began on 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 and {{As of|2014|alt=today}}, the number of buildings owned by the Oamaru Whitestone Civic Trust had grown from the original eight to 17.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.historicoamaru.co.nz/aboutus.html|title=History of the Oamaru Whitestone Civic Trust|publisher=Oamaru Whitestone Civic Trust|access-date=3 April 2014|archive-date=7 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407072212/http://www.historicoamaru.co.nz/aboutus.html|url-status=live}}</ref>