The Exchange near Water Street

Generally speaking, whenever you travel somewhere you’ll have given some thought to what you’ll do when you get there. Where you’ll stay, how you’ll get around, what you want to see and do, who you want to visit and some idea as to why you’re there! Now, imagine travelling to a place and having to build your accommodation before you can stay in it. Well, that’s exactly what the first pilgrims to Dunedin did upon arrival. 

If you stand on Water Street in Dunedin’s Exchange, you’ll find a memorial plate that marks the spot where the first European settlers from the ship John Wickcliffe came ashore on the 24th March, 1848. Upon landing following a 3 month voyage, they stepped ashore to find themselves surrounded with rough, uneven ground, intersected by a small stream with bush clad hills rising steeply immediately in front of them. To the right were mud flats and wide marshy ground with Mount Cargill looming high above. To the left, more swamps, marsh land and lagoons separated by a line of sand dunes that connected to the Peninsula. Before them, apart from a few survey lines cut through the bush and scrub the land was all but untouched. This was their new home.