The first Europeans to set foot on the South Island’s southern coast were sealers in the late 1700s. Others intent on harvesting flax came in the early 1800s and whalers began arriving from 1829. Sailors, traders, and entrepreneurs followed.

Maori had arrived over 600 years earlier. Bountiful fish and birds attracted seafaring Maori to Bluff. They became exceptional crafters of stone tools, supplying them to Maori throughout the country. Other smaller settlements were based on the rivers. Maori quickly became involved in the growing economy. Amongst other things, they were instrumental in the flax trade, whaling and supplying ships with food. Each Maori settlement had its own name and much of the region we now call Southland, is referred to by Maori as Murihiku. According to legend, Murihiku is the last joint in the tail of the fish that is the South Island.

The idea that there should be a cohesive city called Invercargill, was a European concept. It started to take shape when people from the Scottish settlement of Dunedin began buying land for sheep runs in the far south. The farmers needed to import stock from Australia. So in 1856 they presented a petition to Thomas Gore Browne, the Governor of New Zealand, for a port at Bluff. The Governor consented and at the same time suggested a corresponding township be called Invercargill. He wanted to pay tribute to William Cargill, a high profile Scottish pioneer involved in the administration and settlement of the Otago/Southland region.

The name stuck, and soon after, chief surveyor John Turnbull Thomson declared the site. His careful planning of reserves and wide streets (many named after rivers of Scotland and northern England) remains characteristic of Invercargill.

Also reminiscent of Invercargill’s past, is the distinctive architecture of churches and buildings, still intact. They include Victorian, Edwardian, Art Deco and others.

From its inception, Invercargill was a service centre to what became a flourishing farming community. With grit, determination and a strong sense of southern identity, Invercargill emerged out of isolated bush and swamp to prosperity.