Thomas Chalmers was one of the leaders of the Free Church of Scotland, sponsor of the New Edinburgh Scheme, which was responsible for the initial European settlement of Otago in 1848. The pioneer ships, including the Wickliffe and John Laing, landed midway up the harbor. By 1861, the town's population was 130, but with the Otago Gold Rush five years later the population spurted to 2,000. Today, the port employs far fewer people than it did when it had dry docks, but it handles a bit over 100,000 containers annually and regularly sees cruise ships.
The view of the outer harbor from above Port Chalmers.
An air photo from the 1950s in the Settler's Museum in Dunedin. Since the photo was taken, the left-side pier has been demolished, and everything to the right of the pier on the right has been filled. Still, the palmate street pattern hasn't changed. Grey Street comes down the hill on the left, George Street comes straight through town from Dunedin, which is 12 miles away, and the old Presbyterian Church stands on Mount Road.
The filled land is now a container port. The cruise ships may be a surprise, but the Queen Elizabeth 2 docked here in 1992, and fleets of buses now ferry cruise-ship passengers to Dunedin.
Here today, gone tomorrow. Note the log piles at the lower right: another major export.
A closer view of the container terminal; it's operated by Port Otago, Ltd.
The boxes arrive by train.
The trains arrive by tunnel—and have done since 1873.
Off to mills in China.
What do dentists say?
The former Methodists and Congregationalists shut their churches and moved in with the Presbyterians to form the United Church of Port Chalmers.
The conveyor handles wood chips. In recent years, about a half dozen ships have filled up with chips annually.
Grey Street is the long one here. The pie-slice building is the old Municipal Chambers, now the town library. Behind it is the Port Chalmers Hotel. The library looks toward the stone-colored old Post Office and, across Grey Street, to a former branch of the Bank of New Zealand.
George Street as it approaches the docks.
The view the other way.
The old post office is now the town museum. This is where you hit the brakes if you're coming in from Dunedin and don't want to get wet.
Wall-side memorial.
On the left is the Port Chalmers (or Tunnel) Hotel; on the right is the library, designed by P.F.M. Burrows of the Public Works Department.
The dark building has been stripped down over the years but began in 1881 as a pharmacy and stayed that way until 1987. More recently, it's become Arleah's collectibles.
This is the former Royal Hotel from 1880, along with stables from 1867. The hotel's arcade was once open, with iron railings overlooking the street. The hotel became the Portside Tavern in 1977 and, later, Christiane's vintage clothes.
A few fine old houses survive farther up the hills.
Another of the bluestone and limestone buildings so popular in Victorian Dunedin.
An especially interesting stone in the town graveyard.
Wow. An understated obituary mentions his "pluck."
See the text at http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d\&d=ODT18831207.2.46
