Early history
Both iwi history and archaeological evidence show Māori settlement in the Otago region over an extended period, with the communities utilising a wide variety of natural resources from the diverse environment. Archaeological evidence supports the date of earliest settlement around the 12th century.
Today, Kāi Tahu mana whenua is recognised over a large part of Te Wai Pounamu. Kāti Māmoe and Waitaha whakapapa and shared settlement are always acknowledged. Tūpuna such as Waitai, Tukiauau, Whaka-taka-newha, Rakiiamoa, Tarewai, Maru, Te Aparangi, Taoka, Moki II, Kapo, Te Wera, Tu Wiri Roa, Taikawa, and Te Hautapanuiotu are among Kāti Māmoe and Kāi Tahu tūpuna whose feats and memories are embedded in the landscape, bays, tides and whakapapa of Ōtākou Otago. The hapū Kai Te Pahi, Kāti Moki, and Kāti Taoka still maintain their presence and responsibility as kaitiaki in this region.
Historically, Kāi Tahu used the tauraka waka at Ōtepoti (Dunedin city) when they visited the head of the Ōtākou harbour as either the gateway to the route to Kaikārae (Green Island) or when off on other mahinga kai expeditions. The soft slope of the foreshore and the tidal flats in the upper harbour where the small stream, Toitū, entered the sea was bisected by a prominent hill Ngā-moana-e-rua (called Bell Hill by colonists), the foot of which lay at the very edge of the high water mark. No permanent kaik or villages were situated at the mouth of the Toitū, simply because there was no need for it.
While not as densely populated as the North Island, numerous kaik in the Ōtākou region still hosted a good number of Waitaha, Kāti Mamoe and later Kāi Tahu peoples. Various bays and beaches around the Taiaroa Heads supported several hundred people with kaik in Karitāne, Waikouaiti and at the mouth of the Mata-au or Clutha hosting a similar number. Pā kāinga on the Ōtākou coast included Māpoutahi (Pūrākaunui), Pukekura (Taiaroa Head), Kōpūtai, Huriawa and Moturata (Taieri Island). Whareakeake, one of several pounamu working sites, attested to another facet of lifestyle for the artisans of the iwi.
While the population numbers are still debated by academics and historians, there is no argument that through epidemics and intertribal warfare, the numbers of Kāi Tahu living in the region had dwindled considerably by the time the Treaty of Waitangi was signed at Ōtakou (Otago Heads) on 13 June 1840.
Early European settlement
The first organised settlement of Dunedin was arranged between the Lay Association of the Free Church of Scotland and the New Zealand Company which bought land from Kāi Tahu in 1844. The land was surveyed by Charles Kettle and his assistants in 1846, and in 1848 the first two ships of settlers arrived on the John Wickliffe and the Philip Laing. That same year, the Rev. Burns undertook a census and recorded 444 Europeans and 166 Māori residing in the area. Aside from the survey, little development of the city was complete and new settlers were required to construct their own dwellings. The majority of the early settlement was south of Bell Hill (known as Church Hill at the time of settlement) around the current Exchange. The swampy area north of Bell Hill was largely unoccupied. In wet weather roads turned to quagmires, and Dunedin was known locally as "Mud-edin". Complaints were voiced about, "the swamp (with its ‘thick green slime’) on the northern flat” which came in for a considerable amount of attention. One early settler recounted later that as a child she had become lost among the flax bushes somewhere between St Andrew and Hanover Streets. The track way that cut across the Wall Street site was a response to the muddy conditions.
The use of the corduroy technique
Petchey notes that while the Dunedin Corduroy Causeway is a uniquely significant archaeological find in New Zealand, it is not uncommon in the international context. The use of logs to form corduroy tracks and roads have a long history internationally; the technology dates to European prehistoric times with the earliest known corduroy track found in Germany, dating to 4780 BC. Construction of a corduroy road was a relatively simple process, and made use of readily available local materials in order to provide a stable surface to cover an uneven or boggy terrain. In New Zealand, the practice continues to be utilised in the forestry sector; NZ Forestry defines a corduroy road as, “a structured load-bearing surface where logs are laid horizontally and parallel, with no void areas. Corduroy roads are an engineered road construction technique used in places where the substrate is very weak, and where the load must be spread if the road is to be trafficable…”.
Early writers in New Zealand often refer to ‘corduroy’ being an American term and have described the conditions where such a road was either encountered in swampy areas, or where the environment necessitated such a construction. The importance of creating such roads is described by G. Hamilton-Browne, “All this work fell very heavy on us, as the regulars were of but little use in the bush, either as axemen or coverers, but we should have made light of that had it not been for the rain, that not only drenched us but turned the soft loamy bush soil into liquid mud, in which we sank nearly to the knee, and forced us to corduroy the path so as to enable the wretched pack-horses to get any footing, while men, horses, packs, arms and everything soon became plastered and caked with mud.”
Corduroy tracks have been identified in New Zealand in a variety of different locations including in pastoral leases, and in areas exploited for both gold and coal mining. Records suggest the construction of a meter length of road could be achieved by hand in approximately one hour. However an excellent description of the use of trees by Thomas Florence, an experienced woodsman, details the difficulty of creating causeways in New Zealand swamps which have few trees. He opined that trees that were accessible were not suitable for splitting, and because they do not grow straight, are difficult to lay in course. This is evident from the timbers recorded in the Dunedin Corduroy Causeway where less desirable resources were used to create a road over which to transport more suitable construction timbers like tōtara.
Description of the Dunedin Corduroy Causeway
The corduroy causeway was found in June 2008 during what was expected to be the last on-site archaeological work in one of the last areas of the Deka/Wall Street Mall site to be developed. The causeway was discovered 1.3m below the level of George Street in the approximate middle of the town block bounded by George, Filleul, Hanover, and St. Andrews streets (section 42 Block XX Dunedin). It was built across a boggy depression at the foot of the original hillside and ran in a northwest–southeast direction at an angle to the formal road and cadastral land boundaries. The exposed length extended for 11m and was approximately 4 m wide. The causeway ran into unexcavated ground at both ends and so was originally somewhat longer.
The causeway is constructed from a variety of timbers cut from the local bush with longitudinal runners with shorter timbers laid on top. The lowest section of the causeway, at the north-western end, was constructed in deep mud, and had three layers of timbers: several large cross-members, three longitudinal runners, and then the corduroy timbers on top. Timber sizes ranged from 150 mm in diameter for some of the largest base members, down to branches and brushwood along the corduroy. All the timbers were axe-cut, and no nails or other fastenings were used. Some of the runners had notches cut into their top surface to hold the corduroy timbers. Timber identifications were carried out by Dr Rod Wallace (University of Auckland). The most common timber excavated was kānuka (Kunzea ericoides), followed by māpau (Myrsine australis), with tangaru, kōhūhū , putaputawētā (Carpodetus serratus), māhoe (Melicytus ramiflorus) and rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum) also present. These species were all part of the forest that the first European settlers to Dunedin found covering the lower hillslopes. The sizes of the timbers ranged from 150mm down to small twigs. Beneath and between some of the logs were harakeke or flax (Phormium tenax) leaves, indicating that the causeway had been laid across flax-covered ground. A 100mm thick layer of fine, silty clay was deposited over the timbers which probably happened soon after its construction.
No artefactual material or evidence of other cultural activity was found beneath the causeway indicating its construction is likely to date to early in the period of European settlement. Overlying these layers was rubble fill. Only a few items date back to the first decade of settlement when that part of the North Dunedin flat remained a swampy morass that the pioneers travelled over with difficulty.
History of the site
Following the gold rush in 1861 Central Dunedin developed rapidly from a muddy wasteland to a bustling commercial and industrial centre with the incremental development of the city infrastructure. People lived amongst the shops and workshops, creating a vibrant if hidden community life in behind the retail frontage of George Street.
The 1857 Dunedin Town Rates Book index records John Curle and David Hutchison as owners and occupiers of Block XX Sec 42 during 1857 and 1858 on which there was a dwelling house and a garden. Curle owned a lot of property in the area and is first mentioned as a tin plate worker. In 1859, Block XX section 42 was owned by George Mathew. There follows a gap in records until 1875, a busy period for the city which expanded rapidly during the gold rush which began in 1861, when Block XX section 42 is recorded as being owned by A. Fulton who had a factory, timber yard, premises and a house, indicating a mix of uses of the area ranging from residential to commercial. A photo from 1879 confirms the timber yard and dwelling. J. Wilke’s lithograph of Dunedin in 1898 shows the open area and structures suggested both in the earlier photo and in DP 1763 in 1905. In 1888 and 1892 section 42 was still an open yard but was owned by A. Cornwall, a butcher. These layers of overfill relate to the changing use of the area over time: an open garden or yard in the 1860s–1870s, a two-story stable by 1888, and then the 1967 site development. Most of the artefacts recovered from the Wall Street site date from the 1860s and 1870s when this area of George Street was first developed with shops, workshops and cottages. The pre 1880 archaeological evidence presents a great deal of glassware, black alcohol bottles (beer and whisky) being the predominant type in the assemblage, along with pickle and condiment bottles.
In 1927 the yard is still evident but now utilised by tradesmen (plumber, painters and a builder). In 1967 Woolworths was built and section 42 became a sealed carpark. It remained so until the excavation and development of the Wall Street Mall in 2008.
