OTAGO REGION

The Otago region is a block of country approximately 100 miles by 100 miles. It lies in the south-east section of the South Island roughly bounded in the north by the line of the Waitaki River and the line of the Clutha River in the south, its western boundary being formed by the ranges of the Southern Alps. The limits of the region correspond with those of the following counties: Waitaki, Waihemo, Waikouaiti, Peninsula, Taieri, Bruce, Clutha, Tuapeka, Vincent, and Maniototo. These counties, together with their interior boroughs and cities, constitute the principal basis for the collection of statistics. Dunedin (Urban Area population, 1961, 105,003) is the principal city of the region. An account of the city is given elsewhere, but in order to present a full statistical treatment the figures for Waikouaiti, Peninsula, and Taieri counties, with their interior boroughs and cities, have been combined and are presented under the heading of the Dunedin region. In 1961 the population of the Otago region totalled 172,594 (7·14 per cent of the national total) of which 0·47 per cent were registered as Maoris.

A Unique and Fascinating Landscape

From the air, as Charles Cotton has put it, the central part of Otago appears as “a very roughly laid mosaic of enormous blocks with more or less rectilinear boundaries”. The “grand simplicity” of first impressions prove inexact upon detailed examination, but the unforgettable landscapes of Otago are truly composed of severe lines and blocks and planes; their stark geometry uninterrupted across extensive treeless plains and apparently limitless plateau. But whilst towards evening this landscape is chiaroscuro, in the full light of a clear winter's morning the colours are those of a Paul Nash landscape. Only a resort to hyperbole can convey the brilliance of the colours and the exact delineation of the forms. The autumn is especially beautiful. Climate, structure, vegetation, and man combine to produce this unique landscape. An extensive surface, from which most of the cover has been stripped to reveal the schist and old greywacke undermass, has been left as peneplain extending through eastern Otago from the Shag River to the Clutha. It is conspicuous on the journey from Middlemarch to Dunedin. In Central Otago the surface has been broken and uplifted to produce flat-topped block mountains, or ranges, with intervening basins. From the east to the west a succession of these landforms occur, commencing with the basis of the upper Taieri Plains (altitude, 1,200 ft), overlooked by the Rock and Pillar Range (summit, 4,755 ft), and followed by the Maniototo Plain (altitude, 1,500 ft), the Rough Ridge (summit, 3,859 ft), the Ida Valley (altitude, 1,500 ft), the Raggedy Blackstone Range (summit, 3,200 ft), the Manuherikia depression (altitude, 1,000 ft), the Dunstan Mountains (5,421 ft), and the valley of the Upper Clutha, which is dominated by the Pisa Range (summit, 6,327 ft). Immediately to the west a different set of erosional forces has produced the glaciated lake country, which attains its magnificence around the shores of Lake Wakatipu.

Climatic Factors

The Southern Alps create a general rain-shadow effect over Central Otago so that the area has the driest and most striking of all climates in New Zealand. The rainfall is usually under 20 in. and Alexandra records an average annual rainfall of 13·2 in., and only 100 days of rain. The sunshine hours are correspondingly high. A considerable portion of the rainfall is, however, in the warmer months, reducing its effectiveness and accentuating the dryness of the area. As is usual in dry climates, the rainfall regime is highly variable from year to year. Extremes of temperature, especially diurnal, are associated with radiation frosts and the drainage of cold air at night followed by clear, sunny days. Ophir has the lowest recorded temperature for New Zealand, –3°F. Alexandra records a mean daily maximum of 73·6F in January and 44·7F in July, and a mean daily minimum of 51·16F in January and 27·9F in July.

It is the tussock grasslands which gives much of Central Otago its superb tawny colour, set off by the glowing autumnal colours of the deciduous trees and by the green of irrigated pastures. The dry climate is the essential factor in accounting for the tussock vegetation of the most central parts, but there is strong evidence to suggest that the tussock grasslands, through the use of fire, had been extended well beyond their original limits even before the arrival of the European pastoralists. Their constant burnings severely disrupted the tussock ecology, leading to a deterioration of pasture and the acceleration of soil erosion so that in the worst-treated areas semi-desert conditions were produced.

Pastoral Development

The pastoral economy was established upon a system of farming that was frankly exploitative and destructive of the environment. The insubstantial basis of Otago's pastoral industries was hidden, however, during the early period of settlement by the excitement of the gold-mining era, the bulk of the diggings being concentrated in Central Otago itself. The provincial population expanded rapidly, with the result that by 1881 the province, excluding the Southland portion, held a fifth of the national total, the highest proportion ever obtained. And by the census of 1878, with 22,525 residents, Dunedin was the largest city of the Dominion. The gold-rush period raised the population of the central districts from a few thousand in 1860 to 20 thousand or more by 1863, and it was responsible for the initial establishment of the principal settlements, Lawrence, Clyde, Cromwell, Roxburgh, Alexandra, Arrowtown, and Queenstown, whose subsequent importance has never been as great. Above all, the gold period provided the dynamic factor necessary for growth. It would be hard to say precisely when the impetus created during this period finally spent itself. Between 1861 and 1871 the provincial population doubled and it nearly doubled again during the next decade, but thereafter the rate of growth was very slow. By the turn of the century the population was already equivalent to three-quarters of the present population. Furthermore, economic growth was concentrated in the eastern and coastal parts of Otago, principally in the Dunedin region, which by 1911 alone accounted for 70 per cent of the regional population.

Some concept of the destruction wrought by burning and overgrazing and by rabbits, whose destructive powers came into effect on the already depleted vegetation, can be obtained from a study of the Alexandra soil series, their distribution coinciding roughly with the extent of Central Otago. Found, especially, near Cromwell and Alexandra and in the eastern parts of the Mackenzie Country, they are developed on the lower mountain slopes and valley floors and in the 1940s were all classed as severely eroded, with the exception of the irrigated areas. The series covered a total area of 454,600 acres, of which 53 per cent had suffered extreme erosion and 25 per cent severe erosion. Nevertheless, in the post-war period, the sheep population of Tuapeka, Vincent, and Manio-toto counties has continued to increase at rates between 30 and 40 per cent, but this increase has been sustained differentially, the favoured parts, employing new techniques and practices, carrying the burden of growth. As a result of this increase in sheep population, the Otago wool returns for the 1963–64 season amounted to a record of £14,356,002. Dunedin has thus maintained its position as the largest South Island wool-selling centre (189,625 bales) and is the third largest in New Zealand.

The low grades of the interior basins favour an intensive livestock economy. The old turf is easily broken up and replaced with improved pastures that include clover to build up the nitrogen content of the soil. The soils have shown themselves deficient in sulphur, phosphate, and molybdenum, so that increased topdressing and liming is necessary. Perhaps the recognition of lucerne as the vital factor in providing winter fodder has been singularly the most important development. The results are impressive; a Department of Agriculture survey in 1955 revealed for the southern Maniototo area the owner surplus to be 72s. per acre on farms with a fifth of their acreage under lucerne, compared with 16s. per acre for farms with little lucerne. The acreages of the farms included in the survey range from 1,000 to 1,500 acres.

In the eastern Mackenzie Country (strictly a part of Canterbury) a property has increased its ewe flock ninefold in 11 years. In 1950 only 240 half-bred ewes were supported; the pastures were all tussock and rabbit infestation was acute. By 1956 the reduction of the rabbit menace had enabled the property to carry 600 ewes. The establishment of new pastures incorporating lucerne, together with topdressing and subdivision, has, in 1961, raised the capacity to 1,800 ewes. While these methods have increased the carrying capacity of the lower areas, the pressure upon the higher and heavily depleted tussock pastures has been reduced. In the Maniototo area at least, on the eastern slopes of Rough Ridge, aerial oversowing of grasses, spelling, and rabbit control have produced a slight improvement in the state of the tussock pastures.

Irrigation

A long-established trend towards intensified pastoralism has been associated with irrigation. Since 1917 water has been supplied to the eastern and western fringes of Ida Valley and it has been applied by a system of wild flooding. In contrast to most other parts of the district, the stock consists of Romney-cross ewes pastured for the production of fat lambs and wool. Owner surplus averaged 85s. per acre – the farms falling into 250–500 acre or the 500–1,000 acre range – and the surplus tended to rise as the proportion of the land irrigated increased.

The most intensive use of irrigation has been made, despite long hauls to market, in the fruitgrowing localities along the Clutha at Clyde, Alexandra, and Coal Creek, Roxburgh. By 1894 an estimated 119 acres were under orchards. The area increased rapidly during a period of speculation previous to the First World War and, at the present time, 1,568 acres of orchard are recorded for Vincent County and 1,423 acres in Tuapeka County. Stone fruit (apricots, nectarines, and cherries) is the principal product with 92 per cent of the Dominion's apricot output accounted for. Apples, peaches, and plums are also grown, the produce being freighted by rail or by air.

North Otago

On account of the beauty of its landscape and the vitality of the gold-rush period, together with a disturbing history of land use, it is difficult to resist concentrating the attention upon Central Otago. But these attractions ought never to obscure the fact that for many decades the population and the wealth of Otago have been concentrated in the eastern coastal parts. A highly productive zone of mixed farming similar to that pursued in the Canterbury Plains surrounds Oamaru. The population of the town increased by 53·08 per cent in the period 1951–61, but, as the figures for the Oamaru Employment District suggest, the growth was more influenced by the expansion of tertiary services consequent upon the growth of farming incomes rather than by industrial expansion, and it was also affected in the building and construction sector by the development of the hydro-electric resources of the Waitaki River. The labour force increased by 28·35 per cent in the period 1953–61 and the labour force engaged in manufacturing by 15·38 per cent.

South of Waitaki County and north of the Dunedin region the land is hilly with lowland restricted to the area surrounding Palmerston (population, 1961, 868) and to a few valley bottoms. The area is not highly productive, and its rates of growth for sheep and lambs shorn in the past decade have been below the regional average, whilst its population figures have shown a continuous decline during the past 50 years.

South Otago

The Taieri-Tokomairiro Plains south of Dunedin are an area of fertile sheep, fat-lamb, and dairy farms, but the richest farming districts are included within Bruce and Clutha counties and are associated with the lower course of the Clutha and the South Otago downlands that stretch between Balclutha, Clinton, and Waikoikoi. A system of mixed farming prevails, the bulk of the income being derived from livestock, fat lamb, and wool, and small seeds and crops. Both in Bruce and in Clutha counties the number of sheep shorn has increased by over 60 per cent – 69·51 per cent in the case of Clutha – and the increase in lambs shorn has been extraordinarily rapid, though the numbers involved are relatively small. Of the million and a half increase in sheep numbers, Bruce and Clutha counties alone have sustained approximately 40 per cent of the increase, and the greatest potential for pastoral development is located in these districts.

The greater part of eastern Otago has a higher rainfall. Dunedin has a mean annual rainfall of 31 in. and in the Balclutha district the rainfall increases markedly in the south-eastern areas, rising to over 50 in. in the Catlins. This area of steep and isolated hill country was originally bush covered, in contrast to the lowland tussock country of the downlands and the highland tussock country of the Kaihiku Ranges south-east of Clinton. The highland tussock areas were farmed from the earliest period of settlement (the Catlins not until after 1894) and they are at present worked in large grazing runs averaging about 5,000 acres. With heavy machinery tussock pastures are resown and respond to liming and other fertilisers; but pastoral development in the Catlins is hampered by isolation, high costs, and reversion of pasture to second growth. It is one of the few parts of the South Island that are reminiscent of the wetter North Island hill country. Deep-green swards in the valley bottoms are surrounded by heavily reverted pastures on the steeper slopes through which the stumps of half-burnt trees occasionally protrude. The summits of the hills are covered with second-growth forest and, in the more isolated parts, virgin bush still stands, some of which is still being milled.

Statistics of the Otago Region

Recent Trends

Dunedin City and its adjacent boroughs are treated elsewhere. In 1961 the Dunedin Urban Area contained approximately 60 per cent of Otago's total population, and it is the pre-eminent centre for trade and manufacturing in the region. Of all the urban areas it has had the lowest intercensal rate of increase in the post-war period and, not surprisingly, the growth of the labour force in manufacturing (1·33 per cent) and of the total force (5·89 per cent) has been extraordinarily low during 1953–61.

Despite Otago's large area, its rich and productive parts are relatively restricted and, without the push of a considerable pastoral development, Dunedin can hardly expect a reversal of the past population trends. It has the advantage of possessing a fine port, but its trade reflects the limitations of the region's economy. Inward cargo predominates; 320,972 tons of overseas traffic, mostly manures, motor spirits and oils, hardwood timbers, and 105,915 tons of coastal traffic. The overseas shipments account for 86,693 tons (frozen meat, 32,971 tons; wool, 26,837 tons) and outwards coastal traffic, mostly miscellaneous cargoes, 475,334 tons. The region furthermore has a considerable production of hydro-electric power and a large potential, but the trend, especially with the decision to lay the Cook Strait power cable, is to export the resource to other and more rapidly developing areas. With the installation of the last two machines the Roxburgh station, commissioned in 1956, will have an installed capacity of 320,000 kW which, combined with the 105,000-kW capacity for the Waitaki station (commissioned 1935), raises Otago's present figure to 425,000 kW. Two further stations on the Waitaki are under construction: Benmore, 540,000 kW, and Aviemore, circa 200,000 kW. Their combined installed capacity is equivalent to a little more than half the Waitaki potential and when in operation they will raise the region's capacity to 1·16 million kW. The Kaitangata coalfields in South Otago have a considerable reserve of semi-bituminous coals and lignites, but the total production of the Otago fields represented only 3·85 per cent of the 1960 total output and it has been declining since the 1920s.

Estimates of future population growth project an annual average rate of increase during the next two decades of 1 per cent for Eastern Otago and 0·5 per cent for Central Otago – rates which are 50 per cent and 75 per cent below the projected national rates. There is nothing in the region that leads one to dispute the accuracy of these projections. The impressive contribution made by Otago to the political, academic, and cultural life of the Dominion, the impression of abundance created by the golden decade, the resourcefulness and commercial abilities of its people, have in the past obscured the narrow basis of the region's economy. In relation to the population of the hinterland a further concentration of population in Dunedin region seems unlikely, unless the industries can find national markets for their products and overcome the costs of transport and distance. The region's pastoral and afforestation potential is noteworthy, but the path of development points towards further specialisation upon livestock products, especially meat and wool, and the intensification of production upon the most favoured lands throughout the region.

by Samuel Harvey Franklin, B.COM.GEOG., M.A.(BIRMINGHAM), Senior Lecturer, Geography Department, Victoria University of Wellington.

• History of Otago, McLintock, A. H. (1949)
• N.Z. Journal of Agriculture, Vol. 88, Feb-Mar 1954, “Farming in New Zealand – Clutha County”
• Ibid., Vol. 90, Feb 1955, “History of Fruitgrowing in Central Otago”, Kemp, W. S.; Ibid., Vol. 91, Jul-Aug 1954, “Farm Management Survey in Southern Maniototo Plain”; Ibid., Vol. 95, Dec 1957, “Farming in the Ida Valley – Central Otago”; Ibid., Vol. 104, Mar 1962, “Farming in Tuapeka County”, Sewell, T. G.;N.Z. Geographer, Vol. 8, Apr 1952, “Land Utilisation in Metropolitan Dunedin”, Tweedie, A. D.
• Ibid., Vol. 9, Apr 1953, “Otago in 1871 – Life and Landscape”, Kibblewhite, M.; Ibid., Vol. 10, Oct 1954, “The Oamaru Tributary Regions”, Macauley, J. U.; Ibid., Vol. 17, Apr 1961, “Population and Settlements on the Otago Goldfield, 1861–70”, Forrest, J.; Ibid., Vol. 18, Oct 1962, “Alluvial Gold Mining in Otago, 1861–70 – a Regional Analysis”, Forrest, J.;Port of Otago, McLintock, A. H. (1951).