Dunedin
Dunedin (/dʌˈniːdɪn/ ⓘ[10][a] duh-NEE-din; Māori: Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from Dùn Èideann, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland.[12] The city has a rich Māori, Scottish, and Chinese heritage.[13]
This article is about the New Zealand city. For other uses, see Dunedin (disambiguation).
Dunedin
Ōtepoti (Māori)
- Strath Taieri
- Waikouaiti Coast
- Mosgiel-Taieri
- West Harbour
- Otago Peninsula
- Saddle Hill
1848
1855
Dùn Èideann – Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh
Cherry Lucas
3,286.14 km2 (1,268.79 sq mi)
91.16 km2 (35.20 sq mi)
134,600
41/km2 (110/sq mi)
106,200
1,200/km2 (3,000/sq mi)
Dunedinite
UTC+13:00 (NZDT)
03
With an estimated population of 134,600 as of June 2023, Dunedin is New Zealand's seventh-most populous metropolitan and urban area.[9] For cultural, geographical, and historical reasons, the city has long been considered one of New Zealand's four main centres.[b] The urban area of Dunedin lies on the central-eastern coast of Otago, surrounding the head of Otago Harbour. The harbour and hills around Dunedin are the remnants of an extinct volcano. The city suburbs extend out into the surrounding valleys and hills, onto the isthmus of the Otago Peninsula, and along the shores of the Otago Harbour and the Pacific Ocean.
Archaeological evidence points to lengthy occupation of the area by Māori prior to the arrival of Europeans. The province and region of Otago takes its name from the Ngāi Tahu village of Otakou at the mouth of the harbour,[21] which became a whaling station in the 1830s.
In 1848 a Scottish settlement was established by the Lay Association of the Free Church of Scotland and between 1855 and 1900 many thousands of Scots emigrated to the incorporated city. Dunedin's population and wealth boomed during the 1860s' Central Otago Gold Rush, and for a brief period of time it became New Zealand's largest urban area. The city saw substantial migration from mainland China at the same time, predominately from Guangdong and Guangxi.[22] Dunedin is home to New Zealand's oldest Chinese community.[13]
Today Dunedin has a diverse economy which includes manufacturing, publishing, arts, tourism and technology-based industries. The mainstay of the city's economy remains centred around tertiary education, with students from the University of Otago, New Zealand's oldest university, and the Otago Polytechnic, accounting for a large proportion of the population; 21.6 per cent of the city's population was aged between 15 and 24 at the 2006 census, compared to the New Zealand average of 14.2 per cent.[23] Dunedin is also noted for its vibrant music scene, as the 1980s birthplace of the Dunedin sound (which heavily influenced grunge, indie and modern alternative rock).[24] In 2014, the city was designated as a UNESCO City of Literature.[25]
Media[edit]
The major daily newspaper is the Otago Daily Times, which is also the country's oldest daily newspaper and part of the Allied Press group. Weekly and bi-weekly community newspapers include The Star, Taieri Herald, the fortnightly street press POINT, and the university student magazine Critic Te Ārohi.
The city is served by all major national radio and television stations. The city's main terrestrial television and FM radio transmitter sits atop Mount Cargill, north of the city, while the city's main AM transmitter is located at Highcliff, east of the city centre on the Otago Peninsula. Local radio stations include Radio Dunedin, community station Otago Access Radio (formerly Hills AM, then Toroa Radio), and the university radio station, Radio One.
Television broadcasts began in Dunedin on 31 July 1962 with the launch of channel DNTV2, the last of the four main centres to receive television. In November 1969, DNTV2 was networked with its counterpart stations in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch to form NZBC TV. In 1975, the NZBC was broken up, with the Wellington and Dunedin studios taking over NZBC TV as Television One (now TVNZ 1) while Auckland and Christchurch studios launched Television Two (now TVNZ 2).
The city has one local television station called Channel 39, which is owned by Allied Press.[85] The two major television news broadcasters 1 News and Newshub along with Radio New Zealand and NZME also have bureaus in Dunedin. In May 2021, Newshub's owner Discovery New Zealand announced that it would be closing down its Dunedin bureau as part of a restructuring process.[86]
The city is home to several prominent media-related production companies, notably Natural History New Zealand and Taylormade Media.
The city was once home to the head offices of Radio Otago—now called RadioWorks (part of Mediaworks) and based in Auckland. It was also formerly the home to several now-defunct newspapers, prominent among which were the Otago Witness and the Evening Star.
Infrastructure and services[edit]
Public health and hospitals[edit]
Dunedin Hospital is the main public hospital in Dunedin. Other hospitals include:
Transport[edit]
Road[edit]
The Dunedin urban area is served by two state highways, with an additional two state highways and one tourist route serving other parts of the district. The main state highway in Dunedin is State Highway 1, which runs in a north to south-west direction through the middle of the city, connecting Dunedin with Invercargill to the south and Timaru and Christchurch to the north. Between The Oval and Mosgiel, State Highway 1 follows the eleven-kilometre Dunedin Southern Motorway. State Highway 88 connects central Dunedin to the city's port facilities at Port Chalmers.
Other State Highways in the city are: State Highway 86 connecting SH 1 at Allanton with Dunedin International Airport, State Highway 87 connecting SH 1 at Kinmont with SH 85 at Kyeburn via Middlemarch, serving the Dunedin city hinterland.
Dunedin is the northeastern terminus of the Southern Scenic Route, a tourist highway connecting Dunedin to Te Anau via The Catlins, Invercargill and Fiordland.