Dunedin's Industrial Heritage: Bells, Whistles and Other Gadgets

Dunedin was New Zealand’s commercial capital in the 19th century, its wealth built on the gold rush. Many national businesses started in Dunedin and many sites important to the city’s industrial heritage still exist.

Among the major buildings are the University of Otago, established in 1871 and now the city’s largest industry; the Otago Museum, established in 1877 and containing among much else exhibits of the early shipping industry; the Dunedin Railway Station, built in 1906 and said to be the most photographed building in New Zealand; the Cadbury’s chocolate factory, which goes back to 1884, and is still a major industry; Speight’s Brewery, established in 1876 and now offering heritage tours on its original site; the Chief Post Office, opened in 1937 and now awaiting redevelopment; the Hillside Railway Workshops, opened in 1875 and still fulfilling major contracts; and the Dunedin Gasworks, built in 1863, one of the world’s few working town gasworks, now being restored and developed as a museum.

A feature of the trail is the number of small industries which are no longer in operation but whose location and premises can be traced. These include a furniture factory, an engineering warehouse, a chemical warehouse, a soap and candle factory, a distillery, a brewery, a horse sale yard, two woollen mills (one now adapted as a restaurant and apartments), a match factory, and a rope works.

The trail was created by the Southern Heritage Trust in cooperation with the Gasworks Museum Trust and the Institute of Professional Engineers. The whole trail takes about an hour by car. The more central sites can easily be covered on foot.

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