Queenstown &District HistoricalSociety Incorporated

Queenstown & District
Historical Society

Our Heritage Today – For Tomorrow

Preserving and sharing the rich history of Queenstown and the Whakatipu Basin.

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Our Story
Through Time

Explore key moments that have shaped Queenstown and the Whakatipu Basin.

Explore Timeline
  1. Early TimesMāori History & First Colonists
  2. 1860s onGold Discoveries and the Gold Industry
  3. 1880sTransport and Early Tourism
  4. 1900sGrowth & Community
  5. 1930s–60sChanging Times
  6. 1960s onThe Society's History
Featured stories

Stories from the district

  • Edward Shortland's 1851 engraved plate, 'Map of Lakes in the Interior of Middle Island from a Drawing by Huruhuru', showing the chain of southern lakes with travel times and events noted in the margins, and the lake at the foot lettered 'Wakatipua (the famed Waipounamu)'Story · Māori History & First Colonists

    The iwi of Whakatipu

    Three iwi over many centuries, the pounamu that brought them to the head of the lake, and the trails, kāinga and names they left across the whole basin.

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  • Sepia photograph of about forty bearded miners in hats and waistcoats, standing and sitting on the ground in front of a timber mine entrance and headframe, two dogs among themStory · Gold Discoveries and the Gold Industry

    Electricity at Bullendale

    Two three-ton dynamos went up the Skippers pack track behind bullocks, and from March 1886 a quartz battery six miles beyond the road ran on hydro-electricity.

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  • Postcard view across Lake Whakatipu to the snow-streaked Remarkables, with a shed lettered Lake Wakatipu Shipping Co, a second shed, a four-horse team and a canvas-topped wagon drawn up on the shore in the foregroundStory · Transport and Early Tourism

    The Whakatipu steamers

    The Antrim was built at a sawmill near Kinloch, the Ben Lomond was carted up from Dunedin in pieces, and the Mountaineer came to Kingston by rail in sections.

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  • Studio portrait in an oval frame of a young man with fair wavy hair and a moustache, in a dark suit and high collar, his chin resting on his handStory · Growth & Community

    Arrowtown at war, 1914 to 1918

    Arrowtown borough had 308 people at the 1916 census, and eighteen names went onto its war memorial.

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QueenstownFranktonArrowtownArthurs PointLake HayesGibbstonKawarau FallsSkippersMacetownBullendaleGlenorchyKinlochKingston
Historic places

Explore our historic places

Choose a place on the map and read the stories the Society has written about it, then follow the Queenstown Courier's index into sixty years of the magazine.

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Join the Society

Membership supports the Society's talks, activities and advocacy for heritage, and includes a subscription to the Queenstown Courier.

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