Otago – the Scottish settlement founded in March 1848
The European settlement of Otago began in March 1848, when the first two immigrant ships, the John Wickliffe and the Philip Laing, arrived from Greenock on the Firth of Clyde. The venture was an offshoot of the Free Church of Scotland, and Captain William Cargill, a veteran of the Peninsular War, served as its secular leader; citizens later elected him provincial superintendent when the provinces were created in 1853. That Otago Province stretched from the Waitaki River south, taking in Stewart Island and the sub-Antarctic islands. Māori had settled the region long before, mainly on the coast around the Otago Peninsula, and the name comes from Ōtākou, a village near the harbour entrance. Share your own memories and photographs here.