The Manawatu River was a defining feature of the Manawatu Region, which was the subject of my recently published book, Ravaged Beauty. This has led me to research the environmental history of our rivers more broadly. Continue reading
Some may argue that too often rivers are treated like drains even today, but a century and a half ago, rivers were drains under this country’s law.
Under the Public Works Act 1876, “drain” was defined to include both artificial channels and “every natural watercourse, stream, and river not navigable” (s. 165). Under the Mines Act, certain rivers could be proclaimed “sludge channels”, as was the case with the Waihou and Ohinemuri Rivers in Waikato. Continue reading
Paper proposals are now being invited for an upcoming environmental symposium at Otago University, Dunedin: The Colonial World: Elemental Histories — download flyer —
The long-awaited Ravaged Beauty: an environmental history of the Manawatu is available June 2014Only a century and a half ago, the Manawatu was a heavily forested hinterland: the floodplains were a sea of swamps and lagoons, teeming with birdlife, eels and other fish; the hills and terraces were covered with thick impenetrable forest, refuge perhaps to a few lingering moa. Continue reading
These concrete steps on a Kapiti beach once connected a seaside backyard with the beach, but now connect only with thin air. They are a poignant (and somewhat whimsical) reminder of the very real effects of coastal erosion.
This coastline, on the west of the North Island of New Zealand, is subject to ceaseless erosion; many properties are literally being “eaten away” by the effects of waves and weather. Continue reading
Why should we study New Zealand’s environmental history? and how is it different from “conventional” history?
These are the questions that Paul Star asks in his essay entitled Environmental history and New Zealand history, first written in 2008, but recently republished on Environment and Nature in New Zealand.
Star offers seven compelling reasons why it is important. And of course, the key difference between environmental history and history is that while people are the central players in conventional history, the relationship between people and the environment is the focus in environmental history. Continue reading
The special March issue of Environment and Nature in New Zealand contains seven articles – all by graduates of Otago University’s history department (see also: In search of Arcadia?). As the editor’s introduction states, these essays represent the most concentrated research effort in relation to environmental history of any history department in the country, and are well worth a read.
A series of articles were recently published on Environment and Nature in New Zealand, all drawn from essays written between 1989 and 2000 by students in history at the University of Otago.
A prominent theme in the essays covering the colonial period is the disconnect between the expectations of immigrants and the reality of what they found, particularly in respect to the environment. Continue reading
In another instalment in the sporadic series “Views of Kapiti”, this was a shot I took from the housing estate I live in, while out walking my baby daughter (to sleep).
I found the vivid “tri-colour” effect of this shot pleasing: the green of the regenerating bush of the Paraparaumu Scenic Reserve [click here to view map]; the white of the cumulonimbus cloud against the blue of the sky. Continue reading
envirohistory NZ 