A timeline for the Top of the South - based on our stories

pre-1840      1840-1900      1900- 

c950

  • A local story tells of Kereopa  escaping Kupe by causing the Boulder Bank to grow boulders in front of  Kupe's pursuing canoe. 

c1200

  • Maori quarry argillite stone from the eastern Nelson mineral belt

1642

1700s

  • Rangitane build a network of canals and channels to harvest fish in the Vernon Lagoons

1770

  • Captain Cook makes his first visit to Ship Cove

1810

  • Ngati Apa establish themselves  across the top of the south after Tumatakokiri's comprehensive defeat

1827

1838

1840

 1841

1842

  • The Fifeshire, carrying the first European settlers arrives in Nelson Haven (Feb 1)
  • Charles Elliott opens NZ's first bookshop in Nelson and Nelson's first newspaper,  The Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle
  • Nelson's first road is formed from the Haven to town; Saltwater Creek is bridged
  • "Native tenths" selected by the New Zealand Company
  • First sermon preached in Nelson by Bishop Selwyn in Nelson
  • First public school opened in Nelson on town acre 208

1842

1843

1846

  • Kehu, Brunner and  Heaphy explore the Buller River
  • Nathaniel Morse and Dr John Cooper bring sheep to the Wairau Valley

1847

  • James Wynen sets up the first business in the Beaver - what is to become Blenheim

1848

  • Thomas Marsden builds the first house at, what is now, Isel Park

1853

  • Nelson Provincial Council formed
  • Governor Grey transfers 918 acres of the best Maori-owned horticultural land in Motueka to the Church
  • Appo Hocton naturalised in Nelson - the first naturalised Chinese New Zealander

1854

1856

  • Aorere goldrush
  • Nelson Education System established ; Nelson College, New Zealand's first State Secondary School is established
  • Father Garin builds St Marys in Nelson 

1857

  • First wharf in Nelson built by William Akersten, a marine surveyor 

1858/9

  •  Nelson's Christ Church becomes a cathedral and Nelson becomes a city

1859

1862

1863

1864

1866

1868

1869

1870

1871

1873

1875

  • The Nelson Provincial Council abolished
  • Blenheim to Picton section of the Main Trunk Railway is opened

1876

1877

1882

  • James Rutherford, father of Ernest, establishes a flax mill at Ruapaka, near Havelock.

1883

1888

1891

1894

1897

1898

1901

  • Takaka Sluicing Company is set up to mine for gold at Waikoropupu Springs

1902

1903

1904

1905

1906

  • The Cut in Nelson's Boulder Bank completed, which allows improved access for Port Nelson shipping

1909

1911

1912

1913

1914

  •  First infantry volunteers from Nelson (the 12th Company) leave for World War I (August 15)

1915

  • Brownlee's sawmills relocate to West Coast, having exhausted the Marlborough forests over 30 years of operation

1918

  • Charles Lowe builds New Zealand's first flue-curing barn on his Harakeke tobacco farm

1920

  • First Cook Strait flight arrives at Dillon's Point, near Blenheim
  • Onekaka Iron & Steel Company Ltd formed

1921

  • Cawthron Institute is founded
  • First plane lands in Nelson; a converted WWI trainer  which flew from Wellington and landed in Marsden's paddock at Stoke 

1923

1928

1929

1937

1938

  • First airport built for Nelson

1939

  • New Zealand Hop Marketing Board is  established in Richmond

1941

  •  Roding Waterworks opens 

1942

1951

  • Wellington to Lyttelton Yacht Race proves disastrous for most vessels; but is a triumph for the Nelson Yacht Tawhiri.

1955

1956

  • Nelson's first and New Zealand's first fulltime craft potter Mirek Smisek began working in Nelson 

1960

1960's

  •  Port land reclamation begins - reclaiming land from the haven

1965

  • New Zealand Sea Products Export Ltd. opens in Nelson (later to become Sealords)

1967

1968

  • Jens Hansen (of the Lord of the Rings ring) opens his silversmith's shop in Nelson

1987

1990

1995

2005

2007