Tales from the water's edge

Life on the Edge exhibits at Toitu Otago Settlers Museum. Photos: Gregor Richardson
Life on the Edge exhibits at Toitu Otago Settlers Museum. Photos: Gregor Richardson

Otago Harbour communities are the latest to get the Toitu Otago Settlers Museum treatment. Rebecca Fox discovers the city's coastal communities have many stories to tell.

Otago Harbour and its adjacent communities have changed in many ways since settlement, the team at Toitu Otago Settlers Museum has discovered in putting together the exhibition Life on the Edge: Otago Harbour Communities, opening this weekend.

Like the museum's similar exhibitions on South Dunedin and Kaikorai Stream, ''Life on the Edge'' tells the stories of harbour communities from pre-settlement to today.

The plethora of material on the area meant they had to leave out the city edge of the harbour, instead concentrating on six broad areas: West Harbour, Port Chalmers, the northeast harbour area, Broad Bay-Portobello, Otakou and the Halfway Islands.

''They are unique in the way they developed, Port Chalmers around the port and shipping, West Harbour out of building the railway, whereas Macandrew Bay developed from a few original residents as the crib community started up, to today where it is a commuter suburb,'' curator Peter Read says.

The exhibition tells the stories of how the communities were founded and the way in which settler life unfolded.

It highlights the different ways in which the harbour has been used over the decades, recreationally from boating to swimming, various efforts around conservation, and its scientific and defence uses.

There are hundreds of objects in the exhibition and more than 500 images.

''There are around 100 artefacts in the exhibition ranging from a seven-tonne gun barrel to a potato masher, from a stuffed sea lion to a pickle jar, and from the front part of a bus to a matchbox,'' Mr Read says.

In honour of the exhibition, the neon Fresh Freddy the fish has been installed, as well as a diving suit on loan from Port Chalmers Museum and the cab bus from the Otago Peninsula Museum.

There is footage from amateur movie makers showing snippets of harbour history, such as the Queen Mother's visit to Taiaroa Head.

Visitor experience manager Kirsty Glengarry says there is a contemporary component to the exhibition which has seen harbour school children contribute their own photos and artworks about the harbour.

''Another exciting project in October will see a display co-ordinated by PhD student Ali Rodgers and this will feature more work by local school students which concentrates on caring for our harbour.''

Visitors to the exhibition will be encouraged to have their say about what they think of the harbour today.

''It'll be interesting to see what comes of that.''

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