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Five prominent Dunedin women who have left their mark on the city’s history will be honoured with roads named after them.
The names of the women were approved in a council meeting on Wednesday.
They will be used in a new Calton Hill subdivision.
The street names will be Rachel Reynolds Pl, Lusk Lane, Fache Lane, Hinds Pl and Soper Close.
Rachel Reynolds was a social worker and community leader involved in a wide range of social justice causes, including women’s access to education, provision of welfare services to people living in poverty and the women’s suffrage movement in the 1880s-90s.
Before she was married, Eileen Soper (nee Service) was the editor of the women’s pages at the Otago Daily Times in the 1920s, before she was transferred due to her ambitious concept of “Notes For Woman”, in which she wrote about women’s power for good, accounts of great women of history, reviews of books by and about women and poems and stories by female contributors.
Her editor, however, wanted jottings on which societies women were in or out of, what private parties they attended and what they wore. She was transferred after a year to the weekly companion paper, the Otago Witness, as associate editor.
There, for eight years, she reviewed books of her choice and had responsibility for the children’s page, as Dot of “Dot’s Little Folk’’. She was prominent in the social and cultural life of Dunedin and wrote five books.
Doris Lusk was an artist, art teacher, potter and university lecturer born in Dunedin and Ada Fache was the city librarian of Dunedin from 1960-68 and the second woman in New Zealand to be appointed the head of a major metropolitan library.
The director of the Toitū Otago Early Settlers Museum from 1983-1996, Elizabeth Hinds was also on the list of names chosen for new streets.
The names were picked from the council’s road naming register, which has been updated to include more influential women on the list.
Before a name can go on the list, family consent must be given. They can also recommend where the streets could go, but it is not a requirement.
Mayor Sophie Barker said it was part of the council’s efforts to encourage a more inclusive and representative mix of street names in the city.
“I’m delighted to see two names of prominent women that I suggested back in 2022 being used in the names approved today.
“It’s also really pleasing to see developers are picking up and running with this new approach, and that we’re seeing a more diverse representation of our shared history here in Ōtepoti Dunedin.”
laine.priestley@odt.co.nz