Waikouaiti Whaling Station

The Waikouaiti Whaling Station is an early historic site located in New Zealand. It was established in 1837 by Long, Wright, and Richards and sold a year later to Johnny Jones. As an archaeological site, the whaling station provides good evidence for the contact period between Europeans and the Maori, the indigenous Polynesian peoples of the area. Excavation was conducted in November 1992 by Matthew Campbell.

Location

Waikouaiti whaling station is located in a town called Karitane at the mouth of the Waikouaiti River, 34km North of the city of Dunedin. The city itself is situated within the Otago Region of New Zealand . The river stretches into a salt water lagoon that empties into the sea. This area was deep enough for whales to come into the harbor and made the cliffs along the coast an ideal location for an industrial area focused on whaling.

<googlemap lat="-45.638287" lon="170.654755" zoom="13" height="250" scale="yes" controls="large"> -45.641943, 170.657135, Karitane, Otago, New Zealand </googlemap>

Summary of Results

While the excavation of the whaling station was informative, Campbell and his crew did not find much beyond supportive evidence that a whaling industrial center had once existed along the coast.