Otokia (Henley) cemetery

Pos S  45° 57.721'
E 170° 12.033'
For the settlers arriving in Dunedin and setting up a farm the key question was access because at those times there were no roads and no rail, and much of the native flat ground was swampy while the high ground was covered in dense bush. The key requirements were a place where some sort of dwelling could be built, and a place that it was possible to get animals and produce to and from the farm. In the case of Otokia there was the Taieri River that cut through the hills to the coast and which had a new ferry.

As a consequence settlements grew up on each side; Waihola to the south and Taieri to the north. The cemetery is located in the hill country overlooking the plains and the hulk of a sometimes snow covered mountain to the west. What was previously bush covered is now either bare grassland sprinkled with poplars (to keep the hills from sliding away) or more recently radiata pine forest.

The Taieri river was a convenient route to the coast where there were other settlements as well as regular services down the coast to Port Chalmers, usually in small sailing vessels. From Port Chalmers it was easy to get up the harbour to the township itself, certainly easier that walking for two days each way. Boats initially did the job of wheeled transport both for goods and for passengers...

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This page was constructed after the on-line database was created and there was little point in duplicating material which is changing daily in any case. Click on the MOP link and log in. Choose HEADSTONES then fill in the target box with the surname of interest OR enter any cemetery name to show a list of ALL the records for that cemetery, making sure to change the pull-down to 'cemetery'. Once in a given record the headstone picture or pictures can be downloaded.

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