Learning About the Weather in Early Colonial New Zealand

Peter Holland, 1939–2019

“…His approach to environmental history was encapsulated in a seminal paper he published in the Journal of Biogeography on “Cultural landscapes as biogeographical experiments” (Holland, ). He was the respected elder statesman in the “Empires of Grass” Marsden‐funded project which produced a collective book called Seeds of Empire , for which he led work on two chapters (Holland, Star, & Wood, ; Holland, Williams, & Wood, ). He later published a monograph, Home in the Howling Wilderness , the culmination of his research on how colonial settlers came to terms with the environment in southern New Zealand (Holland, ).…”

Histories of climate, science, and colonization in Australia and New Zealand, 1800–1945

“…A notable exception is Don Garden's detailed work on El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and extreme weather events across Australia, New Zealand, and the southern Pacific. Nonetheless, and despite the greater availability of digitized sources, such as newspapers, the scholarship exemplified by Holland and Mooney, Holland, Williams, and Wood, Holland, and Holland and Williams has largely focused on two main areas. The first is assessing how Europeans learnt about climate, where and who they gained their information from, and the extent to which their agricultural practices changed as they became more familiar with weather conditions in New Zealand form the mid‐1800s.…”

Testing the credibility of historical newspaper reporting of extreme climate and weather events

“…Holland et al . () utilised the qualitative weather accounts from the diary of Christchurch settler Joseph Munnings (1859–1866) with other contemporary accounts in journals and diaries to provide greater detail about weather systems in the early colonial period. Garden () utilised newspapers, among other sources, to study 19th‐century El Niños and the resulting floods, snowstorms and droughts in New Zealand and the degree to which they disrupted colonial life.…”

“…Fortunately for the researcher, there are other possible avenues for the exploration of climate and weather during New Zealand's colonial period. In addition to palaeo-proxies, a wealth of information has been recorded in diaries, journals and newspapers (Holland & Mooney 2006;Garden 2009;Holland et al 2009). Holland and Mooney (2006) utilised informal weather information from diaries and journals to investigate environmental learning -specifically with regard to wind strength and direction, precipitation and flooding, heat and cold -by colonists in early colonial Canterbury (1848-1871).…”

“…Holland and Mooney (2006) utilised informal weather information from diaries and journals to investigate environmental learning -specifically with regard to wind strength and direction, precipitation and flooding, heat and cold -by colonists in early colonial Canterbury (1848-1871). Holland et al (2009) utilised the qualitative weather accounts from the diary of Christchurch settler Joseph Munnings (1859-1866) with other contemporary accounts in journals and diaries to provide greater detail about weather systems in the early colonial period. Garden (2009) utilised newspapers, among other sources, to study 19th-century El Niños and the resulting floods, snowstorms and droughts in New Zealand and the degree to which they disrupted colonial life.…”