What Ōamaru is known for

Ōamaru (Oamaru) is an Otago harbour town with an estimated population of 14,300 in June 2025. It is known for its Victorian commercial streets, built largely between about 1875 and 1885 from locally quarried limestone, and for the steampunk festival and attractions that now fill them. Harbour Street is described as one of the few intact Victorian streets left anywhere in the world.

Wool, grain and frozen meat, then an empty film set

Ōamaru’s prosperity came from exporting wool, grain and frozen meat to British markets through its harbour. The customs office closed in 1966 and the last coaster left port in 1974, and the population fell from about 13,000 in 1996 to about 12,250 in 2006 before recovering.

The limestone outlived the trade that paid for it. Novelist Maurice Shadbolt, quoted in North & South magazine, once likened Harbour Street to an empty film set waiting for costumed actors and a director to call for action.

A trust that bought eight buildings, and now owns eighteen

After an Arthur Young feasibility study, the Ōamaru Whitestone Civic Trust formed in the 1980s. With support from the Alexander McMillan Trust, it spent an initial NZ$80,000 to buy eight buildings from PGG Wrightson. The trust now owns 18 buildings.

1News reported in 2023 that, as insurance and compliance costs rose, the trust had received NZ$20,000 from the council toward loan costs.

Steampunk: a party costume that grew into a festival

In 2008 Iain Clark, known as Agent Darling, made a steampunk piece for a party, which led him to organise an exhibition of local makers at the Forrester Gallery in 2009. Sally Hope’s proposal for a fashion show and gala ball, first held in 2010, grew into the Steampunk NZ Festival, which organisers describe as the largest and longest running steampunk event in the Southern Hemisphere.

Steampunk HQ was founded in 2011 by Don Patterson, Jac Grenfell and Brian de Geest, in an 1883 stone grain elevator at the entrance to the Victorian Precinct. The 2025 festival sold 1,723 paid tickets, with hundreds more at free community events.