with the surveyors Capt. Thomas, Heaphy, White and Torlesse on the left (sketched by
William Fox in 1848).
Pre-city Māori activity Prior to European occupation of the modern-day greater Christchurch area, the land was originally
swampland with patchworks of marshland, grassland, scrub and some patches of tall forest of mostly
kahikatea,
mataī and
tōtara. The inner coastal sand dunes were covered in hardier scrub bush, including
akeake,
taupata,
tūmatakuru,
ngaio,
carmichaelia, and
coprosma. Evidence of human activity in the area begins in approximately 1250 AD, with evidence of prolonged occupation beginning no later than 1350 AD. These first occupants lived in coastal caves around modern-day
Sumner, and hunted local species of
moa. The early settlers and their descendants became known as the historic
Waitaha Māori
iwi. Around the
Kāti Māmoe iwi migrated south from the east coast of the
North Island and invaded the Christchurch basin, ultimately gaining control of much of Canterbury. Other areas of Christchurch were also important foraging grounds and a seasonal settlement. Several Māori settlements were within Christchurch during the early-nineteenth century, such as Pūtarikamotu in modern-day
Riccarton, and
Papanui. In both cases these were located in areas of surviving tall forest. In
South New Brighton there was a major Māori settlement named
Te Kai-a-Te-Karoro, an important food-gathering area to Ngāi Tūāhuriri. It had
kelp gulls and
mānuka scrub. Te Ihutai (The
Avon Heathcote Estuary) was an important food source for local iwi and
hapū with the estuary providing food such as flounder and shellfish.
Kaiapoi Pā was the most important trading area, and the centre of a thriving economy. The pā was located at the nexus of the major rivers of Christchurch, the Avon River / Ōtākaro,
Ōpāwaho / Heathcote River and the
Styx River. It was likely the richest
eel fishery in the country at that time. Sugar was produced from plantations of
cabbage trees.
Early European presence and establishment of the city, 1830–1853 and his family were some of the early settlers in Christchurch, they settled by
Riccarton Bush. European settlement of the Canterbury region was largely influenced by brothers
William and
John Deans in 1843. The Deans farm located in
Riccarton Bush was a crucial factor in the decision of where to place the settlement of Christchurch, as it proved that the swampy ground could be farmed. The Deans brothers named their farm after their former parish in
Ayrshire, Scotland; they also named the river near their farm after the
Avon Water in
South Lanarkshire, which rises in the hills near to where their grandfather's farm was located. The
First Four Ships were chartered by the Canterbury Association and brought the
Canterbury Pilgrims to
Lyttelton Harbour in 1850. These sailing vessels were the
Randolph,
Charlotte Jane, , and
Cressy. The journey took three to four months, and the
Charlotte Jane was the first to arrive on 16 December 1850. The Canterbury Pilgrims had aspirations of building a city around a cathedral and college, on the model of
Christ Church in
Oxford. Transport between the port and the new settlement at Christchurch was a major problem for the early settlers. By December 1849, Thomas had commissioned the construction of a road from Port Cooper, later
Lyttelton, to Christchurch via Evans Pass and
Sumner. By the time
John Robert Godley arrived in April 1850, all the funds for public works had been used up in constructing the road. Godley ordered all work on the road to stop, leaving the steep foot and
pack horse track that had been hastily constructed over the hill between the port and the Heathcote valley as the only land-access to the area of Christchurch. This track became known as the
Bridle Path. Goods that were too heavy or bulky to be transported by pack horse over the Bridle Path were shipped by small sailing vessels some by sea around the coast and up the
Avon Heathcote Estuary to
Ferrymead. Overturned boats at the
Sumner bar were a frequent cause of new arrivals to the colony losing all their luggage. The Sumner Road was completed in 1857, though this did not alleviate the transport problems. In 1858 the provincial
superintendent William Sefton Moorhouse announced that a tunnel would be dug between Lyttelton and Christchurch. While the tunnel was under construction, New Zealand's first public railway line, the
Ferrymead Railway, opened from Ferrymead to Christchurch in 1863.
Period of the Canterbury Province, 1853–1876 , with its
Gothic Revival style Between 1853 and 1876, Christchurch was the administrative seat of the
Province of Canterbury. While slow at first, growth in the town began to accelerate towards the end of the 1850s, with a period of rapid growth between 1857 and 1864. Christchurch became the first city in New Zealand by letters patent on 31 July 1856, and
Henry Harper was consecrated by the
archbishop of Canterbury as the local Anglican bishop. He arrived in Christchurch a few months later in December 1856. In 1862 the
Christchurch City Council was established. By 1874, Christchurch was New Zealand's fourth-largest city with a population of 14,270 residents. Between 1871 and 1876 nearly 20,000 immigrants arrived in Canterbury, and through the 1880s frozen meat joined wool as a primary export. The last decades of the nineteenth-century were a period of significant growth for the city, despite the national economic depression. Many of the city's stone
Gothic Revival buildings by provincial architect
Benjamin Mountfort date from around this period, including
Canterbury University College,
Christ Church Cathedral,
Canterbury Museum, and the
Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings, among others. Mountfort oversaw construction of a prison on Lincon Road in 1874, which operated until 1999. Christchurch experienced a number of minor natural disasters during this period. Heavy rain caused the
Waimakariri River to flood Christchurch in February 1868.
Victoria Square (known as Market Place at the time) was left underwater with "the whole left side of the [Avon] river from Montreal-street bridge to
Worcester street was all one lake, as deep as up to a horse's belly". Christchurch buildings were damaged by earthquakes in
1869,
1881 and
1888. The 1888 earthquake caused the highest 7.8 metres of the
Christ Church Cathedral spire to collapse, many
chimneys were broken, and the
Durham Street Methodist Church had its stonework damaged. In November 1901,
a magnitude 6.9 earthquake, centred near
Cheviot, caused the spire on top of Christ Church Cathedral to collapse again, but this time only the top 1.5 metres fell. On this occasion, it was rebuilt with timber and metal instead of stone. in January 1918 The Catholic
Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament was opened in February 1905. It was designed by
Francis Petre with inspiration from the
Saint-Vincent-de-Paul in Paris. In 1906, the
New Zealand International Exhibition opened in Hagley Park, which had over a million visitors. In 1908, the city experienced its first major fire which started at the Strange's Department Store and destroyed buildings in central Christchurch on High St, Cashel St and Lichfield Streets. Christchurch was increasingly industrialised in the early 20th century, particularly in the suburbs of
Woolston and
Addington, with Woolston housing a large amount of New Zealand's rubber industry. Many warehouses, factories and large premises of
railway workshops were built along the
Main South Line. There was notable development of breweries,
flour mills, and light-commercial in Christchurch. This significantly increased the population of workers in the city, which soon spread industrialisation to
Sydenham. As central Christchurch grew, many cottages were demolished to make way for light-industrial and retail premises near Moorhouse Avenue as they expanded south.
City growth, 1876–2010 Despite the central city remaining relatively unchanged between 1914 and 1960, Christchurch grew rapidly during the 20th century, in part due to the construction of many
state houses. The earliest state houses were built in Sydenham in the 1900s, to house workers that were employed in nearby factories, with more houses built in 1909 near the
Addington Railway Workshops. Part of this period of growth included the annexation of surrounding municipalities — in 1903 the boroughs of
Linwood,
St Albans, and
Sydenham were annexed into Christchurch City. In 1921, two more boroughs were annexed:
Spreydon and
Woolston. In 1941, the
New Brighton Borough was annexed and in 1945 the
Sumner Borough was annexed. In 1953, an urban part of
Heathcote County was incorporated into the city. In November 1947, a basement fire at the
Ballantynes department store on the corner of
Cashel and
Colombo Streets unexpectedly burned out of control, resulting in New Zealand's
worst fire disaster. Despite being initially thought to be under control, the fire suddenly spread to the upper floors and consumed the entire building within minutes. The speed of the fire trapped 41 staff members on the upper floor, all of whom were killed. The department store was actually a combination of seven or eight different buildings, joined to form a "perplexing maze" with no sprinklers or alarm system. A subsequent
Royal commission of enquiry resulted in changes to the building code to improve fire safety. Thousands of mourners, including the Prime Minister, attended a mass funeral in the aftermath. The
Lyttelton road tunnel between Lyttelton and Christchurch was opened in 1964. Television broadcasts began in Christchurch on 1 June 1961 with the launch of channel CHTV3, making Christchurch the second New Zealand city to receive regular television broadcasts. The channel initially broadcast from a 10-kilowatt transmitter atop the
Gloucester Street studios until it switched to the newly built 100-kilowatt
Sugarloaf transmitter in the Port Hills on 28 August 1965. In 1969, the one-way system running through central Christchurch was established. The first two streets to be made one-way were Lichfield and St Asaph streets. They were followed by Barbadoes, Madras, Salisbury and Kilmore streets.
A police station opened in 1973 on Hereford street, it was imploded and demolished in 2015. Christchurch hosted the
1974 British Commonwealth Games at the purpose-built
Queen Elizabeth II Park. The sports complex was open in 1973, one year before the games.
Earthquakes and beyond, 2010–present On Saturday, 4 September 2010,
a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Christchurch and the central Canterbury region at 4:35 am. With its
hypocentre near
Darfield, west of the city at a depth of , it caused widespread damage to the city and minor injuries, but no direct fatalities. This was followed by the
Boxing Day earthquake a few months later, which occurred directly under the city centre and also caused widespread damage, but this was less severe. On Tuesday, 22 February 2011,
an earthquake measuring magnitude 6.3 struck the city at 12:51pm. Its hypocentre was located closer to the city, near Lyttelton, at a depth of . Although lower on the
moment magnitude scale than the previous earthquake, the intensity and violence of the ground shaking was measured to be
IX (Violent), among the strongest ever recorded globally in an urban area, which killed 185 people. On 13 June 2011 Christchurch was again rocked by
two more large aftershocks. This resulted in more liquefaction and building damage, but no more lives were lost. There were further
earthquakes on 23 December 2011; the first, of magnitude 5.8, north-east of the city at a shallow depth at 1:58pm, followed by several aftershocks and another earthquake of magnitude 5.9 and similar location 80 minutes later. Many heritage buildings
have been demolished since the earthquakes, and so have most of the
city's high-rise buildings. Over 8,000 homes in the
residential red zones—areas deemed infeasible to rebuild on due to land damage—were either demolished or relocated. Several churches have also been demolished. The temporary replacement of
Christ Church Cathedral, known as
Cardboard Cathedral, opened in August 2013. Repair work of Christ Church Cathedral has been on hold since 2024. , in Cashmere, on 15 February. On 13 February 2017,
two bush fires started on the
Port Hills. These later merged and the single large wildfire extended down both sides of the Port Hill almost reaching
Governors Bay in the south-west. Eleven houses were destroyed by fire and over of land was burned. On 15 March 2019, fifty-one people were killed in a
mass shooting targeting two mosques. Just days after the attacks the live-streamed footage became classified as objectionable by the Chief Censor, making the footage illegal to possess and distribute within New Zealand. On 2 June 2020, the attacker pleaded guilty to multiple charges of murder, attempted murder, and terrorism. On 27 August, he was sentenced to
life in prison without the chance of parole, the first time such a sentence was handed down in New Zealand. In 2024, a second
fire on the Port Hills burned . The fire was also started under similarly suspicious circumstances. Lessons from the 2017 fire contributed to a more effective emergency response, and the fire was more quickly contained. ==Geography==