New Zealand's Otago region is one of the more isolated outliers of the inhabited earth. Its high latitude, elevation and distance from larger foreign and domestic population centers has defined Otago at each stage of its history.
New Zealand's ecology had evolved in near isolation from the rest of the world for 85 million years. At first settlement it was almost devoid of land mammals. The fauna was very susceptible to land predators. Humans burnt the forests, ate the animals and introduced numerous predators and exotic plants to Otago. This came in two great waves around the years 1300 and 1800, although the effects of both introductions would continue for centuries. This was followed by intensive farming and alteration to the rivers and lakes of Otago for water and electricity production.
The human occupation of Otago begins around the year 1300 with the arrival of Māori soon after they settled in New Zealand. The Māori were originally from tropical Polynesia; they continually adapted to the new and changing environment over the next 500 years. At that time the first European sealers and whalers arrived, followed by the founding of the colony of Dunedin, Otago's first city in 1848.
Until the late 19th century the vast majority of permanent settlements in Otago were on the eastern coast, which was rich in resources and has a more temperate climate. During this time inland Otago was largely used seasonally and for its mineral deposits, first by the Māori digging for pounamu stone, then European settlers searching for gold. With the advent of the railway, and refrigerated trade with Britain, inland Otago became more consistently productive. Rapid urbanisation has led to the creation of main population centers on the flatter eastern coast and in the high inland plains between the mountain ranges. This has been accompanied with immense social change in Otago's population, similar but distinct to the rest of New Zealand.
The boundaries of Otago have changed over time. However, the Waitaki River, currently Otago's northern extent, has often been used as a natural border. Ngāi Tahu, the dominant Māori tribe in the region, currently has three rūnanga (sub-tribes) within Otago and their traditional extent is not limited to the region. Today Otago is divided into the Central Otago, Clutha, Queenstown-Lakes and Waitaki (partly in Canterbury) Districts, and the city of Dunedin, which has half the region's population. It excludes the Southland plains, Stewart Island and Fiordland, although the historical province of Otago and much older Murihiku region often included them.
The first settlements until the Treaty of Waitangi (1300–1840)
Initial Māori settlement (1300–1500)
The precise date at which the first inhabitants of New Zealand reached Otago and the extreme south (known to later Māori as Murihiku) remains uncertain. Māori descend from a race of Polynesian sea-wanderers who, moved from East Asia and south-east Asia to the islands of the Pacific. Tradition tells of their further journeyings from Hawaiki to New Zealand, and some commentators have identified this homeland as Havai'i, an island in the Society Group. Overpopulation, scarcity of food and civil war forced many of them to migrate once more, and New Zealand became their new home. Māori settled New Zealand between 1280 and 1320. They quickly learnt to hunt the numerous species of moa and seals in New Zealand and settled across the North and South islands in less than a few decades. There is a change in the pollen record from inland Otago from 600 years ago from a forest to bracken flora. It has been inferred that this relates to fires being lit during Māori exploration.
The first parts of New Zealand settled by Polynesians were the very far north and the east coast of the South Island where population was initially concentrated. Later the contraction of food sources led to depopulation in the south while the introduction of the kumara led to an expansion in the North Island and the evolution of a different material and social culture. The greater numbers in the North Island led to migrations to the south from late in the sixteenth century.