Join Dr Eva Forster-Garbutt, Area Manager for the Otago Southland regional office at Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, as she unpacks the fascinating story of wallpaper during the goldfields era drawn from her recently completed PhD thesis.

During Otago’s gold rush in the 1860s, thousands of people poured into the region hoping to make their fortunes. Along with miners came merchants and a surprising variety of goods – including wallpaper.

This talk explores the story of wallpaper in gold rush Otago and the role it played in shaping the trade in wallpaper and the interiors of homes, hotels and businesses. Drawing on newspaper advertisements, historic photographs and surviving wallpaper fragments, it reveals the styles available in the 1860s and the trade networks that brought them here from Britain, often via Melbourne. It offers a glimpse into how people created comfort, style and a sense of home in the rapidly growing towns of gold rush Otago.

Image: Dunedin paperhanging shop, 1864. Courtesy of Toitū Settlers Museum