About the Project

The Caversham Project is an an interdisciplinary research project studying the southern suburbs of Dunedin between 1893 and 1940. The area was in many respects a microcosm of wider New Zealand society and the largest industrial area of the day.

The Caversham database collection started in the mid-1970s, with the original database consisting of all adults who lived in the old Caversham borough.

The database for Sites of Gender consists of all adults who lived in the original three southern Boroughs: Caversham, South Dunedin, and St Kilda. This database also includes information from marriage records, death certificates, the membership records of several voluntary organisations, rating and valuation records, Charitable Aid records, and the housing survey (1937-38).

The main databases are now available online or at the Hocken Library:

1. The Caversham Borough Database, made up of electoral rolls and other data sources.

2. The Sites of Gender Database, covers a wider geographical area, and a longer time span (1890-1940).

3. The Caversham Geographical Information System, organised around cadastral and valuation data for 1911-12 and 1922, and indexes all data against a map of the area.

4. The Caversham Oral History Collection, containing 89 interviews with people who lived in Caversham between 1906 and 1922. It is stored on the NUD*IST system.

map showing Dunedin in New Zealand

map showing Caversham in Dunedin

Caversham circa 1900

Last updated 22th March 2006. For queries, problems, and corrections contact caversham@otago.ac.nz