Windows to the past: What a sketch of 1849 Dunedin can tell us

Dunedin's first European settlers had to built their houses from whatever raw materials they could find from their new home. 

In a series of videos Toitū Otago Settlers Museum curator Seán Brosnahan shares the stories of Otago and Dunedin's past.

In the fourth episode, Brosnahan looks at an early sketch of Dunedin by Charles Kettle from 1849 and considers the most common type of pioneer housing in the first year of settlement.

At the end of the first year of settlement there were 163 houses in total and 79 of them were of the Wattle and daub build.

Wattle and daub buildings have been used for at least 6,000 and are created using woven lattice of wooden strips (wattle) combined with sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw.

For more Toitū to You: Curator's Corner visit the museum's YouTube channel by clicking here.