While the economic progress of the North Island was held back by war between Māori and Pākehā, the South Island forged ahead. This prosperity was based on wool from sheep turned out on the South Island’s extensive natural pastures, and on gold won from the fields discovered in Otago and Westland. The woolsheds of the large pastoral sheep runs were some of the country’s most impressive early buildings. At Homebush near Darfield in Canterbury, the woolshed was, unusually, built of bricks made on the property. Despite being close to the epicentre of the September 2010 earthquake, the woolshed survived largely intact.
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Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
Photograph by John Wilson
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