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Story: Exhibitions and world’s fairs

Exhibition buildings, Dunedin, 1889–90

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Exhibition buildings, Dunedin, 1889–90

The New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition was intended as a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of British sovereignty in the colony. It was held on Harbour Board land on Anderson's Bay Road in Dunedin. The main entrance – shown here with its classical domes – was designed by local architect James Hislop. The exhibition ran over the summer from December 1889 to April 1890, and attracted 618,662 people (slightly fewer than the country's population at that time), many of them attracted by the amusement zone with its switch-back railway.

Using this item

Hocken Collections, University of Otago

Reference: S14-290c

by W. R. Frost

Permission of the Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hakena, University of Otago, must be obtained before any re-use of this image. Further information may be obtained from the Library through its website.

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How to cite this page

Jock Phillips, Exhibitions and world’s fairs – New Zealand exhibitions, 1865 to 1900, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/45430/exhibition-buildings-dunedin-1889-90 (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Jock Phillips, published 30 May 2014.