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Story: Otago places

Scarfie flats

Otago University students are known as ‘scarfies’ after their long scarves. This poster features the typically old and often run-down houses, mostly in North Dunedin, where students flat in term time.

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How to cite this page

Malcolm McKinnon, Otago places – Northern Dunedin, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/zoomify/22765/scarfie-flats (accessed 10 June 2026).

Story by Malcolm McKinnon, published 19 August 2009, updated 1 July 2015.

Comments

Sarah Gallagher
17 July 2010
Dunedin students, Scarfies, have been naming their flats since the 1930s, before flatting was even socially acceptable. Naming flats is about creating a home, an identity, a sense of place. The names themselves are generally reflective of contemporary political or pop culture, some are sexual in nature or are evocative of drinking behaviour. As to their physical nature, sometimes the signs are professionally crafted, sometimes they are hand painted, sometimes they are spray painted on the fence or written straight on the window in vivid. It varies. The naming of flats occurs for many reasons: inarguable because it's fun, but latterly, because it is perceived by some of the residents of North Dunedin that this is a tradition, that it is part of the culture of being a Scarfie. In the last 30 years it has become a tradition. It is one of those "colourful" aspects of student culture that is presented to the rest of Dunedin society, it's a display of individuality, a mark of identity. It's a unique expression of student culture in New Zealand, and I believe, one worth preserving.