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Kōrero: Place names

Naming Invercargill

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Naming Invercargill

At a celebratory dinner in Dunedin in 1856 in honour of the visit of Governor Thomas Gore Browne the guest of honour proposed naming the town at the Bluff after the Otago provincial superintendent, William Cargill. With the prefix ‘Inver’ – Scots for mouth of a river – Invercargill came into the world. Its previous name was Inverkelly, named for an early resident.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

National Library of New Zealand, Papers Past

Reference: Otago Witness, 19 January 1856, p. 3

Permission of the National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Malcolm McKinnon, Place names – Colonial naming, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/document/19337/naming-invercargill (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Malcolm McKinnon, i tāngia i te 1 March 2009.