Christchurch: A Chronology to 1989

A timeline of some Christchurch events in chronological order from 1700s to 1989.

Go to a year between 1700 & 1989

January 14, 1897: New Brighton declared a Borough.
January 14, 1898: "Great Peninsula Fire" destroys much of the bush on Banks Peninsula.
January 16, 1871: Meat preserving works opens.
January 16, 1936: Inauguration of inter-island air service by Union Airways.
January 17, 1877: Council swimming pool in the Avon River opens. Not one of the Council’s better projects - the pool was only a few hundred metres downstream from the hospital’s effluent outfall.
January 17, 1966: City Council grants charter to 2nd Battalion, RNZIR.
January 18, 1851: First bank, the Union Bank of Australia, opens at Lyttelton.
January 18, 1877: First meeting of the Lyttelton Harbour Board.
January 18, 1894: New Brighton pier opens.
January 18, 1974: Ramada Inn (now Vacation Hotel) opens.
January 19-21, 1935: Visit by the Duke of Gloucester.
January 19-22, 1954: Visit by the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh (the first New Zealand visit by a reigning monarch).
January 19, 1935: River carnival on the Avon near Park Terrace.
January 19, 1983: Tornado and hailstorm strike western City. Damage severe at Halswell.
January 20, 1882: First drainage pumping station in operation. This was the beginning of New Zealand’s first sewage farm.