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A timeline of some Christchurch events in chronological order from 1700s to 1989.
Go to a year between 1700 & 1989
Begin at the beginning 
This week in history
- December 9, 1867
- Lyttelton railway tunnel opens, the first in the world to be drilled through a volcano rim. It was New Zealand’s first tunnel, and at the time was described as one of the longest in the world, yet had been planned and financed by this tiny colonial settlement whose population was just over 9000, (6,647 in Christchurch and 2,510 in Lyttelton.)
- December 10, 1981
- Government announces its intention to preserve the Chief Post Office in Cathedral Square.
- December 10, 1989
- Sunday trading begins in Christchurch.
- December 11, 1979
- Completion of airport international arrivals terminal, stage 1 (arrival hall).
- December 12, 1849
- New Zealand Company agrees to reserve two and a half million acres as a site for the Canterbury settlement.
- December 12, 1941
- Slit trenches dug in Hagley Park and in Cranmer and Latimer Squares.
- December 13, 1942
- Premiere in Christchurch of "Landfall in Unknown Seas" by Douglas Lilburn and Allen Curnow.
- December 14, 1907
- First Plunket Shield cricket match at Lancaster Park. (Auckland defeated Canterbury.)
- December 15, 1848
- Captain Joseph Thomas, William Fox, and surveyors Cass and Torlesse arrive at the site of Lyttelton in the “Fly”. Thomas names the harbour “Port Victoria”. He and his party had been sent by the Canterbury Association to choose a site for the new colony and make the necessary preparations for the arrival of settlers in 1850.
- December 15, 1945
- Railway line to Picton completed.
- December 15, 1965
- Roll on/roll off loading facility in use at Lyttelton Harbour.
