Ōpāwaho / Heathcote River: from source to estuary

Frieda Looser has an MA (Hons) in History and is the author of Fendall’s Legacy, a history of Fendalton and Northwest Christchurch. She was a Senior Tutor in the History Dept., UC , tutoring and lecturing in a number of courses, and currently teaches in the UC Academic Skills Centre. Frieda was a contributor to the University’s Community Education programme from 1998 to 2012, offering a wide range of courses exploring European, as well as New Zealand and local Canterbury history. When the University disestablished Continuing Education, Frieda founded her own business in 2013 and teaches history courses, leads overseas study tours, and offers talks to U3A, Probus and other community groups.
The rivers of Canterbury have provided food and transport routes for human settlers since the 13th century, as well as the most obvious purpose of draining the land, as rainfall became stormwater. Ōpāwaho means ‘The Place of the Outward Pā’, or ‘The Outpost’ and refers to a pā near the river providing food and rest for Māori en route from Horomaka (Banks Peninsula) to Kaiapoi. European settlers in 1850 named the river after Sir William Heathcote, Secretary of the Canterbury Association. The river meanders around the foot of the Port Hills on its way to the estuary and the ocean. This lecture series will trace the history of residential, community and industrial sites along the river as the values of heritage, culture, landscape, ecology and recreation are considered along with the significance of drainage in a flood-prone, low-lying corridor of the city of Christchurch.