gisborne

Gisborne (previously known as Tūranga) is the only city in the East Coast region. Gisborne was the region’s first Pākehā settlement and has always been by far the largest. In 1831 John Harris set up the first trading station in Tūranga on behalf of a Sydney firm. The founding of the town is attributed to G. E. Read, who settled on the Kaiti (east) side of the river in 1852, but later built stores on the west bank. Over the next 30 years other traders and missionaries also came. Conflict in Poverty Bay in 1865–66 drew the government’s attention to the strategic position of the settlement, and in 1868 the government bought 300 hectares of land for a town site. Rapid development came towards the end of the century on the back of a thriving pastoral hinterland. Two freezing works and many other industries were established. The city celebrated the bicentennial of Cook’s landing with great enthusiasm in 1969.