During the ‘angry autumn’ of 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, unemployed workers in Dunedin reacted angrily when the Hospital Board refused to assist them.
Trouble had first flickered in Dunedin in January, when a crowd of unemployed besieged a grocery store. It flared on 9 April, when protesters stoned the mayor’s relief depot and tried to storm the Hospital Board’s offices. They were dispersed by baton-wielding police.
The Dunedin disturbances were repeated in Christchurch, Wellington and – most dramatically – in Auckland’s Queen St on 14 April.
Image: Dunedin Hospital (Genealo)
Read more on NZHistory
Origins – The New Zealand Legion
External links
- 1932 Depression protests - Dunedin (Te Ara
- Destructive and violent protests (Te Ara)
- The Depression riots (1966 encyclopaedia)
- The Depression of the Thirties (1966 encyclopaedia)
- Impacts and memories of the 1930s depression (NZine)
- Images of Dunedin Hospital
How to cite this page
'Unemployed disturbances in Dunedin', URL: /unemployed-disturbances-in-dunedin, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 9-Apr-2016
