Waitaha, Ngati Mamoe and Ngāi Tahu walked though this area as they travelled between settlements, the sea and mountains - long before the first Europeans arrived in the early nineteenth century.
The High Street revitalisation project provides the opportunity to celebrate and incorporate cultural markers and tohu (signs, symbolic representations) representing Ngāi Tūāhuriri hapū sites of significance and associations with travel. These have been reflected in paving, landscaping and sculptural elements elsewhere in the central city. We are working with Matapopere Charitable Trust to identify which elements to include in the High Street project.
Interpretation panels are planned at key sites as part of a separate project.
The three planters that were adjacent to the plaque will be taken away and the area paved. The cabbage trees that were in the planters have already been removed.
In 1849/50 surveyor Edward Jolie placed High Street diagonally on the Christchurch grid, providing access to Sumner, Lyttelton and Ferrymead. A commemorative plaque, referring to the formation of Christchurch streets, will be relocated nearby on the corner of Cashel and High streets.
The plaque states:
Opposite this stone in 1851 Mr J. E. Fitzgerald, Superintendent, Mr R. Packer, and others, commenced the formation of Christchurch streets. They removed the tussocks and filled in the ruts. The Canterbury Pilgrims & Early Settlers Association Inc. 1850 – 1950.