What it is
The Otago Early Settlers' Association founded the museum in 1898 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Scottish settlement of Otago. After a major redevelopment in 2011 and 2012 it reopened as Toitū, a Māori word meaning to remain unchanged, with galleries that follow the region's history from Kāi Tahu settlement through the gold rushes to modern Dunedin.
Highlights include Josephine, an 1872 Fairlie double-bogie engine and the oldest preserved steam locomotive in New Zealand, and the Portrait Room, lined with photographs of early settlers. A transport hall displays vehicles from horse-drawn drays to a trolley bus, and other exhibits include an early mainframe computer and the animated Pixie Town models from a former city department store.
Getting there by bus
Princes St, 151 (stop 769) and Princes St, 138 (stop 770), about 4 minutes' walk away, are served by routes 5, 8, 10, 18, 19, 30, 33, 35, 44, 55, 61, 63, 77 and 78. Princes St, 265 (stop 773), around 4–5 minutes' walk, has the same routes except 61 and 63.
Rattray St, 150 (stop 792), around 5 minutes away, is served by routes 61 and 63, and Cumberland St, outside Woolworths (stop 4), by routes 77 and 78.
