"Everything is topsy-turvey": Settler Women and the Environmental Transformation of New Zealand 1845–1914

There are still major gaps in the environmental history of Aotearoa New Zealand, both with uneven coverage of regional studies and the role of gender and race. New Zealand has long been recognised as a unique case of environmental development because of its unprecedented rapid transformation and because much of it occurred in an era when it could be documented. However, this 'documentation' can itself become an issue as it often ignores or minimises two groups that also made significant changes to New Zealand — Māori and colonial women. This thesis will analyse the role of colonial Pākehā women during this period of rapid environmental change in Aotearoa New Zealand, from 1845–1914. It will use the case studies of women from four different regions of New Zealand: Canterbury, Otago, Hawkes Bay and Taranaki. This thesis will examine the role of women in changing and utilising the environment in which they found themselves, as well as their creation of rural enterprises that led to the development of both a landscape and an economy geared towards agricultural productivity. In addition, it will consider the impact of that environment on them materially, and culturally. It will also investigate the creation of environmental and agricultural information networks between women settlers as well as the participation of New Zealand women in national and global scientific networks. It will analyse the role of women in environmental transformation through land clearance, farming, the running of businesses, dairying and the creation of public spaces and institutions. My thesis demonstrates that women had a strong and lasting influence on the 'natural' spaces in their communities through their support for the creation of public parks and gardens. They also had significant involvement in the work of acclimatisation societies and the development of colonial science. Informing all of these aspects of settler life were concerns with religion and health and the contemporary belief in 'improvement' which was a highly influential motivating factor for many women in their approach to the New Zealand environment. By investigating all these aspects through the medium of primary sources such as memoirs, diaries, letters and newspaper articles I will examine women's relationship to, and their strategies of coping with, what seems to be an overwhelmingly male-dominated society. My thesis will examine the extent to which women accepted, or resisted, the prevailing gender discourse of their time through words and actions, in the context of their environmental interactions. The aim of this thesis is to shine light on the contribution of women to environmental and regional change in colonial New Zealand. It is also to bring attention to previously under-researched aspects of environmental history and to widen the context of critical analysis of New Zealand's environmental transformation. It demonstrates methods through which women can be fully integrated into the narrative of environmental transformation and highlights the types of evidence that can be used to tease out the stories of women as well as the gender imbalance issues permeating repositories of 'official records' such as archives. It demonstrates the way in which the genre of environmental history must widen both its scope and the types of historical resources it utilises in order to fully tell the story of the settler's transformation of the New Zealand landscape. To overlook the lived experience of women such as the ones included in this thesis, is to leave the subject of New Zealand's environmental history only partially explored.