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This church opened in 1878. Due to a shortage of funds the planned spire was not built. In 1898 Mother Mary MacKillop, and two Josephite Sisters, arrived into Dunedin on the request of the local parish priest to assist with teaching. Australia's first saint, Saint Mary MacKillop is also known as Saint Mary of the Cross. When they arrived they found the existing school then called St Mary’s School, to be in an old shed-like house and in a sad state of disrepair. A new school, St Joseph’s Primary School, was subsequently opened at the end of January 1898. MacKillop lived in Port Chalmers for two months and was the first Head of St Joseph’s in Port Chalmers.
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This church was built from Port Chalmers bluestone (breccia stone) between 1871 and 1874 to the designs of prominent Dunedin architect R.A. Lawson. It is one of only a handful of New Zealand churches built in an Early English Gothic style according to the principles of the Academic Gothic Revival. The church building is constructed from and has several fine memorial stained-glass windows.
Located between Port Chalmers and Portobello to the northwest of the larger Quarantine Island/Kamau Taurua, this island has an area of 4.5 hectares (11 acres). When the quarantine station was running, single men were quartered in a two storied barrack similar to those on Quarantine Island/Kamau Taurua. Unlike its neighbour, Goat Island/Rakiriri today is uninhabited, and is designated as a scenic reserve and Historic Area. It is an important bird area due to its breeding colony of bronze shags.
This building dates from 1889 and originally housed the Port Chalmers Town Hall, as well as the Town Clerk’s office, the Fire Brigade, the Police Station (including the Sergeant’s residence and cells), Court Rooms, Customs Office and Government Shipping Office. There was also a morgue that occupied a backroom downstairs. Today the library and service centre are housed in the area previously occupied by the fire brigade. Upstairs are various function rooms.
Originally called the Jerusalem Hotel, it was built in 1876 After the original owner had financial problems it was purchased in 1879 by George Chick and from then on it was known as Chick's. In 1903 the Port Chalmers electorate went ‘dry’ and Chick's lost its licence. Hotels at the port banded together, taking their case as far as the Privy Council, in London, before winning back their licences in May, 1905.
From 2008 until 2016 when it closed for good it was a popular music venue, which attracted national and international acts such as Steve Albini, Sharon van Etten and Kurt Vile. The building is now used as a recording studio.
The basement was once used as an overflow jail, with meals being served with the assistance of the Chick family. Now bricked up, a smuggling tunnel lead out from the basement to the dock area. Legend has it that drunk pub patrons would be taken down and ‘shanghaied’ to wake up the next day halfway out to sea.
This small museum is located in the former Post Office building (built in 1877). The building’s location prior to the 19th-century land reclamation, was the beach in Kōpūtai Bay where the first settlers from the sailing ship ‘John Wickliffe’ landed in 1848 to establish the Province of Otago. The museum has a maritime collection and a settlers' collection, telling the stories of early pioneers and many port characters who have lived here over the years.
Stone church, built between 1871 and 1883. The church is built from Port Chalmers bluestone (breccia stone), with Oamaru stone piles and kauri interiors and a roof clad in slate scales. The church has a number of memorial windows including the Watkin-Creed memorial windows, placed in the Iona Union Church vestibule in 1974 when the Port Chalmers Methodist Church was demolished. They have not been permanently installed as a result of their different shape but rest in front of the existing stained-glass windows. Above the altar is a rose window.