HISTORY OF THE COTTAGE

Stoddart's Cottage is a diminutive white colonial cottage, named after Mark Stoddart. The cottage was possibly a kitset building brought over from Australia around 1862. Recent studies have revealed the presence of canadian wood, supporting the theory that the building had travelled considerable distances before arriving in Diamond Harbour.

Originally a simple three-roomed cottage, the colonial Georgian building has been extended and altered throughout its history.

Today Diamond Harbour's oldest European house occupies a special place in the affections of this small community. It has experienced good and bad times, summer heat and winter snow, woodworm and neglect but has survived the vicissitudes of the past century and a half.

What you see - and visit - today is a compact wooden building with a deep verandah and steeply pitched slate roof. The timber wall frame is infilled with earth cobb. Originally it would have had three rooms - two front and a kitchen at the rear linked by a hallway (since removed) running from the front door. Above, a long attic room is lit by a single window. The hand-made bricks of the original kitchen fireplace are still visible. Shelter belts were established, fruit trees and strawberries emerged from the volcanic soil while New Zealand's first lucerne crop was harvested. A flagstaff was erected on high ground between the property and the sea to allow Mark Stoddart to signal to Lyttelton when he sighted vessels entering Lyttelton Harbour.

During its long life, the Stoddart's home would be extended and altered to accommodate the demands of a growing family of six children, including the girl who would eventually become one of New Zealand's leading 19th century artists, Margaret Stoddart. Today, a steep ladder in the kitchen takes you up to the attic room where Margaret, her brothers and sisters may have slept. One of Margaret Stoddart's best known and most popular paintings shows the house cocooned in a lush flower garden beneath a hot azure summer sky.

In 1913, the Cottage was bought by Lyttelton Borough Council becoming home to a succession of tenants. We know that it was tenanted until at least October 1976, but believe this may have been the last time it was lived in. By the mid 1980s it was in a dilapidated and neglected condition. Recognising the cottage's historical and heritage value, a small band of volunteers began working to repair rotted weather boards and floors and patch the leaking roof. Their work subsequently became an intensive restoration project.

In 1991, the garden was rescued from oblivion and is continuously tended to this day. The descendants of the Australian gum trees planted in the 1850s can also still be seen towering above the roof.

In 1998 a trust was established to maintain and administer Stoddart's Cottage.

Today its members continue to work closely with the building's owners, Christchurch City Council, to ensure that a small but hugely significant part of New Zealand history is preserved as a living heart of the community, and hosts arts and crafts exhibitions, town meetings and community events.