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Roots Earth in Dunedin: audio stories about 40 places

Roots Earth has audio stories about 40 places in Dunedin, New Zealand, in Oceania. The Dunedin stories are in all seven Roots Earth languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The app needs no account: open Dunedin, pick a place on the city's map of places and play. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection. The stories are written by local people.

The 40 places are listed below in the order the app shows them, and again further down with their coordinates. The lists were taken from the Roots Earth catalogue on 15 September 2026.

Published 16 September 2026. Markdown: dunedin.md

The 40 places in Dunedin with audio stories

In the order the app shows them.

  1. Dunedin Railway Station
  2. Larnach Castle
  3. First Church of Otago
  4. The Octagon
  5. Tūhura Otago Museum
  6. Toitū Otago Settlers Museum
  7. St Paul's Cathedral
  8. Olveston
  9. University of Otago Registry Building
  10. Baldwin Street
  11. Dunedin Town Hall
  12. Speight's Brewery
  13. Dunedin Public Art Gallery
  14. St Joseph's Cathedral
  15. Knox Church
  16. Cargill Monument
  17. Otago Boys' High School
  18. Otago Girls' High School
  19. Dunedin Law Courts
  20. Forsyth Barr Stadium
  21. Dunedin Chinese Garden
  22. Hocken Collections
  23. Otago Peninsula
  24. Taiaroa Head
  25. Otago Harbour
  26. Carisbrook
  27. Signal Hill
  28. George Street
  29. Dunedin Botanic Garden
  30. Roslyn
  31. Mornington
  32. North East Valley
  33. Woodhaugh Gardens
  34. Logan Park
  35. Dunedin Northern Cemetery
  36. Dunedin Southern Cemetery
  37. St Clair
  38. St Kilda
  39. Port Chalmers
  40. Tunnel Beach

Is there an audio guide for Dunedin Railway Station?

Yes. Dunedin Railway Station has its audio stories in the Roots Earth app: a short introduction and a deeper story, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian.

It is place 1 of the 40 Dunedin places in the app, at -45.87527778, 170.50888889. Every one of the other 39 places in the list above has the same two stories.

Roots Earth is not a guided tour: you choose the place on the city's map of places and play its story yourself.

How to use Roots Earth in Dunedin

Open Roots Earth and choose Dunedin. The city has its own map of places with all 40 of them on it. Tap the place you are standing in front of, or any other, and play its short introduction or its deeper story. You decide what to listen to and in which order.

You can listen in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian, and there is no account. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection.

In full

All 40 places in Dunedin, in the app's order, with their coordinates.

All 40 places in Dunedin, with coordinates

Every place below has a short introduction and a deeper story in the Roots Earth app, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The names, the coordinates (latitude, longitude) and the one line descriptions are the app's own catalogue values of 15 September 2026; a place without a line here has none that this page can print.

1. Dunedin Railway Station

Coordinates
-45.87527778, 170.50888889
In one line
Opened in 1906, this Flemish Renaissance landmark by George Troup pairs dark basalt with pale Oamaru stone. Its booking hall floor of nearly 750,000 tiles and a 37 metre clock tower make it one of New Zealand's most photographed buildings.

2. Larnach Castle

Coordinates
-45.861659, 170.627214
In one line
Built from 1871 for merchant-politician William Larnach, this Gothic Revival mansion on the Otago Peninsula is often called New Zealand's only castle. Carved interiors, a grand ballroom and sweeping harbour views crown a story shadowed by family tragedy.

3. First Church of Otago

Coordinates
-45.87602, 170.50475
In one line
Completed in 1873 to Robert Lawson's Gothic Revival design, the Presbyterian mother church of Otago rises in pale Oamaru stone from the cut-down Bell Hill. Its 56 metre spire and great rose window make it New Zealand's most admired Victorian church.

4. The Octagon

Coordinates
-45.87416667, 170.50361111
In one line
Laid out in 1846 by surveyor Charles Kettle, this eight-sided plaza forms the civic heart of Dunedin. Ringed by Victorian landmarks and centred on an 1887 statue of poet Robert Burns, it gathers cafes, festivals and city life beneath the cathedral.

5. Tūhura Otago Museum

Coordinates
-45.86567778, 170.51084167
In one line
Founded in 1868, Dunedin's great natural history museum holds Māori and Pacific treasures, the world's largest moa collection, and a tropical butterfly forest. Renamed Tūhura in 2022, it spans buildings from 1877 through a modern glass atrium near the university.

6. Toitū Otago Settlers Museum

Coordinates
-45.877521, 170.505795
In one line
New Zealand's oldest history museum, founded in 1898, tells Otago's settler and migration story across an Edwardian building and an Art Deco former bus station. Highlights include the 1872 locomotive Josephine, a wall of pioneer portraits and atmospheric period rooms.

7. St Paul's Cathedral

Coordinates
-45.87361, 170.502539
In one line
Overlooking the Octagon, Dunedin's Anglican cathedral raises the only stone-vaulted nave in New Zealand. Designed by Edmund Sedding and built between 1915 and 1919 in Oamaru limestone, it gained a strikingly modern chancel in 1971.

8. Olveston

Coordinates
-45.86613, 170.50243
In one line
Olveston is a 35-room Jacobean-style mansion built between 1904 and 1906 for the merchant David Theomin. Bequeathed to the city in 1966 with its furnishings, art, and household objects intact, it survives as a complete Edwardian home.

9. University of Otago Registry Building

Coordinates
-45.864732, 170.514797
In one line
The Registry Building, completed in 1879 to a design by Maxwell Bury, is the landmark of New Zealand's oldest university. Built in dark Leith Valley basalt and pale Oamaru stone beside the Water of Leith, its 33-metre clock tower defines the campus.

10. Baldwin Street

Coordinates
-45.84944444, 170.53472222
In one line
Baldwin Street, in Dunedin's North East Valley, is recognised by Guinness World Records as the world's steepest residential street, reaching a gradient of roughly 35 percent. Its severe slope is an accident of grid planning laid out without regard for the hillside terrain.

11. Dunedin Town Hall

Coordinates
-45.873343, 170.503053
In one line
The Dunedin Town Hall began with Robert Lawson's Neo-Renaissance Municipal Chambers, opened in 1880 with a 47-metre tower. A grand auditorium added by 1930 once seated the largest audience in New Zealand and houses a vast pipe organ of around 3,500 pipes.

12. Speight's Brewery

Coordinates
-45.876374, 170.499959
In one line
Speight's Brewery, founded on Rattray Street in 1876, is one of New Zealand's oldest working breweries.

14. St Joseph's Cathedral

Coordinates
-45.87444, 170.49806
In one line
St Joseph's Cathedral, opened in 1886 to a Gothic Revival design by Francis Petre, is the Catholic cathedral of Dunedin. Built in pale Oamaru stone, it was completed without the tall spire Petre planned, yet remains admired for its rib-vaulted interior.

15. Knox Church

Coordinates
-45.867152, 170.507083
In one line
Knox Church is a Gothic Revival Presbyterian church designed by Robert Lawson and completed in 1876. Its slender Oamaru stone spire rises 51 metres above George Street, marking one of Dunedin's most graceful Victorian landmarks.

16. Cargill Monument

Coordinates
-45.87766667, 170.50186111
In one line
The Cargill Monument is a Gothic Revival stone canopy raised in the 1860s to honour Captain William Cargill, co-founder of the Otago settlement. Standing about 7. 5 metres tall, it crowns the city's historic Exchange district.

17. Otago Boys' High School

Coordinates
-45.871597, 170.495051
In one line
Otago Boys' High School, founded in 1863, is one of New Zealand's oldest state secondary schools. Its turreted main block, designed by Robert Lawson and completed in 1885, dominates the hillside above central Dunedin in dramatic Scottish Baronial style.

18. Otago Girls' High School

Coordinates
-45.874981, 170.499946
In one line
Otago Girls' High School, founded in 1871, was among the first state secondary schools for girls in the Southern Hemisphere. A pioneer of female education, it produced many of New Zealand's earliest women lawyers, doctors and Olympic champions.

19. Dunedin Law Courts

Coordinates
-45.87539, 170.50734
In one line
The Dunedin Law Courts, opened in 1902, are a Victorian Gothic civic building by government architect John Campbell. Built in dark Port Chalmers breccia with pale Oamaru stone, they are crowned by a marble figure of Justice, her eyes uncovered.

20. Forsyth Barr Stadium

Coordinates
-45.86916667, 170.52444444
In one line
Forsyth Barr Stadium, opened in 2011, is the world's first fully roofed stadium with a natural grass pitch. Its transparent ETFE roof, spanning massive steel trusses, lets light reach the turf while sheltering some 30,000 spectators from Dunedin's weather.

21. Dunedin Chinese Garden

Coordinates
-45.8782, 170.5054
In one line
The Dunedin Chinese Garden, named Lan Yuan, opened in 2008 as an authentic Ming-style scholar's garden. Designed by Shanghai architects and built largely from materials shipped from China, it honours the Cantonese settlers of the Otago gold rush.

22. Hocken Collections

Coordinates
-45.86976, 170.517715
In one line
The Hocken Collections holds the private library Thomas Hocken gave the University of Otago in 1907. Opened in 1910, it gathers manuscripts, maps, art, and photographs that document New Zealand's southern history.

23. Otago Peninsula

Coordinates
-45.85833333, 170.65
In one line
The Otago Peninsula is a 20-kilometre arm of hills built from an extinct volcano, sheltering Otago Harbour. Long settled by Māori and Scottish settlers, it now draws visitors for albatross, penguins, sea lions, and Larnach Castle.

24. Taiaroa Head

Coordinates
-45.775, 170.72777778
In one line
Taiaroa Head guards the entrance to Otago Harbour. Crowned by an 1864 lighthouse, an old Māori pā, and a hidden disappearing gun of 1886, it holds the world's only mainland breeding colony of northern royal albatross.

25. Otago Harbour

Coordinates
-45.832, 170.629
In one line
Otago Harbour is a 21-kilometre drowned volcanic inlet sheltering Dunedin and Port Chalmers. Once too shallow for big ships, it was dredged into a working port, opening the Victoria Channel in 1881 and launching New Zealand's frozen meat trade.

26. Carisbrook

Coordinates
-45.89361111, 170.49055556
In one line
Carisbrook was Dunedin's great sports ground, opened in 1883 in Caversham. Nicknamed The House of Pain, it hosted 38 All Blacks tests and Otago cricket before closing in 2011 and giving way to Forsyth Barr Stadium.

27. Signal Hill

Coordinates
-45.84972222, 170.55944444
In one line
Signal Hill rises above Dunedin, crowned by the New Zealand Centennial monument. Designed for the 1940 centenary but built in the 1950s, it bears two bronze figures and a stone from Edinburgh Castle, with sweeping views over city and harbour.

28. George Street

Coordinates
-45.864, 170.509
In one line
George Street is Dunedin's main shopping street, running north from the Octagon for about 2. 5 kilometres. Lined with Victorian buildings, malls, and student-driven shops, it was recently pedestrianised in a redevelopment finished in early 2024.

29. Dunedin Botanic Garden

Coordinates
-45.8575, 170.5225
In one line
New Zealand's oldest botanic garden, founded in 1863, spreads across 28 hectares at the city's northern edge. Lower lawns and an Edwardian winter glasshouse give way to an upper hillside famous for its rhododendron dell and aviary.

30. Roslyn

Coordinates
-45.8673, 170.4899
In one line
A hilltop suburb 150 metres above central Dunedin, Roslyn took its Scottish name in the 1850s and grew into an independent borough. Cable cars once climbed to it from the city, and its woollen mills made the name known nationwide.

31. Mornington

Coordinates
-45.8824, 170.4777
In one line
A hill suburb two kilometres west of central Dunedin, Mornington was a separate borough until 1916. Its name dates from 1862, its shops cluster on Mailer Street, and Unity Park crowns the ridge with sweeping views over the city below.

32. North East Valley

Coordinates
-45.853, 170.522
In one line
A valley suburb three kilometres northeast of central Dunedin, North East Valley follows Lindsay Creek between Pine Hill and Signal Hill. A borough until 1910, it is home to Baldwin Street, reputedly the world's steepest, branching off North Road.

33. Woodhaugh Gardens

Coordinates
-45.854, 170.512
In one line
A 12-hectare riverside park established in 1873, Woodhaugh Gardens stretches up the Leith Valley beside the Water of Leith. It shelters a rare remnant of ancient kahikatea swamp forest and remains a favourite family spot for play and picnics.

34. Logan Park

Coordinates
-45.864, 170.525
In one line
A broad sports and recreation ground reclaimed from the former Lake Logan, Logan Park opened in 1920 and hosted the 1925 New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition. Today it holds the University Oval, the Caledonian Ground, and university sports fields.

35. Dunedin Northern Cemetery

Coordinates
-45.86, 170.52472222
In one line
Opened in 1872 on the slopes of Signal Hill, this 8-hectare cemetery holds more than 13,000 graves. Among them lies William Larnach, whose mausoleum echoes the First Church of Otago. It is listed as a Category One historic place.

36. Dunedin Southern Cemetery

Coordinates
-45.8899, 170.4937
In one line
Opened in 1858 on a hillside above South Dunedin, the Southern Cemetery holds roughly 23,000 graves across Presbyterian, Anglican, Catholic, Jewish, and Chinese sections, including founders William Cargill and Thomas Burns.

37. St Clair

Coordinates
-45.91111111, 170.48611111
In one line
A seaside suburb on Dunedin's southern coast, St Clair grew from William Henry Valpy's 1850s farm into a surf beach lined with cafes, a hot saltwater pool set in rock, and an esplanade backed by a long sea wall.

38. St Kilda

Coordinates
-45.9048, 170.5009
In one line
A southern Dunedin suburb on the central plain above Ocean Beach, St Kilda was named after the Melbourne suburb by developer George Scott. A borough from 1875, it merged into Dunedin in 1989 and is known for its beach and sports grounds.

39. Port Chalmers

Coordinates
-45.8178, 170.6188
In one line
Dunedin's deep-water port on Otago Harbour, Port Chalmers received the first settlers in 1848 and launched the first frozen-meat shipment to Britain in 1882. It served gold-rush traffic and Antarctic expeditions led by Scott and Shackleton.

40. Tunnel Beach

Coordinates
-45.921229, 170.458556
In one line
A dramatic stretch of sea-carved sandstone cliffs, arches, and caves southwest of Dunedin, Tunnel Beach is reached through a hand-cut tunnel commissioned by John Cargill in the 1870s. A steep track and 72 steps descend to a secluded shore.

Roots Earth in short

Roots Earth has audio stories about 5,665 places in 130 cities, 25 countries and 6 regions, written by local people.

  • No account
  • Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection
  • Audio stories in English and German in every city, and in Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian in 126 of the 130 cities

Roots Earth for Android is available on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rootsearth.app.