"Arica Tsunami 1868: Wood engraving by C. T. Winter from the Illustrated Melbourne Post, courtesy of the State Library of Victoria."
Well, that Civil Defence phone alert gave me quite a jump this afternoon. As of 4.11 pm, officials have issued a National Advisory for tsunami activity following an upgraded magnitude 8.8 earthquake off the east coast of Kamchatka, Russia.
The advice is clear: stay out of the water and away from beaches, harbours, rivers, estuaries and marinas. Strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges are expected that can be dangerous. Coastal inundation is not expected, but currents and surges can injure or drown people. The first activity may reach New Zealand from around 11.59 pm tonight and could continue for several hours. Civil Defence is urging people not to go to the coast to watch the waves and to follow instructions from local authorities.
Hearing that alert reminded me that this is not the first time Timaru has been connected to a tsunami. It also brought to mind one of the most dramatic years in our local history: 1868, when Timaru endured what I can only describe as a trifecta of disasters...
August 1868: The Tsunami from Chile
Only months later, on 14 August, disaster struck on the far side of the world. A massive magnitude 9 earthquake erupted off the coast of Arica, then part of Peru (now Chile), levelling cities across southern Peru and northern Chile. Arequipa, Moquegua, Tacna, Iquique and Arica were devastated. An estimated 25,000 people were killed.
Arica, a bustling port of around 2,000 people, was reduced to ruins. Eyewitnesses described buildings collapsing into “a single heap of ruins” as the earth shook violently. The fortified islet of Alacrán sank into the sea. Ships in the harbour, including the USS Wateree and the Peruvian corvette América, were swept inland by tsunami waves 8 to 15 metres high. The pier, crowded with those seeking safety, was obliterated. The USS Wateree was carried so far inland that its rusting remains lay stranded in the desert for decades afterwards.
In Arequipa, churches, schools, hospitals and homes fell. Forty people died when the roof of San Juan de Dios hospital collapsed. With irrigation canals shattered, the city was left without water. Survivors organised to bury the dead, repair canals and salvage what they could. In Moquegua, officials reported collapsed temples, ruined schools, destroyed crops and dozens of bodies uncovered in the rubble, while aftershocks shook what remained.
The earthquake unleashed a tsunami that roared across the Pacific, striking Peru’s coast from Pisco to Iquique, before racing thousands of kilometres to Hawaii, California, Japan, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand. There was no warning. Fifteen hours after the quake, New Zealanders woke in the early hours of 15 August to roaring seas and strange tidal surges.
The Chatham Islands: The Chathams bore the brunt. At Tupuangi, a Māori village of around 70 people was obliterated. Houses were smashed, the land was scoured bare, and Māori oral histories recall three whānau swept out to sea. Survivors who fled uphill were left destitute, and many later returned to ancestral lands in Taranaki. One man drowned at Waitangi West while trying to save a boat.
Banks Peninsula and Lyttelton: Banks Peninsula suffered dramatic effects. Waves surged between 4.5 and 7.6 metres high, smashing bridges, fences and wharves. At Lyttelton Harbour, nightwatchman Webb saw the harbour emptied of water by 4 am. Minutes later, an “immense wave” thundered in, snapping moorings and tossing ships about. The barque John Knox struck the jetty, the schooner Jeannie Duncan was battered, and the steamer Novelty collided violently with another vessel. Currents surged for hours, rising and falling by several feet in minutes.
The Star reported: “The harbour, from the wharf to Officers’ Point, was quite dry… A noise like thunder… then an immense wave… tearing them [ships] from the wharves and breaking the warps like twine.”
Timaru and the East Coast: Even Timaru felt its effects. The Timaru Herald described “extraordinary” movements in the harbour, with water racing out before rushing back in, unsettling moorings. Across the east coast, from Napier to Oamaru, abnormal currents damaged boats, shifted wharves and disrupted ports for days. The waves continued for 12–20 hours, and sea levels did not fully settle for several days. Had the largest surges coincided with high tide, the damage would have been far worse.
Earlier that year in February 1868, Canterbury experienced 'The Great Storm' and Floods
In early February 1868, an ex-tropical cyclone swept across New Zealand for six relentless days. Heavy rain, high winds and widespread flooding battered much of the country. Along the east coast of the South Island, from Marlborough to Otago, rivers broke their banks, roads disappeared under water, and ships were wrecked in the rough seas.
Here in South Canterbury, the damage was severe. Rivers surged over their banks, isolating communities and washing away roads. At Mount Peel homestead, more than eight inches of rain fell in just 24 hours. Nationwide, 37 lives were lost and the cost was estimated at up to £1 million – an extraordinary sum at the time. This storm became the standard against which all future floods in the region would be measured.
December 1868: The Great Fire:
As if the floods and surging seas weren’t enough, December brought yet another catastrophe: the Great Fire. Timaru's commercial heart was gutted by fire, when a blaze fanned by fierce no west winds tore through what is now Stafford Street, devastating the town centre.
On 7 December 1868, a fire broke out in cabinetmaker Daniel Munro’s workshop when a stove set alight a pile of shavings. The flames spread rapidly, fuelled by a strong nor’wester, and within minutes they leapt down Stafford Street, consuming timber buildings one after another, nearly all the way south to Woollcombe Street.
In less than an hour, 39 businesses and homes lay in ashes. The Timaru Herald office was among those lost, though the paper resumed publishing a single-sheet edition only days later.
Furniture and goods were hauled into the street to be saved, only for some to catch alight and spark further fires across the road.
An inquest revealed the fire’s cause: Munro’s young assistant had lit the stove near loose shavings, a common but dangerous practice. While the boy was cleared of blame, the inquiry concluded that inadequate precautions had left the town defenceless.
The disaster spurred calls for action. Timaru had no fire brigade, no engine, and no reliable water supply. Public pressure finally led to the establishment of a volunteer fire brigade, the purchase of a manual fire engine in 1870, and the introduction of a piped water supply in 1881. The fire marked the end of Timaru’s vulnerable wooden main street, ushering in more substantial brick and stone construction.
What 1868 Taught Us: Floods, a tsunami and a devastating fire... all within one year. It is almost impossible to imagine how overwhelming this must have been for such a small community. These events reshaped Timaru. The storm and fire drove investment in infrastructure and stronger building practices, while the tsunami was a stark reminder of our connection to the wider Pacific.
Today, we have early warnings and civil defence systems that our early Timaruvians could never have imagined. Remembering 1868 helps us understand why preparedness matters and why heeding warnings saves lives. The lessons of that year are not just history; they remain as relevant as ever.
A view of Stafford Street, Timaru, in 1864. Taken from George Street looking across the largely empty sections north of the Bank Of New Zealand building (out of shot on the right), towards the Cobb & Co livery stables on Beswick Street (top right). Inscribed with the title and "protected W. Ferrier". Ferrier was not the photographer who took the image, but clearly purchased the plate after he came to Timaru in 1881, perhaps from another retiring photographer (a common practice of the time). - South Canterbury Museum.
Stafford Street before the Great Fire - South Canterbury Museum 6116
THE LATE EARTHQUAKES IN SOUTH AMERICA.
Timaru Herald, Volume IX, Issue 360, 7 November 1868, Page 2
"FURTHER PARTICULARS.
The West Coast Mail of Valparaiso has received intelligence of the inundation of Talcahuana from the officers of the steamer Guayaguil, which was anchored in that port at the time of the occurrence. It says that on Thursday, the 13th inst., at about a quarter to 9 o’clock p.m., the weather being fine, the sea calm, and the night clear and starlight, it was observed the water was running out so rapidly that in a few minutes a large extent of the beach, covered but a few minutes before, was lying bare. Alarm was immediately given, and the inhabitants, apprehensive of an earthquake, began to make for the hills, shrieking for mercy. About 9 o’clock the return wave began to roll in a huge sea some 20 or more feet deep, which scarcely allowed the more careless or daring who had remained in the lower town time to escape before it arrived at the beach, and, rising beyond it, overflowed the town to a depth of several feet, reaching as far as the Plaza. Of the three moles formerly boasted by Talcahuana, not one has escaped; the Government mole has had sticks standing yet, but they consist only of one or two short series of piles, the superstructure of which has gone nobody knows whither. The two moles belonging to private individuals have been swept away bodily, “leaving not a wreck behind.” There is scarcely a boat or a barge in the bay that has not either been knocked entirely to pieces or seriously damaged.
The first row of houses facing the beach of course had to bear the brunt of the heaviest shock, and as the greater number of them consist of slightly built dwellings chiefly owned or inhabited by poor people, they all suffered to a greater or less extent, the crash of the falling timbers and roofs adding its din to the hideous roar of the sea that echoed in the ears of the terror-stricken, shrieking, fleeing multitude.
In about an hour afterwards the sea began a second time to recede, raising the fears of the inhabitants to a still higher pitch than ever, if possible; but the return wave which followed, was of less force, and as the chief part of the more slightly built dwellings had already been destroyed, less damage was effected by the second incursion of the sea than by the first. The phenomenon was repeated for a third time at about two o’clock a.m., but with less force than ever, and it was then evident that the danger had passed. The people then descended from their elevated places of refuge and proceeded to investigate the extent of their losses, these in many instances, especially on those least able to afford it, amounting to ruin; but the better class, living in more substantial dwellings, suffered comparatively little, that effected being caused chiefly by the sea bursting in their doors and flooding and destroying furniture and goods. In round numbers, we understand, the loss may be set down at £100,000.
The news already published of the terrible disasters caused on the Peruvian Coast by the late fearful earthquake and tidal wave is fully confirmed. We make some extracts from our exchanges. The Nacional of Lima says, alluding to the earthquake at Callao on the 13th:—
Scarcely had a day passed since this event, when the steamer from Pisco communicated with that port, that the Guano Islands, Chincha Baja, Canete and lea had been the theatre of most deplorable events. In this last-named city, the movement of the earth had been so violent that it completely overthrew more than forty houses and some churches, all the houses that remained standing being seriously damaged.
The river which runs through the town increased considerably bearing along water mingled with ashes.
In Pisco the sea retired more than four hundred yards, and at 10 o’clock at night returned with fury, passing its usual limits more than two hundred yards, and carrying with it everything it encountered. Various stores on the beach were completely destroyed, and the mole very much injured in its foundations: the losses have been considerable.
In Chincha Baja, the stores full of goods for loading, the offices of the Steam Company and almost all the town were destroyed by the sea.
In the Guano Islands the shock was so strong that no one could remain standing; there, after the shock, the sea remained perfectly quiet, but at half-past nine at night commenced to retire, and when distant about seventy yards an immense wave arose, which falling with irresistible force on the mole, tore away from its foundation about seventy yards of it, causing the inhabitants to give themselves up for lost: the vessels anchored, at the mercy of the waves, dashed with violence against each other, their anchors being of no avail, and suffered considerable damage.
Arequipa, that was a beautiful city..."
Sources
NIWA: February 1868 New Zealand Storm: https://hwe.niwa.co.nz/event/February_1868_New_Zealand_Storm
Wikipedia: Great Storm of 1868: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_storm_of_1868
GeoNet: Peru–Chile Tsunami, 15 August 1868: https://www.geonet.org.nz/tsunami/story/18680815
NIWA: Peru–Chile tsunami, 15 August 1868: https://hwe.niwa.co.nz/event/Peru-Chile_tsunami_15_August_1868
Canterbury Pilgrims Association: Tsunami hits Banks Peninsula 1868: https://www.canterburypilgrims.nz/blog/tsunami-hits-banks-peninsula-1868
The Star (Christchurch), 15 Aug 1868: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS18680815.2.11
Timaru Herald, 19 Aug 1868: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THD18680819.2.19
Timaru Herald, 24 Feb 1945 (Great Fire retrospective): https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THD19450224.2.39
Wikipedia ES: Terremoto de Arica de 1868: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terremoto_de_Arica_de_1868
Canterbury Pilgrims Association: Tsunami hits Banks Peninsula 1868: https://www.canterburypilgrims.nz/blog/tsunami-hits-banks-peninsula-1868