Time Line of New Zealand disasters

This timeline lists New Zealand’s worst post-1840 natural disasters, transport accidents, fires, mining accidents and other tragedies that have caused major loss of life.

1846 Taupo landslide: The Ngati Tuwharetoa village of Te Rapa on the south-western shore of Lake Taupo was obliterated in this landslide. Sixty people were killed, including the paramount chief Mananui, Te Heuheu Tukino II.
1855 Wairarapa earthquake: On 23 January an earthquake measuring 8.2 on the Richter scale struck the lower North Island. It killed between five and nine people in Wellington, Manawatu and Wairarapa and radically altered the landscape of the Wellington region.
1863 HMS Orpheus shipwreck: Britain’s costliest day of the New Zealand Wars occurred far from the battlefield. On 7 February 1863 the Royal Navy’s steam corvette HMS Orpheus, bringing supplies and reinforcements, hit the Manukau Harbour bar. The 1706-ton ship was modern and powerful, but it was no match for the treacherous Manukau entrance whose channels and submerged sandbars move frequently.
1865 Fiery Star shipwreck: On 11 May the sailing ship Fiery Star caught fire and sank south of Cuvier Island, off the Coromandel Peninsula, with the loss of 79 lives.
1866 General Grant shipwreck: On 14 May 1866 the General Grant, sailing from Melbourne to London, hit cliffs on the west coast of the main island in the Auckland Islands and sank.
1879 Kaitangata mine accident: On 21 February, 34 miners were killed in an explosion at the Kaitangata coal mine in Otago.
1886 Tarawera eruption: On 10 June the volcanic Mount Tarawera, south-east of Rotorua, erupted spectacularly, killing perhaps 120 people and destroying the famed Pink and White Terraces on Lake Rotomahana.
1894 Wairarapa shipwreck: In the third worst shipwreck in New Zealand waters, 121 lives were lost when the Union Steam Ship Company steamer Wairarapa struck Miners Head, on the northern tip of Great Barrier Island, 90 kilometres north-east of Auckland.
1896 Brunner mine accident: On 26 March an explosion at Brunner, West Coast, killed 65 coal miners in New Zealand’s worst mining disaster.
1909 Penguin shipwreck: On 12 February the Cook Strait ferry Penguin struck rocks off Cape Terawhiti and sank with the loss of 72 lives.
1914 Huntly mine accident: On 12 September 43 coal miners were killed in an explosion at Ralph’s Mine, Waikato.
1918 Flu pandemic: In the early 21st century anxiety over the danger of Influenza A virus subtypes H5N1 (avian flu) and more recently H1N1 (swine flu) has revived memories of New Zealand's worst disease outbreak, the lethal influenza pandemic that struck between October and December 1918.
1923 Ongarue railway accident: On 6 July the North Island main trunk express slammed into a huge landslide at Ongarue, north of Taumarunui. With 17 deaths, this was the first major loss of life on New Zealand’s railways.
1929 Murchison earthquake: On 17 June an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale struck the north of the South Island, killing 17 people.
1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake: On 3 February New Zealand’s deadliest earthquake, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, devastated the cities of Napier and Hastings.
1938 Kopuawhara flood: On 19 February a flash flood swept away a Public Works railway construction camp at Kopuawhara on the East Coast, killing 21 workers.
1942 Seacliff Mental Hospital fire: On 9 December a fire at Seacliff Mental Hospital, north of Dunedin, killed 37 of the 39 female patients in Ward 5.
1943 Hyde railway accident: On 4 June the Cromwell–Dunedin express derailed near Hyde, central Otago, with the loss of 21 lives.
1947 Ballantyne’s fire: On 18 November 41 people were killed in New Zealand’s deadliest fire, in the Ballantyne’s Department Store in Christchurch.
1948 Mount Ruapehu air crash: On 23 October a Lockheed Electra airliner crashed near Mount Ruapehu, with the loss of all 13 passengers and crew.
1953 Tangiwai railway accident: On 24 December a North Island main trunk express plunged off the Tangiwai bridge into the Whangaehu River. The bridge had been fatally weakened by a lahar from Mount Ruapehu’s crater lake. Of the 285 people on board, 151 were killed. This is New Zealand’s worst rail disaster.
1959 Holmglen shipwreck: On 24 November the coaster Holmglen foundered north of Oamaru. All 15 crew were lost.
1963 Kaimai air crash: On 3 July a DC-3 airliner crashed in the Kaimai Range, Bay of Plenty. All 23 passengers and crew were killed in what remains the worst air crash within New Zealand.
1967 Strongman mine accident: On 19 January an explosion at the Strongman coal mine, near Greymouth, killed 19 miners.
1968 Wahine shipwreck: On 10 April the Lyttelton–Wellington ferry Wahine struck Barrett Reef at the entrance to Wellington Harbour in atrocious conditions caused by tropical cyclone Giselle.
1979 Mount Erebus air crash: On 28 November an Air New Zealand DC-10 airliner, on a sightseeing flight to Antarctica, crashed into Mount Erebus. All 257 passengers and crew were killed in New Zealand’s worst air disaster.
1984 Floods devastate Southland: A record one-day total of 84.8 millimetres of rain caused extensive surface flooding in the streets of Invercargill, Riverton, Otautau, Tuatapere and Bluff. A state of emergency was declared in the early hours of 27 January.
1995 Cave Creek disaster: On 28 April a Department of Conservation viewing platform built over a cliff at Cave Creek in the West Coast’s Paparoa National Park collapsed, killing 14 people.
2010 Canterbury Earthquake: Magnitude 7.1, Saturday, September 4 2010 at 4:35 am (NZST), 40 km west of Christchurch.
2010 Pike River mine explosion kills 29: The Pike River underground coal mine is high in the rugged Paparoa Range, on the West Coast of the South Island. The only access to the mine workings was through a 2.3-km-long tunnel that intersected with the Brunner coal seam.
2011 Christchurch earthquake: On Tuesday 22 February 2011, at 12.51 p.m., a magnitude 6.3 earthquake badly damaged Christchurch and Lyttelton, killing 185 people and injuring several thousand.

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