Abstract
This thesis examines the development of the milk supply in Dunedin, from the beginnings of the Otago settlement until growing municipalisation and state oversight at the turn of the century. In its liquid, unprocessed state, milk would not emerge as a prominent export commodity, and the history of its supply is accordingly best approached at the local scale. The thesis charts an expanding ‘milk community’ in Dunedin across a forty-year period, delineating the various constituencies invested in the growth of a reliable, productive and safe industry. These constituencies straddled and complicate the rural/urban divide. Through this focus the thesis sheds light on key aspects of the city’s social history in its formative decades, including the innovation of the cooperative principle, the dissemination of new technical and scientific knowledge, and efforts to assure public health and mitigate the dangers of milk-borne diseases.