The Robert Falcon Scott Memorial Oak – Arun Street, Ōamaru

It may seem an improbable location for a memorial to one of the most tragic episodes in Antarctic exploration — but on a quiet rise in Arun Street, Ōamaru, overlooking the town’s harbour, stands memorial oak commemorating the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910–13.

Captain Robert Falcon Scott and four members of his polar party — Dr. Edward Wilson, Lt. Henry Bowers, Capt. Lawrence Oates, and Petty Officer Edgar Evans — reached the South Pole on 18 January 1912, only to discover that Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had arrived there more than a month earlier. The return journey proved fatal. All five men perished in the attempt to return to their base at Cape Evans.

News of their fate reached the world from New Zealand nearly a year later. In February 1913, members of the expedition support team, having returned aboard the Terra Nova, came ashore at Ōamaru. From the harbour, they walked up Arun Street to the harbourmaster’s residence to send a coded telegram announcing the deaths of Scott and his companions. That message was the first official confirmation of the outcome of the expedition and was relayed internationally from New Zealand.

Later that same year, on 28 November 1913, a memorial English oak was planted near the path the men had taken. It was accompanied by a marble plaque and surrounded by a wrought iron fence. The plaque remains in place and reads:

IN MEMORY OF THE ATLANTIC HEROES
SCOTT, WILSON, BOWERS, OATES, EVANS,
WHO REACHED THE POLE ON JANUARY 18TH 1912
AND PERISHED ON THE RETURN JOURNEY

Though modest in scale, the memorial holds deep historical significance. It not only commemorates the five men who gave their lives in pursuit of scientific and geographic achievement but also marks the location where the rest of the world first learned their story. In this quiet corner of Ōamaru, the tree endures as a living witness to one of the 20th century’s defining moments of exploration and sacrifice (Cadwallader, B.G.,2025).