Southland historian, Lloyd Esler, has added another volume to his body of work with the recently published book West to the Waiau.

West of the Waiau is Southland historian Lloyd Esler's latest book. Photo: Supplied

Illustrated with hundreds of photos, maps and documents, the 266-page book took three years to complete and tells the story of the people, places and plants of the greater Waiau catchment area and as far west as Puysegur Point.

The narrative starts in pre-human times and conclude with the building of the Manapouri power station in the late 1960s.

Essler has been recording Southland’s history for 25 years and considers his eleventh book, West to the Waiau, to be his best work so far.

“I had a lot of fun researching and writing it. It was a new territory for me, as not much has been written about that part of New Zealand. Most of the information in the book comes from Papers Past,” Esler says.

A botanist by profession, Essler studied botany at Otago University under Doctor Alan Mark (now Emeritus Professor).

He worked at Otago Museum between 1978 and 1986, before becoming a natural history teacher at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery, where he was employed from 1991 to 2001. 

“I got interested in history while working at the Otago Museum and later at the Southland Museum,” he said. 

His writing career started in 1999 with the book Southland Shells. In 2002 he began writing the About the South history column at The Southland Times. April this year marked his 1000th weekly column.

Out of the 11 books and booklets under his belt, all but one (Jack the Whaleboy) were self-published by Esler, and all were printed by Craigs Design and Print in Invercargill.

Esler prefers to have full control of the contents of each of his publications, saying that “With a professional publisher you lose control over what the final product would be.”

He can cope with the disadvantages of self-publishing, including high initial outlay and handling his own distribution, but finds the emotional side of a book completion hard.

“There’s a bit of a post-natal depression after publishing a book,” he says.

He combats this by starting a new book.

In fact, he has five books on the go at the moment.

His biography of the Tuatapere doctor Eric Elder is due to be published in December this year.

Another book, about the history of Bluff, is also nearing completion.

West to the Waiau can be bought by contacting Lloyd Esler on 021 176 6580.