Perceptions of dirt now part of the fabric of history.

A book on dirt in 19th century Dunedin, how it affected the lives of the settlers and how local authorities dealt with it has been 11 years in the making, says Wellington nurse historian Pamela Wood.

Called Dirt: filth and decay in a new world arcadia, the book was launched last month at Victoria University of Wellington's Graduate School of Nursing and Midwifery where Wood is associate professor. It grew out of her PhD research into the cultural history of New Zealand settlers' understanding of dirt and public health, begun in 1994 when she was a lecturer at Dunedin Polytechnic.

"The early settlers to Dunedin believed they were coming to a New World paradise," said Wood. "They did not expect to find the Old World evils of dirt and decay and the diseases associated with them. They were alarmed to find higher rates of death from diseases like typhoid and scarlet fever than those they had left behind in some of the larger industrial cities in Britain, though this had a lot to do with the larger proportion of children in the new settlement." Deciding just what dirt was, what should be done about it and who had responsibility for dealing with it were real challenges to the growing settlement. Issues were exacerbated by the influx of gold prospectors during the 1860s. As the settlers saw the connection between dirt and public health, they established sewerage systems and regular supplies of clean water and they drained the swamps for houses and farms.

The story of how dirt and decay were managed in Dunedin is replicated throughout New Zealand settlements, Wood said. How local authorities managed these problems also helped shape the practice of nurses and midwives. The inquiry in 1890 into the sanitary state of Dunedin Hospital, built on a swamp, led to a thorough programme of decontamination and clearer understandings of the links between infection and dirt.

The problems of dirt and pollution continue to day, only taking new forms, said Wood. "Today, new pollutants threaten our health and new systems are being developed to deal with them. The basic issues are still the same. Dirt remains a fascinating and complex, cultural construct." Wood believes her book will be of interest to university and high school students, as well as to a general readership. "It has been an absolute pleasure to write, strange as that may seem. It has been fascinating to observe how definitions of dirt have changed over time and continue to change."

Published by the Auckland University Press, the book is available in most bookshops, retailing at around $50.