John Plimmer

John Plimmer arrived in Wellington in 1841. An entrepreneur and businessmen, in 1851 he purchased the stranded whaling ship Inconstant and converted the hull into a warehouse and one of the first piers in Wellington. It became known as "Plimmer's Ark".

John is known as “the father of Wellington” because of the many buildings he constructed and his powerful lobbying for land reclamation, railways and improved harbour facilities. He was a member of the Wellington Provincial Council (1856-1857) and of the Wellington Town Board (1863). He was on the City Council (1870-1871), and also involved in the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company between 1880 and 1886 (Plimmerton, originally a township on the railway line built by the Company, is named after him).

There is a statue of him at the bottom of Plimmer Steps off Lambton Quay, Wellington.