The Dunedin  listen (help·info) (1876–82) was the first ship to complete a truly successful transport of refrigerated meat. In its capacity, it helped set the stage for New Zealand's success as a major provider of agricultural exports, notwithstanding its extreme remoteness from most markets.

The 1,320-ton^[vague], 73-metre (240 ft) Dunedin was built by Robert Duncan and Co at Port Glasgow, Scotland, in 1874 at a cost of ₤23,750 (£1.6 million, in 2010 inflation-adjusted British pounds). She was one of six 'Auckland' class emigrant vessels, designed to hold 400 passengers. In 1881, still painted in the original Albion Line colours of a black hull with a gold band and pink boot topping as shown, she was refitted with a Bell Coleman refrigeration machine with which she took the first load of frozen meat from New Zealand to the United Kingdom.

New Zealand in the 1870s produced a vast amount of wool, but the wool market was low. In the United Kingdom, the rapidly expanding population had outrun the supply of local meat, leading to rapid increases in price. Live shipment was prohibitively expensive. New Zealand did export some canned meat, but this industry was in its infancy, and the product was popular in the Pacific islands, but less so in the mother country.

Dunedin (/dʌˈniːdɨn/ ( listen) du-NEE-dən; Māori: Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. While Tauranga and Hamilton have eclipsed the city in population in recent years, it is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until superseded by Auckland on the creation of the Auckland Council in November 2010. Dunedin was the largest city in New Zealand by population until about 1900.

The Dunedin urban area lies on the central-eastern coast of Otago, surrounding the head of Otago Harbour. The harbour and hills around Dunedin are the remnants of an extinct volcano. The city suburbs extend out into the surrounding valleys and hills, onto the isthmus of the Otago Peninsula, and along the shores of the Otago Harbour and the Pacific Ocean.

The city's largest industry is tertiary education – Dunedin is home to the University of Otago, New Zealand's first university (1869), and the Otago Polytechnic. Students account for a large proportion of the population: 21.6 percent of the city's population was aged between 15 and 24 at the 2006 census, compared to the New Zealand average of 14.2 percent.