The site where the Oamaru Blue Pen­guin Colony now oper­ates was pre­vi­ous­ly a rock quar­ry and the pres­ence of the pen­guins was seen by some as a nui­sance. Mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty, Depart­ment of Con­ser­va­tion, For­est & Bird and Wait­a­ki Dis­trict Coun­cil fought for the area to be set aside as a pro­tect­ed breed­ing area for the pen­guins. In 1993, fol­low­ing this suc­cess the tourism oper­a­tion was estab­lished and a pen­guin-mon­i­­tor­ing pro­gramme began.