were introduced into the area in the 1860s by the Acclimatisation Society. Trout were introduced into the Matau River in the 1870s. Tsunami At 10am on 11 May 1877 a seismic sea wave from the 1877 Iquique earthquake caused an 18 inch high wave up the Clutha River past Kaitangata, with the river eventually rising to four feet above its former height. This repeated hourly for most of that day. Drainage and flooding In 1877 workers began to drain the lakes at Kaitangata. The community hoped that by draining the lakes a source of flooding which plagued the area would be removed. At the end of September 1878 the whole township was severely flooded, there were no deaths but considerable damage was done to the township. The road to Granton was washed away and the railway bridges piles were undermined. Recent developments A local promotions society (formed from the former ratepayers' association) has improved this image somewhat and has been responsible for numerous civic projects in and around the town. In 2010 a museum focusing on the coal mining industry was opened. Kaitangata promotions house and land package In May 2016 Kaitangata Promotions began offering a house and land package in Kaitangata for $230,000 In June this story was picked up by other New Zealand media and then following a story in The Guardian became a worldwide media phenomenon. As an indication of the level of interest, By the end of the June daily pageviews for "Kaitangata, New Zealand" on Wikipedia were exceeding those for world cities like Sydney and Los Angeles. The mayor of Clutha district Bryan Cadogan said that "more than 10,000 people" had expressed interest in coming to live in Kaitangata. Media misinformation At the beginning of July 2016 some media outlets including the San Francisco Chronicle online edition SFGate began falsely reporting that Clutha District Council was actually giving away houses or money to the value of US$160,000 to potential residents. Rules for buyers in scheme On 5 July property sales for the house and land package were temporarily suspended. The incredible response to the scheme, at one point saw more interest in Kaitangata than perhaps any other place in the world, and the real estate agent responsible had received more than 9000 emails regarding it. Accordingly, the promotions group wanted to ensure that it was genuine settlers which were buying the sections and not just