Malcolm Miller was a Scot who followed many of his countrymen to Dunedin in 1862 at the height of the Otago Gold Rush.
Miller and wife Mary moved many times over the next decade before settling for good in Lyttelton(South Island) in 1874.
Lyttelton Harbour connected the newly established Christchurch to other major centres and Miller found success as a shipwright, despite there already being several similar businesses.