Timaru - WikiHQ

Timaru (; ) is a port city in the southern Canterbury region of New Zealand, southwest of Christchurch and about northeast of Dunedin, on the eastern Pacific coast of the South Island. The urban area's population of people is the largest in South Canterbury, and the third-largest in the Canterbury Region overall, after Christchurch and Rolleston.

Māori waka seem to have employed the site of Timaru as a place to rest on journeys up and down the eastern coastline for many years before the arrival of the first Europeans in the 19th century. The area includes over 500 sites with traces of Māori rock art, particularly in the rock overhangs and caves of the Opuha and Ōpihi River valleys, to the west of modern-day Timaru. Archaeologists have suggested that Māori iwi (tribes) were permanently settled in the district before 1400 AD. During the 17th or 18th century the resident Ngāti Mamoe were driven southwards into Fiordland by an invasion of the Ngāi Tahu, who came from the North Island.

Te Runanga o Arowhenua is the hapū (subtribe) for Aoraki (Timaru District). Their marae is located just outside Temuka.

19th century onwards

thumb|[[Sacred Heart Basilica, Timaru|Sacred Heart Basilica, built in 1911]]

European settlement began with the construction of a whaling station in 1839 by the Weller brothers of Otago at Patiti Point, close to the present town centre. A supply ship, The Caroline, provided the name for a local bay. Later a sheep station, known as The Levels, was set up on land obtained by the Rhodes brothers, and run by George Rhodes. One of the earliest settlers was Captain Henry Cain, who set up a store in 1857 on behalf of Henry Le Cren of Lyttelton, and Le Cren himself moved to Timaru in the following year.

Few lived in Timaru until 14 January 1859 when the sailing ship Strathallan arrived from London, carrying a party of 111, 107, or, as a 1958 account said, about 120 immigrants. Persistent land disputes arose between the Rhodes brothers and local government officials with the result that two townships were established in the port area, Government Town and Rhodestown. These eventually merged into a single community in 1868. Given this division, until recently none of the main north-south streets lined up. Stafford Street, which became the main thoroughfare, was formed along the early bullock wagon trail.

Following the loss of a number of vessels off the coast, the breakwater design by Engineer John Goodall was adopted and work started on the redevelopment of the artificial port in 1877, which eventually caused sand washed south down the Pacific shoreline to build up against the northern mole. This was the beginning of the extensive land reclamation around the Caroline Bay district, an area which is still growing today.

Timaru continued to expand during the 20th century, with much of the development taking the form of wooden colonial style bungalows set in individual sections of land. Sacred Heart Basilica was opened in 1911.

Geography

Timaru is situated along the Pacific Ocean coast. Much of the hinterland is farmland. To the north and northeast are the Canterbury Plains.

Suburbs

thumb|Suburbs of Timaru

Washdyke
Smithfield
Grantlea
Waimataitai
Marchwiel
Timaru Central
Maori Hill
Highfield
Glenwood
Gleniti
Seaview
West End
Watlington
Parkside
Kensington
Redruth
Oceanview
Port Timaru

Climate

Timaru has a relatively dry temperate climate similar to that of neighbouring Ashburton and Christchurch, classified as an oceanic climate (Cfb) by Köppen-Geiger climate classification system. Temperatures are warm in summer and cool in winter, with Timaru's extreme maximum temperature being on 6 February 2011 and the extreme minimum on 3 August 1998. Rain is evenly distributed throughout the year, with a very small proportion of it falling as snow.

Demographics

The Timaru urban area is defined by Statistics New Zealand as a medium urban area. It covers and incorporates sixteen statistical areas. It had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km<sup>2</sup>.