Anama is a sparsely populated locality in the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island. [1] It is on the Hinds River, with the Ashburton River not far to the north in nearby Mount Somers. Other nearby settlements include Valetta to the east, Mayfield to the south, and Montalto to the west. Anama School celebrated its centenary in March 2002. [2]
Canterbury is a region of New Zealand, located in the central-eastern South Island. The region covers an area of 44,508 square kilometres (17,185 sq mi), and is home to a population of 624,000.
New Zealand is a sovereign island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, and the South Island —and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, and plant life. The country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland.
The South Island, also officially named Te Waipounamu, is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area; the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, and to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean. The South Island covers 150,437 square kilometres (58,084 sq mi), making it the world's 12th-largest island. It has a temperate climate.
Anama, an Aboriginal word, owes its naming to W.S. Peter, through being the name of Anama Station, a pastoral property in South Australia owned by Peter's brother in law.
William Spence Peter was a pioneer pastoralist of South Australia and New Zealand, and a member of the New Zealand Legislative Council from 1868 to 1891.
Anama is a locality in the Mid North region of South Australia, north of Clare. It was the name of a pastoral run in the early days of the colony and continues as the name of the cattle stud in the same place. It was part of the Bungaree Station owned by George Charles Hawker and remains in the same family, five generations later. After George Hawker had died, his surviving sons divided the property in 1906, and Anama became the property of Walter Hawker.
South Australia is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of 983,482 square kilometres (379,725 sq mi), it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, and fifth largest by population. It has a total of 1.7 million people, and its population is the second most highly centralised in Australia, after Western Australia, with more than 77 percent of South Australians living in the capital, Adelaide, or its environs. Other population centres in the state are relatively small; Mount Gambier, the second largest centre, has a population of 28,684.
Anama was briefly a railway terminus. On 3 October 1882, a 30.9 km long branch line opened to Anama from a junction with the Main South Line at Tinwald, just south of Ashburton. This line, later known as the Mount Somers Branch, was extended to Cavendish on 1 March 1884. Passengers were primarily served by mixed trains, and due to the declining patronage caused by increased usage of the motor car, passengers were no longer carried after 9 January 1933. Freight traffic remained steady for some years but declined after World War II to the point that the railway was no longer economic. It closed on 1 January 1968. Some of the formation can be seen in the area around Anama, and Anama station's platform and loading bank survive. [3]
A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. David Blyth Hanna, the first president of the Canadian National Railway, said that although most branch lines cannot pay for themselves, they are essential to make main lines pay.
The Main South Line, sometimes referred to as part of the South Island Main Trunk Railway, is a railroad line that runs north and south from Lyttelton in New Zealand through Christchurch and along the east coast of the South Island to Invercargill via Dunedin. It is one of the most important railway lines in New Zealand and was one of the first to be built, with construction commencing in the 1860s. At Christchurch it connects with the Main North Line to Picton, the other part of the South Island Main Trunk.
Tinwald is a town in Canterbury, New Zealand, now little more than a suburb of Ashburton. It lies to the south of the larger town, separated from it by the Ashburton River. The town was named after Tinwald Downs in Scotland, birthplace of early resident and owner of much of the land, Robert Wilkin.
