Glenpark, New Zealand

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Glenpark

Glenpark is a lightly populated rural locality in the Otago region of New Zealand's South Island. [1] It is northwest of Palmerston and is on the banks of the Shag River. To the west is the locality of Stoneburn.

Otago Region of New Zealand in South Island

Otago is a region of New Zealand in the south of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately 32,000 square kilometres (12,000 sq mi), making it the country's third largest local government region. Its population was 229,200 in June 2018.

New Zealand Country in Oceania

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.

South Island Southernmost of the two main islands in New Zealand

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.

Contents

Economy

Economic activity in and around Glenpark is agricultural, including New Zealand's largest free range chicken farm. [2]

Transport

Glenpark is located between Palmerston and Inch Valley on the route of State Highway 85.

Inch Valley human settlement in New Zealand

Inch Valley is a lightly populated rural locality in the Otago region of New Zealand's South Island. It is northwest of Palmerston and Glenpark, east of Stoneburn, on the banks of the Shag River. Economic activity around Inch Valley is agricultural.

New Zealand State Highway 85 road in New Zealand

State Highway 85 is a South Island state highway in New Zealand, servicing the Maniototo Plains and the North and Central Otago regions of the South Island between the major settlements of Alexandra and Palmerston. It is wholly two lane and passes through some of the most extreme climatic regions in New Zealand. The highway is known colloquially as "The Pigroot". Though there is no definitive explanation for this name, A. W. Reed, in his book Place Names of New Zealand, mentions an incident during John Turnbull Thomson's survey of inland Otago in which local wild pigs were so unafraid of humans that a huge boar approached his party and rubbed its nose against that of Thomson's horse.

For 104 years, a branch line railway that diverged from the Main South Line in Palmerston passed through Glenpark. This railway originally ran to Dunback with a later sub-branch to Makareao and was thus collectively known as the Dunback and Makareao Branches. It opened through Glenpark on 29 August 1885; the station was 7.23 km from the junction with the main line, near the halfway point of the 15.2 km long branch. Passenger services were provided solely by mixed trains and due to low patronage, they were cancelled on 10 August 1930 and Glenpark station became freight only. [3] The station had a small goods shed, a loading bank, and a loop to hold 31 wagons. [4]

Branch line Minor railway line

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.

Main South Line

The Main South Line, sometimes referred to as part of the South Island Main Trunk Railway, is a railway 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.

Dunback human settlement in New Zealand

Dunback, formerly Waihemo, is a small town in the Otago region of New Zealand. It is located between Palmerston and Ranfurly on Highway 85. It has a population of about 200 people. Most of these people live in the rural areas near the town. The only remaining buildings now that still stand are the church, the Highwayman Hotel, the coronation hall and the Dunback school. All of these buildings are over 100 years old. There is also the domain which includes a cricket field, camping ground and bowling green. Locals and campers both enjoy the facilities that it has to offer. Along Murphy Street also stands the swing bridge which was built in the early 1900s for pupils to cross the Shag River for easier access to the school.

On 1 January 1968, the Dunback portion of the railway closed and trains ran solely to serve a limeworks in Makareao. Local freight ceased to be carried and trains ran through Glenpark without stopping thrice weekly. The line closed entirely on 1 June 1989 and the formation and a disused bridge are still visible in and near Glenpark. [5]

The track bed or trackbed is the groundwork onto which a railway track is laid. Trackbeds of disused railways are sometimes used for recreational paths or new light rail links.

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References

  1. "Place name detail: Glenpark, New Zealand". New Zealand Gazetteer. Land Information New Zealand . Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  2. Glenpark Eggs, About Glenpark, accessed 12 October 2007.
  3. David Leitch and Brian Scott, Exploring New Zealand's Ghost Railways, rev. ed. (Wellington: Grantham House, 1998 [1995]), 88.
  4. Patrick Dunford, "Dunback & Makareao Branches" Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine ., accessed 12 October 2007.
  5. Leitch and Scott, Exploring New Zealand's Ghost Railways, 89.

Coordinates: 45°26′S170°40′E / 45.433°S 170.667°E / -45.433; 170.667

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.