St Leonards is a suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is located close to the northern shore of the Otago Harbour and on the hilly slopes above the harbour. St Leonards is 8.5 kilometres (5.3 mi) northeast of Dunedin's city centre, between the small settlement of Burkes and Sawyers Bay. [1] St Leonards was named by early settler David Carey for the birthplace of his wife, the English town of St Leonards-on-Sea, on the Sussex coast. [2] [3]
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.
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from Dùn Èideann, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland.
Otago Harbour is the natural harbour of Dunedin, New Zealand, consisting of a long, much-indented stretch of generally navigable water separating the Otago Peninsula from the mainland. They join at its southwest end, 21 km (13 mi) from the harbour mouth. It is home to Dunedin's two port facilities, Port Chalmers and at Dunedin's wharf. The harbour has been of significant economic importance for approximately 700 years, as a sheltered harbor and fishery, then deep water port.
Rail and road links between central Dunedin and Port Chalmers run alongside St Leonards on the narrow strip of land between the hill slopes and harbour. The suburb is separate from the contiguous urban area of Dunedin.
Port Chalmers is a suburb and the main port of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand, with a population of 3,000. Port Chalmers lies ten kilometres inside Otago Harbour, some 15 kilometres northeast from Dunedin's city centre.
The suburb is residential, and contains a significant number of smaller homes. The area is a popular residence for students from the University of Otago, and is also popular with alternative lifestylers. The suburb consists mainly of two roughly parallel roads, the Dunedin-Port Chalmers highway (State Highway 88), which runs close to the harbour, and St Leonards Drive, the former main route to Port Chalmers, which winds around the lower slopes of the hills on which St Leonards sits. The Port Chalmers Branch railway line runs parallel with the highway next to the harbour's edge. In 2012, the Dunedin Harbour Cycleway was extended to reach St Leonards. [4]
The University of Otago is a collegiate university located in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. It scores highly for average research quality, and in 2006 was second in New Zealand only to the University of Auckland in the number of A-rated academic researchers it employs. In the past it has topped the New Zealand Performance Based Research Fund evaluation.
State Highway 88 is a New Zealand State Highway connecting the city centre of Dunedin with Port Chalmers, which is the location of Dunedin's main port facilities and home of one of New Zealand's major container terminals. It is roughly 12 km long.
The Port Chalmers Branch was the first railway line built in Otago, New Zealand, and linked the region's major city of Dunedin with the port in Port Chalmers. The line is still operational today.
The suburbs of St Leonards, Maia, Burkes, and Ravensbourne, are often collectively referred to as West Harbour. Under this name, the area was a separate borough for many years from 1877 until amalgamation with the city of Dunedin in 1963. [5]
Ravensbourne is a suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is located on the steep southeastern slopes of Signal Hill above the Otago Harbour. It lies on the harbour's northern shore, 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) east-northeast of the city centre. Ravensbourne's 2001 population was 1,269.
