Gorge Road is a locality in the

Southland Southland may refer to: Places Canada * Dunbar–Southlands, Vancouver, British Columbia New Zealand * Southland Region, a region of New Zealand * Southland County, a former New Zealand county * Southland District, part of the wider Southland Re ...

region of New Zealand's

South Island The South Island, also officially named , 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 ...

. It is on the

Southern Scenic Route The Southern Scenic Route is a tourist highway in New Zealand linking Queenstown, Fiordland, Te Anau and the iconic Milford Road to Dunedin via, Riverton, Invercargill and The Catlins. An Australian travel magazine labelled it "one of the ...

and is situated on the western bank of the

Mataura River The Mataura River is in the Southland Region of the South Island of New Zealand. It is long. Description The river's headwaters are located in the Eyre Mountains to the south of Lake Wakatipu. From there it flows southeast towards Gore, New ...

. Nearby settlements include

Ashers Ashers is a locality in the Southland region of New Zealand's South Island. It is situated east of Invercargill on the Southern Scenic Route as it runs between Kapuka and Gorge Road. Other nearby settlements include Oteramika to the north and ...

to the west, and across the Mataura, Pine Bush and Titiroa to the east. The name Gorge Road derives from the main 19th century overland route, which was along a Bush lined valley and gave the appearance of a gorge. Gorge Road and Districts Community Development Area < CDA's are an initiative of the Southland District Council to give local people a say in what is happening in their area. Unique in New Zealand)!> and has almost 400 householders in the Southland District Council. It is the largest CDA of the 16 in the Southland District Council and also has the largest area of wetlands in the Ramsar Wetlands in Southland.

Railway

On 1 March 1895, Gorge Road became the terminus of a

branch line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote 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. Industrial spur An industri ...

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

when the Seaward Bush Branch was extended from its previous terminus in

Mokotua Mokotua is a locality in the Southland region of New Zealand's South Island. It is situated in a rural area east of Invercargill, between Timpanys and Kapuka on the Southern Scenic Route. To the south are Toetoes Bay and Waituna Lagoon; Rim ...

. It remained a terminus for over four years; the next section across the Mataura to

Waimahaka Waimahaka is a locality in the Southland region of New Zealand's South Island. It is situated in a rural area, inland from Toetoes Bay. Nearby settlements include Pine Bush and Titiroa to the northwest, Fortification and Te Peka to the east, ...

via Titiroa was not opened until 9 June 1899. When it opened, the railway provided an important economic link to Southland's main centre,

Invercargill Invercargill ( , mi, Waihōpai is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. The city lies in the heart of the wide expanse of t ...

. Passengers and freight were carried together on

mixed train A mixed train or mixed consist is a train that contains both passenger and freight cars or wagons. Although common in the early days of railways, by the 20th century they were largely confined to branch lines with little traffic. Typically, servic ...

s; after the Waimahaka extension opened, these ran daily from Waimahaka and return, an improvement on the less frequent services that ran from Invercargill and return when Gorge Road was the terminus. Improved roads resulted in a decline in traffic, and in 1951, the mixed trains were slashed to run just once a week, mainly for the benefit of

New Zealand Railways Department The New Zealand Railways Department, NZR or NZGR (New Zealand Government Railways) and often known as the "Railways", was a government department charged with owning and maintaining New Zealand's railway infrastructure and operating the railway ...

employees and their families who lived in the area. Goods-only services continued to run on other days, and after 1 June 1960, they became the sole trains through Gorge Road as the weekly mixed was cancelled. However, these service cuts were not enough to restore the line's profitability, and it closed on 31 March 1966. Some of the line's old

formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...

can still be seen in the vicinity of Gorge Road, and Railway Bridge Road leads to the site of the no longer extant bridge over the Mataura.

Education

Gorge Road has a small primary school, Gorge Road School. It caters for over 50 students between grades 1 and 8.Te Kete Ipurangi
"School Information: Gorge Road School"
, accessed 16 November 2007.

References

{{Southland District Populated places in Southland, New Zealand