Greendale is a lightly populated rural area, part of the

Selwyn District Selwyn District is a predominantly rural district in central Canterbury, on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island. It is named after the Selwyn River / Waikirikiri, which is in turn named after Bishop George Selwyn, the first Anglican bis ...

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

, a 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 ...

. One of the first farmers was Thomas William Adams, a pioneer of forestry and education in the area. Another one of the first farmers was Charles Early who moved to Greendale (Water ford) in 1876. On 4 September 2010, Greendale became further notable as the location of the strongest

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

ground-shaking ever recorded in New Zealand, registering an

acceleration In mechanics, acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Accelerations are vector quantities (in that they have magnitude and direction). The orientation of an object's acceleration is given by the ...

1.25 times that of

gravity In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...

. This was later exceeded by the 2.2 g recordings during the February

2011 Christchurch earthquake A major earthquake occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. local time (23:51 UTC, 21 February). The () earthquake struck the entire of the Canterbury region in the South Island, centred south-east ...

Heathcote Valley Heathcote Valley is a suburb of Christchurch, New Zealand. It is named after Sir William Heathcote, who was secretary of the Canterbury Association. Location Nestled at the foot of the steep volcanic crags that form the northern edge of the hil ...

Demographics

Greendale is part of the rural Charing Cross statistical area, which covers . It had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km². Charing Cross had a population of 885 at the

2018 New Zealand census Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the sho ...

, an increase of 42 people (5.0%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 189 people (27.2%) since the

2006 census 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

. There were 333 households. There were 438 males and 447 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.98 males per female. The median age was 39.8 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 171 people (19.3%) aged under 15 years, 159 (18.0%) aged 15 to 29, 453 (51.2%) aged 30 to 64, and 102 (11.5%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 89.8% European/Pākehā, 6.8% Māori, 0.7% Pacific peoples, 4.4% Asian, and 4.1% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities). The proportion of people born overseas was 19.0%, compared with 27.1% nationally. Although some people objected to giving their religion, 49.2% had no religion, 40.7% were Christian, 1.0% were Hindu and 2.4% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 135 (18.9%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 99 (13.9%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $38,800, compared with $31,800 nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 435 (60.9%) people were employed full-time, 129 (18.1%) were part-time, and 9 (1.3%) were unemployed.

Education

Greendale School is a contributing primary school catering for years 1 to 6. It had a roll of as of The school opened in 1872.

Notable people

Sidney Holland Sir Sidney George Holland (18 October 1893 – 5 August 1961) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 25th prime minister of New Zealand from 13 December 1949 to 20 September 1957. He was instrumental in the creation and consolidation o ...

– 25th Prime Minister of New Zealand

References

{{Selwyn Selwyn District Populated places in Canterbury, New Zealand