Hedgehope is a locality in the central

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 New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country b ...

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 ...

. Located in the

Hokonui Hills The Hokonui Hills, also known as ''The Hokonui Mountains'' or simply ''The Hokonui'', are a range of hills in central Southland, New Zealand. They rise to 600 metres above the surrounding Southland Plains, of which the hills mark a northern extre ...

, Winton is to the west,

Mataura Mataura is a town in the Southland region of the South Island of New Zealand. Mataura has a meat processing plant, and until 2000 it was the site of a large pulp and paper mill. Geography Mataura is situated on and the Main South Line railwa ...

to the east, and

Mabel Bush Mabel Bush is a small community in the Southland region of New Zealand's South Island. The community has an estimated population of 127 people. The main building in the area is the Mabel Bush Hall, which consists of the hall and tennis courts ...

to the south. The nearest city is

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 ...

, over 25 km to the southwest. passes through Hedgehope as it travels between Springhills and Glencoe. Hedgehope is named for the nearby Mount Hedgehope. The surveyor

John Turnbull Thomson John Turnbull Thomson (10 August 1821 – 16 October 1884) was a British civil engineer and artist who played an instrumental role in the development of the early infrastructure of nineteenth-century Singapore and New Zealand. He lived the last 2 ...

named the mountain after the second-highest peak in the

Cheviot Hills The Cheviot Hills (), or sometimes The Cheviots, are a range of uplands straddling the Anglo-Scottish border between Northumberland and the Scottish Borders. The English section is within the Northumberland National Park. The range includes T ...

of his native

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

. Hedgehope was also once the terminus of the

Hedgehope Branch The Hedgehope Branch, also known as the Browns Branch, was a branch line railway in Southland, New Zealand that started life in the 1880s as a privately owned bush tramway. It opened as a railway in 1899 and operated until 1968, though the ...

railway. On 17 July 1899, 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 ...

diverging from the

Kingston Branch The Kingston Branch was a major railway line in Southland, New Zealand. It formed part of New Zealand's national rail network for over a century: construction began in 1864, Kingston was reached in 1878, and it closed in 1979. For much o ...

in Winton was opened to Hedgehope and it served the town for over half a century. Due to low demand, passengers always had to travel in carriages attached to slow freight services; these were known as

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. The rise of private car ownership in the 1920s caused the quantity of passengers to slip to levels unsustainable for even mixed trains, and accordingly passenger provisions were cancelled from 9 February 1931. Freight quantities also steadily declined, and in the early 1950s, the decision was taken to close over half the branch. On 24 December 1953, the branch was truncated to Browns and Hedgehope's railway service fully ceased. Today, there is little evidence left of the railway's existence apart from some of its former

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 ...

Demographics

The Hedgehope statistical area covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km². The statistical area had a population of 1,179 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 69 people (6.2%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 135 people (12.9%) 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 414 households. There were 600 males and 579 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.04 males per female. The median age was 35.6 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 306 people (26.0%) aged under 15 years, 195 (16.5%) aged 15 to 29, 564 (47.8%) aged 30 to 64, and 114 (9.7%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 89.6% European/Pākehā, 9.7% Māori, 6.4% Asian, and 2.3% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities). The proportion of people born overseas was 13.7%, compared with 27.1% nationally. Although some people objected to giving their religion, 49.1% had no religion, 40.7% were Christian, 0.5% were Hindu and 1.5% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 138 (15.8%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 186 (21.3%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $43,700, compared with $31,800 nationally. 201 people (23.0%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 528 (60.5%) people were employed full-time, 171 (19.6%) were part-time, and 21 (2.4%) were unemployed.

Education

Hedgehope School is a full primary school for years 1 to 8 with a roll of as of The school first opened in 1878.

References

{{Southland District Populated places in Southland, New Zealand