Henley is a township on New Zealand's

Taieri Plains The Taieri Plain (also referred to in the plural as the Taieri Plains) is an area of fertile agricultural land to the southwest of Dunedin, in Otago, New Zealand. The plain covers an area of some 300 square kilometres, with a maximum extent of 3 ...

, named after the rowing centre

Henley-on-Thames Henley-on-Thames ( ) is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, west of Maidenhead, southeast of Oxford and west of London (by road), near the tripoint of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buc ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It lies close to the confluence of the Taieri and

Waipori Waipori may refer to either: * Waipori, New Zealand, a township within Dunedin, New Zealand's city limits * The Waipori River in Otago in the South Island of New Zealand, or to * Lake Waipori, an area of wetlands draining into the Waipori River ...

Rivers at the eastern edge of the plain, at the foot of a low range of coastal hills. The township lies close to the ecologically significant

Sinclair Wetlands The Sinclair Wetlands (''Te Nohoaka o Tukiauau'') are an internationally renowned wetlands located to the south west of Dunedin, New Zealand, at the southern edge of the Taieri Plains. They are on the western side of Lake Waipori and approximatel ...

, which lie to the west. Henley is near the south-west extremity of the City of

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

, 35 km from the city centre, and close to

Lake Waihola Lake Waihola is a 640 ha tidal freshwater lake located 15 km north of Milton in Otago, in New Zealand's South Island. Its area is some 9 square kilometres, with a maximum length of 6 kilometres and a mean depth of 0.75m. It is the larg ...

, one of the country's

rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically atta ...

centres. Henley's population is about 250. The town was founded at some point prior to 1880. The main industry is dairy farming. Henley used to have a cheese factory which later moved to the nearby township of

Momona Momona is a small town on the Taieri Plain in New Zealand's South Island. Momona School was established in 1899 and closed in 2004. The Henley Co-operative Dairy Company, established in nearby Henley, moved their cheese factory here, and was ...

. This was later bought out by the company that became Mainland Cheese. The churches in Henley are Presbyterian and Brethren. The original Māori name for Henley is Maitapapa. A pre-European Maori settlement lay to the south of Henley, close to the Taieri River. Henley township is prone to flooding by the Taieri River. SH1 is built on top of the bank that divides the larger Henley area, known as "The flood-free highway". Henley's main road lies roughly parallel to and south of this highway.The two roads are connected to the south at Titri and to the north at Otokia, and a connecting road runs between the two roads, crossing a bridge over the Taeri River close to the centre of the township. In June 1980 the South Taieri region experienced severe floods that flooded both sides of the highway and extended as far as

Dunedin International Airport Dunedin Airport , officially Dunedin International Airport, also known as Momona Airport, is an international airport in the Otago region of the South Island of New Zealand, serving Dunedin city and the Otago and Southland regions. Dunedin Airpo ...

at Momona. Contributing factors to this were already full wetlands at Lake Waihola with the Taieri and Waipori Rivers both draining into this area. Excessive water from the

Lake Mahinerangi Lake Mahinerangi is a lake formed when a dam was built on the Waipori River for hydroelectric generation. The lake is to the west of Dunedin in New Zealand's South Island. Construction of the dam started in 1903 and since 1907, power has been p ...

dam was also released at this time. This placed significant pressure on the banks causing a breach.

References

{{Coord, 45, 58, 50, S, 170, 09, 55, E, region:NZ_type:city, display=title Populated places in Otago Taieri River