Longbeach is a lowly populated locality in the

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. ...

region of

New Zealand 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 count ...

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 located in a rural area of the

Canterbury Plains The Canterbury Plains () are an area in New Zealand centred in the Mid Canterbury, to the south of the city of Christchurch in the Canterbury region. Their northern extremes are at the foot of the Hundalee Hills in the Hurunui District, and in t ...

on the shore of the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

on the northern side of the

Hinds River The Hinds River is a river in the Canterbury region of New Zealand. Its north and south branches drain the eastern flank of the Moorhouse Range, part of the Southern Alps, and their confluence is near Anama and Mayfield. The river then flows ...

's mouth. Nearby settlements include Waterton and

Eiffelton Eiffelton is a lightly populated locality in the Mid-Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island. Geography Eiffelton is situated on the Canterbury Plains near the Hinds River, which reaches the Pacific Ocean in nearby Longbeach. The ...

to the north, and on the other side of the Hinds River, Lowcliffe to the west. The small township of

Hinds Hinds may refer to: Deer, especially does *Deer People with the surname Hinds: *Hinds (surname) In places: *Hinds, New Zealand, a small town *Hinds County, Mississippi, a US county *Hinds Lake, a lake in Minnesota *Hinds River, a river that flows ...

is to the northwest, while the nearest significantly sized town is Ashburton, further north. There is a Longbeach School, though it is actually located in nearby Willowby rather than Longbeach. It was formed when three local schools amalgamated in 2000 and caters for students in grades 1 to 8. In the 1860s, there was a proposal to build the

Main South Line The Main South Line, sometimes referred to as part of the South Island Main Trunk Railway, is a railway line that runs north and south from Lyttelton in New Zealand through Christchurch and along the east coast of the South Island to Inverca ...

railway between

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

and

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 ...

on a

coast The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...

al route that would have passed through Longbeach, but this was abandoned in favour of a more inland route through Ashburton that had easier river crossings. However, Longbeach continued to lobby for a railway. In 1878, a proposal was made to extend the Southbridge Branch from Southbridge across the

Rakaia River The Rakaia River is in the Canterbury Plains in New Zealand's South Island. The Rakaia River is one of the largest braided rivers in New Zealand. The Rakaia River has a mean flow of and a mean annual seven-day low flow of . In the 1850s, Euro ...

to Longbeach and Waterton. It was primarily intended to serve agricultural interests in the area. Although an appropriate location for a bridge was found, the government never acted on the proposal and it lapsed.

Demographics

Longbeach is part of the Eiffelton statistical area.

References

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