Longburn (or Karere) is a rural settlement just outside

Palmerston North Palmerston North (; mi, Te Papa-i-Oea, known colloquially as Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatu Plains, the city is near the north bank of the ...

in the

Manawatū-Whanganui Manawatū-Whanganui (; spelled Manawatu-Wanganui prior to 2019) is a region in the lower half of the North Island of New Zealand, whose main population centres are the cities of Palmerston North and Whanganui. It is administered by the Manawat ...

area 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 ...

. Made up of large dairy processing plants Longburn is often mistaken to be a small township and not seen as a large satellite town of

. The township is home to both Longburn School and

Longburn Adventist College Longburn Adventist College is an integrated co-educational Christian school in New Zealand for years 7 to 13. It is located just west of Palmerston North in the Manawatu District in the small dairy town of Longburn. It is a part of the Seventh- ...

. The population was 354 in 2018.

History

Fonterra factory, Longburn, Palmerston North

Some of the region's earliest settlers settled in the Longburn area, including former Prime Minister of Denmark Bishop Ditlev Monrad and his family.

Dairy

A butter factory was opened in 1884, butter and cheese were exported in kegs to Britain. An entirely new plant was opened at Longburn in 1966. Today

Fonterra Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited is a New Zealand multinational publicly traded dairy co-operative owned by around 9,000 New Zealand farmers. The company is responsible for approximately 30% of the world's dairy exports and with revenue exce ...

's Longburn milk processing plant in conjunction with its sister plant in Pahiatua collects milk daily from

Lake Tutira A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

in northern Hawke's Bay down to

Whitemans Valley Whitemans Valley is a rural suburb of Upper Hutt located in the lower North Island of New Zealand. Situated roughly 4 kilometers south of the Upper Hutt Upper Hutt ( mi, Te Awa Kairangi ki Uta) is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealan ...

near Wellington.Fonterra Longburn and Pahiatua
Waterford Press Business News, accessed 23 April 2021 In the peak milk season milk goes to

casein Casein ( , from Latin ''caseus'' "cheese") is a family of related phosphoproteins (CSN1S1, αS1, aS2, CSN2, β, K-casein, κ) that are commonly found in mammalian milk, comprising about 80% of the proteins in cow's milk and between 20% and 60% of ...

production. There is a two-month winter shut-down each year. Raw milk is also processed at Longburn into concentrated milk and sent by rail to Fonterra Hawera where it becomes whole milk powder, cheeses and associated products. Fonterra Longburn has just over 90 staff in 2021 of which more than 70 are tanker drivers. Fonterra from Longburn and its other plants in New Zealand is responsible for approximately 30% of the world's dairy exports

Freezing works

Longburn Manawatu, November 1958 (cropped)

Longburn Freezing Company Limited began their substantial operation in November 1889 on a 26 acres site beside the railway line. It soon experienced severe financial difficulties and, the undercapitalised business having borrowed large sums from them, the National Mortgage and Agency Company of New Zealand took control of the business during 1896. It was sold by NMA in 1940 to Manchester's

Co-operative Wholesale Society A co-operative wholesale society, or CWS, is a form of co-operative federation (that is, a co-operative in which all the members are co-operatives), in this case, the members are usually consumer cooperatives. According to co-operative economi ...

, and closed in October 1987 under the management of

Waitaki International Waitaki District is a territorial authority district that is located in the Canterbury and Otago regions of the South Island of New Zealand. It straddles the traditional border between the two regions, the Waitaki River, and its seat is Oamaru. ...

. The freezing works site covers over and various temperature-controlled buildings cover some 35,000 square metres.Longburn meat works site has broad potential
accessed 24 April 2021

Railway terminus

The

Longburn Railway Station Longburn railway station was a station in Longburn, on the North Island Main Trunk in New Zealand. The platform, which is across from the Fonterra Factory, remains but the structure has been demolished. There have been four station sites at Lo ...

was the northern terminus of New Zealand's most prominent and successful private railway, the

Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company The Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company (WMR or W&MR) was a private railway company that built, owned and operated the Wellington-Manawatu railway line between Thorndon in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, and Longburn, near Palmers ...

. The line between Longburn and

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

was completed in 1886 and at Longburn, passengers and goods transferred between the Wellington and Manawatu Railway and the

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 ...

network. On 8 December 1908, the Wellington and Manawatu was absorbed into the New Zealand Railways, and Longburn lost its significant interchange status. However, the

Foxton Branch The Foxton Branch was a railway line in New Zealand. It began life as a tramway, reopened as a railway on 27 April 1876, and operated until 18 July 1959. At Himatangi there was a junction with the Sanson Tramway, a line operated by the Manawa ...

was retained until it closed in 1959. The branch line resulted in the official name of the station changing from Long Burn to Longburn Junction. The name was adopted by the Junction Hotel opposite the station. The line through Longburn is now part of the

North Island Main Trunk The North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) is the main railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, connecting the capital city Wellington with the country's largest city, Auckland. The line is long, built to the New Zealand rail gauge of and ser ...

railway.

Growth

In an attempt to attract growth to the Manawatu region, the Manawatu District Council agreed to cede part of its territory to Palmerston North City. However, Longburn was a part of this only to the eastern side of the North Island Main Trunk Railway, effectively cutting the settlement in half.

Demographics

Longburn is defined by Statistics New Zealand as a rural settlement and covers . It is part of the wider Newbury statistical area, which covers . The population of Longburn was 354 in 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 ...

, unchanged since the 2013 census, and an increase of 48 (15.7%) since the 2006 census. There were 180 males and 174 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.03 males per female. Ethnicities were 294 people (83.1%) European/Pākehā, 120 (33.9%) Māori, 12 (3.4%) Pacific peoples, and 15 (4.2%) Asian (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities). Of the total population, 93 people (26.3%) were under 15 years old, 84 (23.7%) were 15–29, 150 (42.4%) were 30–64, and 27 (7.6%) were over 65.

Education

Longburn School is a co-educational state primary school, with a roll of as of .

is also located in Longburn.

References

OurRegion Manawatu
{{Palmerston North City Populated places in Manawatū-Whanganui Suburbs of Palmerston North