Ranfurly is a town in the

Central Otago District Central Otago District is local government district in New Zealand. It is administered by the Central Otago District Council and it is in the Otago region, the top tier of local government in New Zealand. The major towns in the district are Alex ...

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

, New Zealand. Located north 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 ...

, it lies in the dry rough plain of

Maniototo The Maniototo Plain, usually simply known as The Maniototo, is an elevated inland region in Otago, New Zealand. The region roughly surrounds the upper reaches of the Taieri River and the Manuherikia River. It is bounded by the Kakanui Range t ...

at a moderately high altitude (around above sea level) close to a small tributary of the

Taieri River The Taieri River is the fourth-longest river in New Zealand and is in Otago in the South Island. Rising in the Lammerlaw Range, it initially flows north, then east around the Rock and Pillar range before turning southeast, reaching the sea sou ...

. It operates as a service town for the local farming community. The town was formerly known as Eweburn, one of the "farmyard" names bestowed by former Otago Chief 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 ...

on many small streams and locations in the district. The modern name honours the Fifth Earl of Ranfurly, who served as

Governor of New Zealand The governor-general of New Zealand ( mi, te kāwana tianara o Aotearoa) is the viceregal representative of the monarch of New Zealand, currently King Charles III. As the King is concurrently the monarch of 14 other Commonwealth realms and l ...

(1897–1904) at the time of the extension of the

Otago Central Railway The Otago Central Railway (OCR) or in later years Otago Central Branch Railway, now often referred to as the Taieri Gorge Railway, was a secondary railway line in Central Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand. Construction Construction of ...

to the area. Ranfurly is well known for its

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

buildings, such as its hotel and the milk bar.

History

During the

Central Otago goldrush The Otago Gold Rush (often called the Central Otago Gold Rush) was a gold rush that occurred during the 1860s in Central Otago, New Zealand. This was the country's biggest gold strike, and led to a rapid influx of foreign miners to the area – ...

of the 1860s, several important deposits of the precious metal were found near Ranfurly, notably at Kyeburn and

Naseby Naseby is a village in West Northamptonshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 687. The village is 14 mi (22.5 km) north of Northampton, 13.3 mi (21.4 km) northeast of Daventry, and 7&nb ...

, close to the southwestern face of the

Kakanui Range The Kakanui Range is a range of high hills located inland from Oamaru in the South Island of New Zealand. The range forms a boundary between the valley of the Waitaki River to the north and the high plateau known as the Maniototo and the upper w ...

. After the gold-rush faded Ranfurly grew at the expense of Naseby, spurred by the arrival of the railway in 1898. The rail line was closed in 1989 and the track removed, but its course became a major walking and cycling route, the

Otago Central Rail Trail The Otago Central Rail Trail is a 150-kilometre walking, cycling and horse riding track in the South Island of New Zealand. A pioneering project for New Zealand, the successful rail trail joined the New Zealand Cycle Trail umbrella organisation ...

, which attracts tourists. The former railway station now serves as a museum and display centre. The town became an important service-centre for the rural community, experiencing a building boom in the 1930s. It has a large proportion of rural

buildings which have been preserved from that time. An annual festival commemorating Ranfurly's Art Deco heritage used to take place each February. The nearby Ida Valley functioned as one of the locations for

Peter Jackson Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known as the director, writer and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy ( ...

's 2001–2003 ''Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy, representing the wide plains of Rohan.

Climate

Under the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

Ranfurly has an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ( ...

(''Cfb''), with continental influence.

Central Otago Central Otago is located in the inland part of the Otago region in the South Island of New Zealand. The motto for the area is "A World of Difference". The area is dominated by mountain ranges and the upper reaches of the Clutha River and tributa ...

in general, and the Maniototo in particular, has one of New Zealand's very few zones influenced by

continental climate Continental climates often have a significant annual variation in temperature (warm summers and cold winters). They tend to occur in the middle latitudes (40 to 55 north), within large landmasses where prevailing winds blow overland bringing som ...

s, with large daily and seasonal temperature extremes. Average highs in summer are around , with occasional days as warm as ; average winter highs are around , with the coldest nights below . The lowest temperature on record in New Zealand () was recorded at Ranfurly in 1903. Heavy frosts are common throughout winter. The town is sheltered from the prevailing rain patterns by the mountains to the west. The Nor'wester

foehn wind A Foehn or Föhn (, , ), is a type of dry, relatively warm, downslope wind that occurs in the lee (downwind side) of a mountain range. It is a rain shadow wind that results from the subsequent adiabatic warming of air that has dropped most of ...

is thus a frequent weather pattern, and annual rainfall is only in the region of .

Demographics

Ranfurly is described by Statistics New Zealand as a rural settlement. It covers . It is part of the much larger Maniototo statistical area. Ranfurly had a population of 726 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 60 people (9.0%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 12 people (1.7%) 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 348 males and 375 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.93 males per female, with 90 people (12.4%) aged under 15 years, 93 (12.8%) aged 15 to 29, 288 (39.7%) aged 30 to 64, and 246 (33.9%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 91.3% European/Pākehā, 12.8% Māori, 1.2% Pacific peoples, 3.3% Asian, and 0.4% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities). Although some people objected to giving their religion, 43.4% had no religion, 48.8% were Christian, 0.4% were Hindu and 0.8% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 48 (7.5%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 192 (30.2%) people had no formal qualifications. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 252 (39.6%) people were employed full-time, 105 (16.5%) were part-time, and 9 (1.4%) were unemployed.

Sport

Ranfurly lies close to the heart of New Zealand's

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding ...

-playing region, and the local club have represented New Zealand at the 1999,

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, and 2005 World Championships (finishing tenth, seventh and eighth respectively), as well as providing members for the New Zealand 2006 Winter Olympics curling team. Ranfurly has been the birthplace of several recent members of the New Zealand women's (field) hockey team.

Education

Maniototo Area School is a co-educational state area school for Year 1 to 13 students, with a roll of as of . The school has predecessors from 1879. St John's School is a co-educational state-integrated Catholic primary school for Year 1 to 8 students, with a roll of as of . It was established in 1945.

Notable people

Sean Becker Sean Peter Becker (born 7 July 1975 in Ranfurly) is a New Zealand curler. Career Becker was the skip for New Zealand teams which won three Pacific Curling Championships in 1998, 2003, and 2004. He has also played for the New Zealand team in f ...

, curler * Shane Collins,

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

player *

John Grenell John Denver Hore (19 July 1944 – 27 July 2022), better known by his stage name of John Grenell, was a New Zealand country singer and songwriter.Andrew Hore Andrew Keith Hore (born 13 September 1978) is a former New Zealand rugby union player. He played for the All Blacks between 2002 and 2013. His position was hooker. He notably played for the Hurricanes in Super Rugby, but also represented the ...

All Black The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, ...

* Robert Logan, military leader and politician *

Warren McSkimming Warren Charles McSkimming (born 21 June 1979) is a New Zealand former professional cricketer. He played for the Otago cricket team between the 1999–00 season and 2011–12, making more than 170 senior appearances for the side. McSkimming was ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er *

Peter Petherick Peter James Petherick (25 September 1942 – 7 June 2015) was a New Zealand cricketer who represented New Zealand in six Test cricket matches between October 1976 and March 1977 as an off-spinner. He is one of two New Zealand bowlers to achieve ...

, cricketer and

lawn bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...

player *

Mandy Smith Amanda Louise Smith (born 17 July 1970) is an English former pop singer and model. She became known in the mid-1980s for her romantic relationship with, and subsequent marriage to, Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman, who is 33 years her senior. ...

, field hockey player * Isobel Thomson, field hockey player *

David Kilgour David William Kilgour (February 18, 1941 – April 5, 2022) was a Canadian human rights activist, author, lawyer, and politician. He was also a Senior Fellow to the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. Kilgour graduated from the Universi ...

, musician

References

{{Authority control Populated places in Otago Central Otago District Art Deco architecture in New Zealand