Springhills is a locality in the central
Southland region of New Zealand's
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 ...
. Situated in a gap between
Forest Hill
Forest Hill or Forrest Hill may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Forest Hill, New South Wales, a suburb of Wagga Wagga
* Forrest Hill, New South Wales, a suburb of Albury
* Forest Hill, Queensland
* Forest Hill, Victoria
** Forest Hill Chase Sh ...
and the
Hokonui Hills, it is located on 29 kilometres west of near
Mataura and 15 kilometres east of at
Winton.
From 1899 until 1953, Springhills was also served by a
branch line railway. The railway grew from a private
bush tramway built in 1883 that ran from a junction with the
Kingston Branch in Winton into the Browns Gap area. In the 1890s, the tramway was upgraded to railway standards, extended to Hedgehope, and handed over to the
New Zealand Railways Department. This line was known as the
Hedgehope Branch and it opened on 17 July 1899 with a station near Springhills known as Springhills Siding. Passenger services ceased on 9 February 1931, and due to declining freight tonnages, the
Browns-
Hedgehope section that passed through Springhills was closed on 24 December 1953. Little evidence remains of Springhills' railway heritage, though the former line's
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 ...
can sometimes be discerned.
[David Leitch and Brian Scott, ''Exploring New Zealand's Ghost Railways'', revised edition (Wellington: Grantham House, 1998 995, 122.]
References
Populated places in Southland, New Zealand
{{Southland-geo-stub