Aramoana is a small coastal settlement 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 ...

on the

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 ...

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 ...

. The settlement's permanent population in the 2001 Census was 261. Supplementing this are seasonal visitors from the city who occupy cribs. The name ''Aramoana'' is

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

for "pathway of the sea". It was founded by the Otago Harbour Board and established in the 1880s as a

pilot station Pilot Station ( esu, Tuutalgaq) is a city in Kusilvak Census Area, Alaska, United States. The population was 568 at the 2010 census, up from 550 in 2000. Geography Pilot Station is located at (61.936050, -162.883403), on the northern bank of t ...

for navigation around the mouth of the Otago Harbour. This area grew into a small farming village. In the 1950s, the town became popular as a beach resort and a rural life village due to the construction of a

mole Mole (or Molé) may refer to: Animals * Mole (animal) or "true mole", mammals in the family Talpidae, found in Eurasia and North America * Golden moles, southern African mammals in the family Chrysochloridae, similar to but unrelated to Talpida ...

to inhibit the spread of tidal sands into the mouth of

Otago Harbour Otago Harbour is the natural harbour of Dunedin, New Zealand, consisting of a long, much-indented stretch of generally navigable water separating the Otago Peninsula from the mainland. They join at its southwest end, from the harbour mouth. I ...

and was surveyed and amalgamated as a suburb of Port Chalmers borough. It is the site of the

Aramoana massacre The Aramoana massacre was a spree shooting that occurred on 13 November 1990 in the small seaside township of Aramoana, northeast of Dunedin, New Zealand. Resident David Gray killed 13 people including local police Sergeant Stewart Guthrie, o ...

, New Zealand's second deadliest criminal shooting, on 13 and 14 November 1990.

Location and natural environment

The settlement is located on a sand dune spit at the mouth of the

, opposite the end of the

Otago Peninsula The Otago Peninsula ( mi, Muaūpoko) is a long, hilly indented finger of land that forms the easternmost part of Dunedin, New Zealand. Volcanic in origin, it forms one wall of the eroded valley that now forms Otago Harbour. The peninsula lies sou ...

. The main channel of the harbour is kept clear by the ''Aramoana mole'', an artificial breakwater which extends for 1200 metres from Aramoana. The mole was originally intended to extend another 600 meters into the ocean, however due to tidal patterns and the instability of the construction, no attempt to extend beyond the current length was thought to be possible. To the southwestern side of the township extend expansive salty

mudflat Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal fl ...

s from the head of the Aramoana Spit around the harbourside to the township of Te Ngaru. This area is a protected Wildlife Sanctuary, which hosts a range of plant and animal life, both native and exotic. On the other side of the Spit is an expanse of beach, truncated by the Aramoana Mole. The beach and sand dunes to the east are known as Shelly Beach. The beach to the west is known as Big Beach and extends for over two kilometres. At points along this beach, steep rockfaces come down to the waterline. These are well used for practical training by local rock-climbers. Seals can be found sun bathing on the rocks of the spit. Enthusiastic Land yachters use this beach, especially in the favourable Nor’Easter winds.

Demographics

Aramoana is described by Statistics New Zealand as a rural settlement. It covers , and is part of the much larger Mount Cargill statistical area. Aramoana had a population of 111 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 24 people (27.6%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 33 people (42.3%) 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 54 households. There were 69 males and 42 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.64 males per female. The median age was 52.2 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 15 people (13.5%) aged under 15 years, 9 (8.1%) aged 15 to 29, 72 (64.9%) aged 30 to 64, and 18 (16.2%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 97.3% European/Pākehā, 2.7% Māori, and 2.7% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities). Although some people objected to giving their religion, 59.5% had no religion, 21.6% were Christian and 8.1% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 21 (21.9%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 12 (12.5%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $29,500, compared with $31,800 nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 51 (53.1%) people were employed full-time, 12 (12.5%) were part-time, and 3 (3.1%) were unemployed.

Save Aramoana Campaign

In the late 1970s Aramoana was proposed as the site of a major aluminium smelter by a consortium of New Zealand-based

Fletcher Challenge Fletcher Challenge was a multinational corporation from New Zealand. It was formed in 1981 by the merger of Fletcher Holdings, Challenge Corporation and Tasman Pulp and Paper. It had holdings in construction, forestry, building, and energy, ini ...

, Australia's

CSR Limited CSR may refer to: Biology * Central serous retinopathy, a visual impairment * Cheyne–Stokes respiration, an abnormal respiration pattern * Child sex ratio, ratio between female and male births * Class switch recombination, a process that chan ...

and Swiss firm

Alusuisse Alusuisse was a Swiss industrial group founded as ''Aluminium Industrie Aktien'' in 1898 in Zurich, Switzerland. The organisation was named ''Schweizerische Aluminium AG'' from 1963, ''Alusuisse-Lonza Holding AG'' from 1990, and ''Algroup'' from 19 ...

. An

aluminium smelter Aluminium smelting is the process of extracting aluminium from its oxide, alumina, generally by the Hall-Héroult process. Alumina is extracted from the ore bauxite by means of the Bayer process at an alumina refinery. This is an electrolyti ...

was already operating at

Tiwai Point Tiwai Point lies at the entrance to Bluff Harbour on the southern coast of the South Island of New Zealand. A spit which extends from the western end of the Awarua Plain, it lies between Awarua Bay to the north and Foveaux Strait to the south. ...

when the smelter at Aramoana was proposed. The Save Aramoana Campaign was formed in 1974 to oppose the smelter. Among the leaders were three Otago psychologists: Peter Bradshaw, Jules Older and Richard Thomson. A large number of Otago artists and performers also contributed to the successful drive to save Aramoana.

Aramoana massacre

Aramoana gained notoriety as the site of a mass murder that occurred on 13 and 14 November 1990. Resident David Gray, an unemployed gun collector, went on a rampage in which 13 people were shot dead, before Gray was shot by police. A monument to the 13 victims stands on the dunes near to the Aramoana Mole. In 2006, New Zealand director

Robert Sarkies Robert Sarkies (born 6 March 1967) is a New Zealand film director and screenwriter. Sarkies grew up in the South Island city of Dunedin. He attended Kaikorai Valley College. His three feature films to date have been set in Dunedin, or in the lowe ...

released a film based on the events, '' Out of the Blue''.

References

:* {{Authority control Geography of Dunedin Populated places in Otago Spits of New Zealand Headlands of Otago Wetlands of Otago