Ravensbourne is a suburb of the

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 coun ...

city 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 is located on

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 ...

on the steep southeastern slopes of Signal Hill. It lies on the harbour's northern shore, east-northeast of the city centre.

Geography and history

Rail and road links between central Dunedin and Port Chalmers run through Ravensbourne on the narrow strip of land between the hill slopes and harbour. A cycleway lies close to the harbour's edge, close to the rail line. Beginning in the final years of the twentieth century, this cycleway has extended to link many of the settlements along Otago Harbour's western shore. It begins close to the Forsyth Barr Stadium in North Dunedin, where it connects with Dunedin's cycleway network, and extends as far as St Leonards. Construction is underway to complete a link between St Leonards and Port Chalmers. Ravensbourne takes its name from the property of the first mayor of West Harbour, Thomas De Lacy, who served as mayor from 1877 to 1878. In the area of De Lacy's property weka abounded, whose cockiness reminded De Lacy of the

raven A raven is any of several larger-bodied bird species of the genus '' Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between " crows" and "ravens", common names which are assigne ...

s in his native

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. The

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 Co ...

name for the area is Kaitaki Tamariki, though this is rarely used .

West Harbour

Ravensbourne and the nearby suburbs of Maia, Burkes, and Saint Leonards, are often collectively referred to as West Harbour. Under this name, the area operated as a separate borough from 1877 until amalgamation with the city of Dunedin in 1963. Politically, the term now usually refers to the West Harbour Community Board, which represents those communities as well as

Pūrākaunui Pūrākaunui (formerly spelt Purakanui) is a small settlement in Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand. It is located within the bounds of the city of Dunedin, in a rural coastal area some 25 km to the north of the city centre. Pūrākaun ...

, Aramoana, and the major harbourside townships of Port Chalmers and Sawyers Bay.

Maia and Burkes

The smaller settlements of Maia and Burkes lie on the coast of the harbour immediately to the northeast of Ravensbourne. Maia, basically a suburb of Ravensbourne, lies to the northeast. Its name and pronunciation mean that it is often mistaken for a

name, though it was actually named for the Greek mythological daughter of

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geogra ...

, one of the

Pleiades The Pleiades (), also known as The Seven Sisters, Messier 45 and other names by different cultures, is an asterism and an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Taurus. At a distance ...

. Burkes lies to the northeast of Maia, and consists of one long narrow road running roughly parallel with and above the highway. The most notable feature of Burkes is that the

South Island Main Trunk The Main North Line between Picton and Christchurch and the Main South Line between Lyttelton and Invercargill, running down the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand, are sometimes together referred to collectively as the South Isl ...

railway crosses a series of causeways spanning some of the small bays which run along the harbour's edge. Some of these are now shared by the

Otago Harbour Cycleway The Otago Harbour Cycleway is a cycleway and shared pathway for walking and cycling in Dunedin, New Zealand. It is known by various names, including The Harbour Loop, and is also known by the names of various sections (e.g., the Dunedin-St Leona ...

. North of Burkes lies the larger settlement of Saint Leonards, which the early settler David Carey named for the English coastal town of

St Leonards-on-Sea St Leonards-on-Sea (commonly known as St Leonards) is a town and seaside resort in the Borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. It has been part of the borough since the late 19th century and lies to the west of central Hastings. The origi ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...

- the birthplace of his wife. RavensbourneNZ

Demographics

The suburb is mainly residential, but is dominated by two large industrial plants, the Logan Point Quarry and the

Ravensdown Kempthorne Prosser & Co. Ltd, also known as the New Zealand Drug Company Ltd, was the leading drug and fertiliser manufacturer in New Zealand from 1869 until 1978. The company's full name was Kempthorne Prosser & Co.'s New Zealand Drug Co. Ltd, es ...

Fertiliser factory, which is located at the harbour's edge at the southern end of the suburb. Ravensbourne contains a significant number of smaller homes, quite a number of them occupied as flats by students from the

University of Otago , image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg , image_size = , caption = University clock tower , motto = la, Sapere aude , mottoeng = Dare to be wise , established = 1869; 152 years ago , type = Public research collegiate ...

and

Otago Polytechnic Otago Polytechnic was a public New Zealand tertiary education institute, centred in Dunedin with additional campuses in Cromwell and Auckland. Otago Polytechnic provided career-focused education and training, offering a range of New Zealand accr ...

, which lie to the west. The suburb clusters around the Dunedin-Port Chalmers highway ( State Highway 88), and numerous narrow winding roads which climb the hill to its northwest. Above the suburb is Burns Park Scenic Reserve, which occupies much of the upper slopes of Signal Hill. Ravensbourne and Maia cover and are part of the Ravensbourne-St Leonards statistical area. They had a population of 1,209 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 short ...

, a decrease of 15 people (-1.2%) since the 2013 census, and a decrease of 48 people (-3.8%) since the 2006 census. There were 492 households. There were 615 males and 591 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.04 males per female, with 201 people (16.6%) aged under 15 years, 231 (19.1%) aged 15 to 29, 606 (50.1%) aged 30 to 64, and 168 (13.9%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 89.6% European/Pākehā, 10.2% Māori, 3.2% Pacific peoples, 4.7% Asian, and 3.7% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities). Although some people objected to giving their religion, 60.0% had no religion, 24.1% were Christian, 0.7% were Hindu, 0.7% were Muslim, 0.2% were Buddhist and 3.5% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 300 (29.8%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 159 (15.8%) people had no formal qualifications. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 519 (51.5%) people were employed full-time, 162 (16.1%) were part-time, and 39 (3.9%) were unemployed.

Ravensbourne-St Leonards statistical area

Ravensbourne-St Leonards covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km². Ravensbourne-St Leonards had a population of 1,878 at the

, a decrease of 18 people (-0.9%) since the 2013 census, and a decrease of 15 people (-0.8%) since the 2006 census. There were 756 households. There were 933 males and 942 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.99 males per female. The median age was 44.6 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 306 people (16.3%) aged under 15 years, 321 (17.1%) aged 15 to 29, 969 (51.6%) aged 30 to 64, and 282 (15.0%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 91.2% European/Pākehā, 9.3% Māori, 2.4% Pacific peoples, 4.0% Asian, and 3.4% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities). The proportion of people born overseas was 22.5%, compared with 27.1% nationally. Although some people objected to giving their religion, 60.2% had no religion, 25.7% were Christian, 0.6% were Hindu, 0.6% were Muslim, 0.3% were Buddhist and 3.7% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 534 (34.0%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 213 (13.5%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $35,100, compared with $31,800 nationally. 297 people (18.9%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 816 (51.9%) people were employed full-time, 267 (17.0%) were part-time, and 51 (3.2%) were unemployed.

Education

Ravensbourne School is a state contributing primary school serving years 1 to 6 with a roll of students as of The school was founded in 1877.

References

{{Authority control Suburbs of Dunedin