Ashers is a locality in the
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 Tasma ...
. It is situated east of
Invercargill
Invercargill ( , mi, Waihōpai is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. The city lies in the heart of the wide expanse of ...
on the
Southern Scenic Route
The Southern Scenic Route is a tourist highway in New Zealand linking Queenstown, Fiordland, Te Anau and the iconic Milford Road to Dunedin via, Riverton, Invercargill and The Catlins. An Australian travel magazine labelled it "one of the ...
as it runs between
Kapuka and
Gorge Road. Other nearby settlements include
Oteramika
Oteramika is a locality in the Southland region of New Zealand's South Island. It is in a rural setting near Waituna and Woodlands to the north, Rimu to the west, and to the south on the Southern Scenic Route are Mokotua, Kapuka, and Ashers. ...
to the north and
Kapuka South to the south. Also south is the
Waituna Lagoon
__NOTOC__
The Waituna Lagoon is on the southern coastline of the South Island of New Zealand. It forms part of the Awarua Wetland, a Ramsar site that was established in 1976. It gives it name to waituna, a type of ephemeral coastal lake.
The la ...
and
Toetoes Bay
Toetoes Bay is the easternmost of three large bays lying on the Foveaux Strait coast of Southland, New Zealand, the others being Te Waewae Bay and Oreti Beach. The 240 km Mataura River drains to sea at Toetoes Bay, first passing through the ...
.
Economy
Ashers is in a rural area and thus
agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peop ...
figures prominently. Significant
lignite coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as stratum, rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen ...
deposits are also located in the area. The Ashers-Waituna
coalfield
A coalfield is an area of certain uniform characteristics where coal is mined. The criteria for determining the approximate boundary of a coalfield are geographical and cultural, in addition to geological. A coalfield often groups the seams of ...
contains roughly 746 million
tonne
The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...
s of recoverable coal. Exploratory work has been undertaken, but commercial mining has not yet taken place.
A common stop for tourists and locals is the old Ashers Lignite pit, of which transformed into a lakeside garden still featuring walls of lignite and retaining the original pit shape hosting a café and campervan park.
Railway
On 1 March 1895, an extension of the
Seaward Bush Branch from
Mokotua to Gorge Road was opened, with a station located in Ashers. Trains operated from Invercargill and return only a couple of times a week until a further extension to
Waimahaka opened in 1899. At this point, a daily
mixed train
A mixed train or mixed consist is a train that contains both passenger and freight cars or wagons. Although common in the early days of railways, by the 20th century they were largely confined to branch lines with little traffic. Typically, service ...
from Waimahaka to Invercargill and return began operating. The line's profitability declined from the 1930s, and in 1951, the mixed train was cut to run just once a week as a cost-saving measure, with goods-only trains on other days. On 1 June 1960, all passenger services through Ashers were cancelled; freight also continued to remain at unprofitable levels, and the whole line closed on 31 March 1966. Some of the line's old
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 secondary ...
can still be seen in the vicinity of Ashers.
[David Leitch and Brian Scott, ''Exploring New Zealand's Ghost Railways'', revised edition (Wellington: Grantham House, 1998 ]995
Year 995 ( CMXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Japan
* 17 May - Fujiwara no Michitaka (imperial regent) dies.
* 3 June: Fujiwara no Michikane g ...
, 125-6.
References
{{coord, -46.4660, 168.6577, display=title, format=dms
Populated places in Southland, New Zealand