Birdlings Flat, originally named Te Mata Hapuku, is a settlement in
Canterbury
Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...
, New Zealand, at the eastern end of
Kaitorete Spit and the southern end of
Lake Forsyth
Lake Forsyth (known to Māori as Te Roto o Wairewa) is a lake on the south-western side of Banks Peninsula in the Canterbury region of New Zealand, near the eastern end of the much larger Lake Ellesmere / Te Waihora. State Highway 75 to Akaro ...
, where the lake discharges to the sea. It is not far from eastern end of
Lake Ellesmere / Te Waihora
Lake Ellesmere / Te Waihora is a broad, shallow coastal lake or waituna, in the Canterbury region of the South Island of New Zealand. It is directly to the west of Banks Peninsula, separated from the Pacific Ocean by the long, narrow, sandy K ...
. The name ''Birdlings Flat'' is also commonly used for the nearby pebble beach on the ocean side of Kaitorete Spit.
The beach is well known as a place to find small
agate
Agate () is a common rock formation, consisting of chalcedony and quartz as its primary components, with a wide variety of colors. Agates are primarily formed within volcanic and metamorphic rocks. The ornamental use of agate was common in ...
s and a variety of other attractive rounded pebbles. Due to strong ocean currents, swimming and surfing is not advised.
Hector's dolphins live along the beach in notable numbers, and
fur seals
Fur seals are any of nine species of pinnipeds belonging to the subfamily Arctocephalinae in the family '' Otariidae''. They are much more closely related to sea lions than true seals, and share with them external ears ( pinnae), relatively ...
, whales such as
southern right whale
The southern right whale (''Eubalaena australis'') is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus ''Eubalaena''. Southern right whales inhabit oceans south of the Equator, between the latitudes of 20 ...
s, and much more rarely
elephant seals cavort and rest there.
History

Birdlings Flat is named after the Birdling family, who were the first European settlers to farm the area. William Birdling was the first member of the Birdling family to arrive in New Zealand. He was employed by
George Rhodes in 1843 to come to
Banks Peninsula and work as his overseer. William built a house, Waikoko, in the area that was later to bear his name.
On 16 May 1882, a
branch line
A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line.
Industrial spur
An industr ...
railway was opened to Birdlings Flat from a junction with the
Southbridge Branch in
Lincoln. This line became known as the
Little River Branch, with the extension to
Little River opened on 11 March 1886. The railway served Birdlings Flat until its closure on 30 June 1962. The railway'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 ...
remained well preserved and has now been revitalised into a public walking and cycling track, the
Little River Rail Trail.
Birdlings Flat has been used as a launch site for
sounding rocket
A sounding rocket or rocketsonde, sometimes called a research rocket or a suborbital rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The rockets are used to ...
s. The
University of Canterbury
The University of Canterbury ( mi, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was ...
used to have a meteorological research station there.
Demographics
Birdlings Flat is described by Statistics New Zealand as a rural settlement and covers .
It is part of the
Banks Peninsula South SA2 statistical area.
Birdlings Flat had a population of 195 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 sh ...
, an increase of 45 people (30.0%) since the
2013 census, and an increase of 42 people (27.5%) since the
2006 census. There were 96 households. There were 105 males and 93 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.13 males per female. The median age was 50.1 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 30 people (15.4%) aged under 15 years, 12 (6.2%) aged 15 to 29, 126 (64.6%) aged 30 to 64, and 27 (13.8%) aged 65 or older.
Ethnicities were 83.1% European/Pākehā, 21.5% Māori, 4.6% Asian, and 6.2% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities).
Although some people objected to giving their religion, 49.2% had no religion, 30.8% were Christian and 9.2% had other religions.
Of those at least 15 years old, 39 (23.6%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 30 (18.2%) 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 90 (54.5%) people were employed full-time, 18 (10.9%) were part-time, and 3 (1.8%) were unemployed.
References
*
*
External links
University of Canterbury- Birdlings Flat radars
{{Banks Peninsula
Populated places in Canterbury, New Zealand
Banks Peninsula