Henley is a township on New Zealand's Taieri Plains, named after the rowing centre

Henley-on-Thames Henley-on-Thames ( ) is a town status in the United Kingdom, town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Thames, in the South Oxfordshire district, in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, Berkshire, Reading, west of M ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It lies close to the confluence of the Taieri and Waipori Rivers at the eastern edge of the plain, at the foot of a low range of coastal hills. The township lies close to the ecologically significant

Sinclair Wetlands The Sinclair Wetlands (''Te Nohoaka o Tukiauau'') are an internationally renowned wetlands located to the south west of Dunedin, New Zealand, at the southern edge of the Taieri Plains. They are on the western side of Lake Waipori and approxima ...

, which lie to the west. Henley is near the south-west extremity of the City of

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...

, 35 km from the city centre, and close to Lake Waihola, one of the country's

rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically a ...

centres. Henley's population is about 250. The town was founded at some point prior to 1880. The main industry is dairy farming. Henley used to have a cheese factory which later moved to the nearby township of Momona. This was later bought out by the company that became Mainland Cheese. The churches in Henley are Presbyterian and Brethren. The original Māori name for Henley is Maitapapa. A pre-European Maori settlement lay to the south of Henley, close to the Taieri River. Henley township is prone to flooding by the Taieri River. SH1 is built on top of the bank that divides the larger Henley area, known as "The flood-free highway". Henley's main road lies roughly parallel to and south of this highway.The two roads are connected to the south at Titri and to the north at Otokia, and a connecting road runs between the two roads, crossing a bridge over the Taeri River close to the centre of the township. In June 1980 the South Taieri region experienced severe floods that flooded both sides of the highway and extended as far as Dunedin International Airport at Momona. Contributing factors to this were already full wetlands at Lake Waihola with the Taieri and Waipori Rivers both draining into this area. Excessive water from the Lake Mahinerangi dam was also released at this time. This placed significant pressure on the banks causing a breach.

References

{{Dunedin Localities in the Dunedin City territory Settlements on the Taieri River