Middlemarch is a small town in the

Otago Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local go ...

region of New Zealand's

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

. It lies at the foot of the Rock and Pillar Range of hills in the broad Strath-Taieri valley, through which flows the middle reaches of the

Taieri River The Taieri River (a misspelling of the original Māori name ''Taiari'' ) is the fourth-longest river in New Zealand and is in Otago in the South Island. Rising in the Lammerlaw Range, it initially flows north, then east around the Rock and Pill ...

. Since local government reorganisation in the late 1980s, Middlemarch and much of the Strath-Taieri has been administered as part 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 ...

city, the centre of which lies some 80 km to the southeast. Middlemarch is part of the Taieri electorate (formerly known as Dunedin South), and is currently represented in parliament by Ingrid Leary. Middlemarch has reticulated sewerage but no reticulated water supply. A description of 1903, that " e summer seasons are warm, but not enervating, and the winters cold, but dry" is still true today. It is a crucial service town for the local farming community, the terminus of the Taieri Gorge Railway, and the start of the

Otago Central Rail Trail The Otago Central Rail Trail is a 150-kilometre Rail trail, walking, cycling and horse riding track in the South Island of New Zealand. A pioneering project for New Zealand, the successful rail trail joined the New Zealand Cycle Trail umbrella or ...

. Several suggestions exist about how the township was named. One is that Mrs Alice Humphreys (née Hawdon, 1848–1934), whose husband Edward Wingfield Humphreys owned and had surveyed for sale sections in this new township, named the town in 1876 after

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...

's novel ''

Middlemarch ''Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life'' is a novel by English author George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Ann Evans. It appeared in eight installments (volumes) in 1871 and 1872. Set in Middlemarch, a fictional English Midlands town, in 1829 ...

: A Study of Provincial Life''. Another is that the name is from the now obsolete English term "march" meaning a boundary - in this case a middle area between two rivers. As with many places in and close to the

Maniototo The Maniatoto Plain, usually simply known as The Maniatoto, is an elevated inland region in Otago, New Zealand. The region roughly surrounds the upper reaches of the Taieri River and the Manuherikia River. It is bounded by the Kakanui Range to ...

area, its name may have been influenced by the

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

ancestry of early surveyor

John Turnbull Thomson John Turnbull Thomson (10 August 1821 – 16 October 1884) was a British civil engineer and artist who played an instrumental role in the development of the early infrastructure of nineteenth-century Colonial Singapore, Singapore and New Zealan ...

(there is a Middle March region in Northumberland, centred on the town of Otterburn).

Demographics

Middlemarch is described by Statistics New Zealand as a rural settlement. It covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km². It is part of the much larger Strath Taieri statistical area. Middlemarch Community Centre Building

Middlemarch had a population of 153 at the

2018 New Zealand census The 2018 New Zealand census, which took place on Tuesday 6 March 2018, was the thirty-fourth national census in New Zealand. The population of New Zealand was counted as 4,699,755 – an increase of 457,707 (10.79%) over the 2013 census. Resu ...

, a decrease of 3 people (−1.9%) since the 2013 census, and a decrease of 12 people (−7.3%) since the 2006 census. There were 66 households, comprising 81 males and 72 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.12 males per female. The median age was 50.2 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 21 people (13.7%) aged under 15 years, 18 (11.8%) aged 15 to 29, 90 (58.8%) aged 30 to 64, and 30 (19.6%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 96.1% European/

Pākehā ''Pākehā'' (or ''Pakeha''; ; ) is a Māori language, Māori-language word used in English, particularly in New Zealand. It generally means a non-Polynesians, Polynesian New Zealanders, New Zealander or more specifically a European New Zeala ...

, and 21.6%

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 ...

. People may identify with more than one ethnicity. Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 62.7% had no religion, and 31.4% were

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

. Of those at least 15 years old, 12 (9.1%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 30 (22.7%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $25,200, compared with $31,800 nationally. 15 people (11.4%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 51 (38.6%) people were employed full-time, 21 (15.9%) were part-time, and 6 (4.5%) were unemployed.

Education

Strath Taieri School is a co-educational state full primary school for Year 1 to 8 students, with a roll of students as of . The school opened in 1880, and was initially a high school. It became a full primary in 1975.

Museum

Middlemarch Museum, located on Aberafon Street, shares the social history of the region. The museum's collection includes the ''

Platypus The platypus (''Ornithorhynchus anatinus''), sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypus is the sole living representative or monotypi ...

'', a 10-metre long iron-plate submarine. It was built in 1873 in

to mine for underwater gold, and is thought to be the only submarine to have been built in New Zealand.

Climate

The

Taieri Pet The Taieri Pet is a lenticular cloud formation that occurs in the Strath-Taieri region of Otago in the South Island of New Zealand. The cloud formation is created when north-westerly winds are forced upwards over the Rock and Pillar Range. The ...

is a

lenticular cloud Lenticular clouds (, ) are stationary clouds that form mostly in the troposphere, typically in parallel alignment to the wind direction. They are often comparable in appearance to a lens or saucer. polar stratospheric cloud, Nacreous clouds tha ...

formation that occurs in the Strath-Taieri region. The cloud formation is created when north-westerly winds are forced upward over the Rock and Pillar Range. The cloud is a common feature in the skies near Middlemarch.

References

External links