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Links to places on this page: About Palmerston Photo Gallery Map |
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To contact me, complain, suggest, praise or just let me know what you think go
here. Links to other sites: All about Palmerston East Otago High School Otago Central Rail Trail OCEANA Gold Tours at Macraes |
Palmerston is just about halfway between Dunedin and Oamaru on State Highway 1 and at the East end of State Highway 85 (The Pig Root) that goes to Dunback and on to Central Otago.
It is a popular place for Motorists to have a break, stretch their legs and have a pie.
Palmerston is named after Lord Palmerston, the 19th-century British Prime Minister.
The population of the urban area is just under one thousand.
The prominent hill of Palmerston is called Puketapu (Maori for sacred head). Each year there is a race known as the Kelly's canter up and down this hill. The story goes that a policeman called Kelly went up Puketapu every day during World War II to look out to sea to check if New Zealand is safe from any invading armies. To honour this patriotic commitment we have the Kelly's canter.
The climb up the mountain is well worth the effort for your own fitness and for the view. It is hard to imagine that the fastest runners go up and down in less than twenty minutes.
It is only about five kilometers to the coast, a nice bike ride along the somewhat hilly road. At the end of Anderson Road is the beautiful Stony Creek lagoon and a walking track leads to the nearby beach where you will almost certainly be on your own. See a couple of pictures in the photo gallery.
Now if you want to stay on good terms with the locals NEVER EVER call the place "Palmerston South"!! There just is not such a place! There is only one Palmerston in New Zealand, Got That?! The much bigger town up North with the same name but the "North" added is about nine years younger, so here we have it!
Sadly the 'Southerner', the passenger train service from Christchurch was scraped a few years ago, so we now have a railway station with no trains. It is now a restaurant. In summer there is a excursion train coming from Dunedin about twice a week. But one can still see some activity at the Palmerston rail yard. It is the ore that is transferred from the railway to trucks here. It comes from Reefton at the Westcoast and gets transported all the way to Macraes where the gold gets extracted.
A postal service was established in 1862 and the mail was delivered to six families that lived in tents. The first telephone exchange in 1899 had nine customers.
A tragical incident happened in 1878. The railway took over the freight and passenger service along the coast so on 22 May was the last run of the coach through Trotters Gorge. They had a sendoff at Palmerston with schoolchildren lining the road. Later, at the descend of Horse Range Road the overloaded wagon went out of control and overturned on a bend, killing two passengers and seriously injuring others. What an unfortunate end to an area¹.
Ardleigh Golf Club Inc
Sutherland Road, Meadowbank, Palmerston
Phone: +64 3 465 1448
Email: ardleigh@golf.co.nz
Holes: 9 Par: 70 (men) 72 (women)
Length: 5500m (men) 5024 (women)
(I got all the above data from this website, more here...)
Museum
Radio Station
Medical Center
Two Supermarkets
Butcher
Two Garages
Three Restaurants
At least three Churches
Several shops selling clothing, nick-nacks, souveniers, art and pre-loved things
Primary School
High School
Bowling Club
Butterfly Heaven
Two Takeaways
and more
¹Read more in: Northern Approaches by C.W.S. Moore, Whitcombe & Tombs Limited
²About the gold: Gold Trails of Otago by June A. Wood, A.H. & A.W. Reed
The area: In the Land of the Dwindle River by George Griffiths, Otago Heritage Books
More about Palmerston
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