Saint Clair, New Zealand
Encyclopedia
St Clair is a leafy residential suburb of the New Zealand
city of Dunedin
. It is located on the Pacific Ocean coast five kilometres from the city centre on the southwesternmost part of the coastal plain which makes up the southern part of the urban area, and also climbs the slopes of Forbury Hill immediately to the west of this plain. St Clair's 2001 population was 4,179.
) which stretches along the city's southern shore, and the promontory of Forbury Hill which rises 159 metres (521.7 ft) above the plain. The summit of the hill lies within the grounds of St Clair Golf Course, in the west of the suburb.
Forbury Hill's flanks include a large cliff face one kilometre inland from the beach and a rocky headland which juts into the Pacific Ocean
. The small outcrop of White Island
lies to the immediate south of St Clair beach. The inland cliff, which runs parallel with and to the west of Forbury Road, was the site of a quarry in the early days of the city. The city's largest retirement village and its only meetinghouse for the LDS Church both lie in the shadow of this cliff.
The beach and the dunes are often the victims of erosion if weather patterns see series of storms hit the city from the south. Such erosion between 2002 and 2007 saw emergency measures taken to add sand to the dunes in 2007 and 2008. The erosion is a long-term ongoing concern, as evidenced by attempts at beach protecting begun in 1904 which saw the addition of sturdy wooden piles and windbreaks to the beack the last surviving sets of wooden posts from these efforts are a landmark of St Clair Beach, often seen as being the dividing line between St Clair and Middle Beaches.
Another beach, Second Beach, lies to the west of St Clair Beach, separated from it by a rocky outcrop on which lies St Clair Hot Salt Water Pool. Second Beach is rocky rather than sandy, and is flanked by cliffs that form the head of Forbury Hill, some of which include hexagonal basalt
columns, one of three such outcrops in Dunedin (the others being at Blackhead, further to the west, and at the Organ Pipes formation on Mount Cargill
. This natural amphitheatre is now largely wild but easily reached by a footpath. It was the site of quarrying operations in the early days of Dunedin, but only the overgrown remnants of concrete walls are today left of this.
A small stream runs from the flank of Forbury Hill, passing into a culvert before reaching the sea at the western end of St Clair Beach. Bedford Street follows the steep valley of this stream for much of its short length.
The suburb is surrounded by the suburbs of Corstorphine
, Kew, Forbury, and St Kilda. Its main roads are Forbury Road, Bay View Road, Bedford Street, and Allandale Road, with a small shopping area close to the junction of Allandale and Forbury Roads. An esplanade
runs along the coast at the southern end of Forbury Road, and is the site of several restaurants and cafes.
venues and is also home to the St Clair Surf Life Saving Club
. At the western end of the beach, under the shadow of Forbury Hill, lies the St Clair Hot Salt Water Pool, an open-air public swimming pool nestled within rocks a handful of metres from the sea. The beach is also the site of the city's annual "midwinter plunge", which sees residents brave the chilly waters every year at the winter solstice. The beach's sea wall, esplanade and oceanway were rebuilt and renovated in 2004.
In recent years the Esplanade area has become a hub of culture with many cafe's, restaurants and bars including the casual Swell Cafe-Bar and Pier 24 Restaurant and Bar with award winning Celebrity Chef - Michael Coughlin. In 2009 the face of the Esplanade changed significantly with the opening of the luxury St Clair Beach Resort hotel.
One of the city's wealthier suburbs, many fine houses are situated in the upper part of St Clair on the slopes of Forbury Hill. This part of the suburb is often referred to as St Clair Park, possibly a reference to the St Clair golf course - one of the city's main courses - which straddles the top of the hill. Near to this are the ruins of Cargill's Castle
, a former stately home built for early settler Edward Cargill in 1877 .
The twin single-sex secondary schools of King's
and Queen's
lie close to the point where St Clair, St Kilda and Forbury meet. As a residential suburb, industrial activity in 21st century St Clair is negligible.
. Forbury lies largely in the shadow of the cliff face that is located one kilometre inland from St Clair Beach, and stretches to the east of this cliff across the plain towards South Dunedin. Apart from Caversham and St Clair, Forbury is bounded by St Kilda in the south, Kew in the west, and South Dunedin
in the east.
The name Forbury is somewhat confusing, as it is used for several local features, not all of them within the suburb. Notable among these is Forbury Park Raceway
, one of the city's main horse-racing venues, which actually lies in St Kilda. Forbury Corner, an important road junction, lies in Caversham, though not far from the northern boundary of Forbury.
Prominent features of Forbury include Tonga Park, a sports ground used by Caversham Football Club
, and the twin single-sex secondary schools, King's
and Queen's
. Forbury Road is the suburb's main arterial route, aligned roughly north-south and linking Caversham at Forbury Corner with St Clair at the Esplanade. The suburb's other main roads include Bay View Road, Macandrew Road, Surrey Street, and Easther Crescent.
The name Whakaherekau was used by Māori for the coastal strip encompassing parts of what are now St Kilda and St Clair. This has been translated as meaining either "To make a conciliatory present" or "A prepared snare which caught nothing".
Early European settlement in the area was led by William Henry Valpy
(1793–1852). Valpy and his family arrived in New Zealand in 1849, setting up a 48 ha farm property centred on what are now Valpy Street and Norfolk Street. The property was named "The Forbury" after Forbury Gardens
, a public gardens in Reading, Berkshire
. Valpy was born in Reading, where his father Richard Valpy
had been a schoolmaster. Valpy was reputedly the wealthiest man in New Zealand.
Chinese settlers were notable among early residents in the St Clair area, and largely through their effort the swampy land inland from the beach was drained, and converted into market gardens. Much of the young city's vegetable production was centred on Chinese allotments in an area close to what is now Macandrew Road, Forbury. Habitation remained sparse until the early twentieth century, but rapid growth immediately prior to World War I saw the population expand.
The suburb was largely populated by the city's more wealthy residents, with impressive houses by Francis Petre
built close to the beach in Cliffs Road, two of which survive. Noted early residents included the Petres, the Cargills, the Sideys (including Sir Thomas Sidey
), and the McIndoes. The McIndoe family included the founder of one of the city's main printing firms, John McIndoe, and Sir Archibald McIndoe
, a pioneer in the field of plastic surgery
.
There was also major industry in the early days of the suburb, with both horticulture and quarrying being of importance. The latter supplied many of the materials for C & W Shiel's brickworks, one of the early city's most important industries. The brickworks lay on the eastern side of Forbury Road with a quarry to the west (the quarry is now the site of the LDS Church meetinghouse and the Francis Hodgkins Retirement village); the brickworks were fed via a conveyor over a structure which bridged Forbury Road.
The St Clair Beach has been a popular attraction for Dunedinites since the early days of the city. In 1912 a grandiose two-storeyed pavilion was erected on the esplanade, which was a popular if short-lived structure, burning to the ground in 1915. The site of the pavilion was later used for a band rotunda, though it too has long gone.
The cliffs above Second Beach were the site of a gun battery - part of a coastal defence system - from the 1880s until the end of World War I. Nothing now remains of the battery, the site of which was later subdivided for residential use.
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
city of Dunedin
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...
. It is located on the Pacific Ocean coast five kilometres from the city centre on the southwesternmost part of the coastal plain which makes up the southern part of the urban area, and also climbs the slopes of Forbury Hill immediately to the west of this plain. St Clair's 2001 population was 4,179.
Geography
St Clair's main geographical features are St Clair Beach, the western end of the long beach (Ocean BeachOcean Beach, Otago
Ocean Beach is a long sandy beach which runs along the Pacific Ocean coast of south Dunedin, New Zealand. It stretches for some three kilometres from Saint Clair in the southwest along the coast of Saint Kilda to the foot of Lawyer's Head in the east...
) which stretches along the city's southern shore, and the promontory of Forbury Hill which rises 159 metres (521.7 ft) above the plain. The summit of the hill lies within the grounds of St Clair Golf Course, in the west of the suburb.
Forbury Hill's flanks include a large cliff face one kilometre inland from the beach and a rocky headland which juts into the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
. The small outcrop of White Island
White Island, Otago
White Island is the name of two islands off the New Zealand coast. The smaller and less well known lies off the coast of Otago, within the boundaries of the city of Dunedin....
lies to the immediate south of St Clair beach. The inland cliff, which runs parallel with and to the west of Forbury Road, was the site of a quarry in the early days of the city. The city's largest retirement village and its only meetinghouse for the LDS Church both lie in the shadow of this cliff.
The beach and the dunes are often the victims of erosion if weather patterns see series of storms hit the city from the south. Such erosion between 2002 and 2007 saw emergency measures taken to add sand to the dunes in 2007 and 2008. The erosion is a long-term ongoing concern, as evidenced by attempts at beach protecting begun in 1904 which saw the addition of sturdy wooden piles and windbreaks to the beack the last surviving sets of wooden posts from these efforts are a landmark of St Clair Beach, often seen as being the dividing line between St Clair and Middle Beaches.
Another beach, Second Beach, lies to the west of St Clair Beach, separated from it by a rocky outcrop on which lies St Clair Hot Salt Water Pool. Second Beach is rocky rather than sandy, and is flanked by cliffs that form the head of Forbury Hill, some of which include hexagonal basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...
columns, one of three such outcrops in Dunedin (the others being at Blackhead, further to the west, and at the Organ Pipes formation on Mount Cargill
Mount Cargill
Mount Cargill is a 680 metre high volcanic outcrop which dominates the skyline of northern Dunedin, New Zealand. It is situated some 15 kilometres north of the city centre....
. This natural amphitheatre is now largely wild but easily reached by a footpath. It was the site of quarrying operations in the early days of Dunedin, but only the overgrown remnants of concrete walls are today left of this.
A small stream runs from the flank of Forbury Hill, passing into a culvert before reaching the sea at the western end of St Clair Beach. Bedford Street follows the steep valley of this stream for much of its short length.
The suburb is surrounded by the suburbs of Corstorphine
Corstorphine, New Zealand
Corstorphine is a suburb of southwest Dunedin in the South Island of New Zealand. It is located on the slopes of Calton Hill - a spur of Forbury Hill - between Caversham Valley and the Pacific Ocean...
, Kew, Forbury, and St Kilda. Its main roads are Forbury Road, Bay View Road, Bedford Street, and Allandale Road, with a small shopping area close to the junction of Allandale and Forbury Roads. An esplanade
Esplanade
An esplanade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The original meaning of esplanade was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide clear fields of fire for the fortress' guns...
runs along the coast at the southern end of Forbury Road, and is the site of several restaurants and cafes.
Modern St Clair
St Clair Beach is a popular summer destination for Dunedinites. It is one of the South Island's more popular surfingSurfing
Surfing' is a surface water sport in which the surfer rides a surfboard on the crest and face of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore...
venues and is also home to the St Clair Surf Life Saving Club
St Clair Surf Life Saving Club
St Clair Surf Life Saving Club is a surf lifesaving club based at St Clair in Dunedin, New Zealand. The club is the largest of the six clubs based in the Otago region, and is one of 71 clubs nationwide...
. At the western end of the beach, under the shadow of Forbury Hill, lies the St Clair Hot Salt Water Pool, an open-air public swimming pool nestled within rocks a handful of metres from the sea. The beach is also the site of the city's annual "midwinter plunge", which sees residents brave the chilly waters every year at the winter solstice. The beach's sea wall, esplanade and oceanway were rebuilt and renovated in 2004.
In recent years the Esplanade area has become a hub of culture with many cafe's, restaurants and bars including the casual Swell Cafe-Bar and Pier 24 Restaurant and Bar with award winning Celebrity Chef - Michael Coughlin. In 2009 the face of the Esplanade changed significantly with the opening of the luxury St Clair Beach Resort hotel.
One of the city's wealthier suburbs, many fine houses are situated in the upper part of St Clair on the slopes of Forbury Hill. This part of the suburb is often referred to as St Clair Park, possibly a reference to the St Clair golf course - one of the city's main courses - which straddles the top of the hill. Near to this are the ruins of Cargill's Castle
Cargill's Castle
The ruins of Cargill's Castle stand on a promontory overlooking the Pacific Ocean in New Zealand's southern city of Dunedin. It is one of only four castles in New Zealand, the others being nearby Larnach Castle, Firth's Castle in Mt Eden, Auckland and Merkleworth in Takapuna, Auckland...
, a former stately home built for early settler Edward Cargill in 1877 .
The twin single-sex secondary schools of King's
King's High School, Dunedin
King's High School is a state single-sex boys' secondary school in Dunedin, New Zealand. It is located at the southern end of the city close to the boundary between the suburbs of South Dunedin, St. Clair and Forbury, next to the parallel single-sex girls' school, Queen's High School...
and Queen's
Queen's High School, Dunedin
Queen's High School is a state single-sex girls' secondary school in Dunedin. It is located at the southern end of the city close to the boundary between the suburbs of St. Clair and Forbury, next to the parallel single-sex boys' school, King's, with which it shares some facilities....
lie close to the point where St Clair, St Kilda and Forbury meet. As a residential suburb, industrial activity in 21st century St Clair is negligible.
Forbury
The smaller, less well-defined suburb of Forbury lies immediately to the north of St Clair, between it and CavershamCaversham, New Zealand
Caversham is one of the older suburbs of the South Island New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is sited at the western edge of the city's central plain at the mouth of the steep Caversham Valley, which rises to the saddle of Lookout Point...
. Forbury lies largely in the shadow of the cliff face that is located one kilometre inland from St Clair Beach, and stretches to the east of this cliff across the plain towards South Dunedin. Apart from Caversham and St Clair, Forbury is bounded by St Kilda in the south, Kew in the west, and South Dunedin
South Dunedin
South Dunedin is a major inner city suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is located, as its name suggests, to the south of the city centre, on part of a large plain known locally simply as "The Flat". The suburb is a mix of industrial, retail, and predominantly lower-quality residential...
in the east.
The name Forbury is somewhat confusing, as it is used for several local features, not all of them within the suburb. Notable among these is Forbury Park Raceway
Forbury Park Raceway
Forbury Park Raceway is a horseracing venue in the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is located close to the Pacific Ocean coast in the suburb of Saint Kilda....
, one of the city's main horse-racing venues, which actually lies in St Kilda. Forbury Corner, an important road junction, lies in Caversham, though not far from the northern boundary of Forbury.
Prominent features of Forbury include Tonga Park, a sports ground used by Caversham Football Club
Caversham (soccer)
Caversham is an illustrious association Football club in Dunedin, New Zealand. They are competing in the ODT FootballSouth Premier League.They are named for the suburb of Caversham to the southwest of Dunedin's city centre, best known for its former international sports venue Carisbrook...
, and the twin single-sex secondary schools, King's
King's High School, Dunedin
King's High School is a state single-sex boys' secondary school in Dunedin, New Zealand. It is located at the southern end of the city close to the boundary between the suburbs of South Dunedin, St. Clair and Forbury, next to the parallel single-sex girls' school, Queen's High School...
and Queen's
Queen's High School, Dunedin
Queen's High School is a state single-sex girls' secondary school in Dunedin. It is located at the southern end of the city close to the boundary between the suburbs of St. Clair and Forbury, next to the parallel single-sex boys' school, King's, with which it shares some facilities....
. Forbury Road is the suburb's main arterial route, aligned roughly north-south and linking Caversham at Forbury Corner with St Clair at the Esplanade. The suburb's other main roads include Bay View Road, Macandrew Road, Surrey Street, and Easther Crescent.
History
There is known to have been Māori settlement in the area close to what is now St Clair Esplanade in pre-European times, with artefacts having been discovered close to the western end of the Esplanade and also occasionally uncovered in the dunes which lie to the east. It is believed that there was also a burial site close to Cargill's Castle. A major pre-European track led along the length of the dunes and from there over Forbury Hill to connect with the land to the south.The name Whakaherekau was used by Māori for the coastal strip encompassing parts of what are now St Kilda and St Clair. This has been translated as meaining either "To make a conciliatory present" or "A prepared snare which caught nothing".
Early European settlement in the area was led by William Henry Valpy
William Henry Valpy
William Henry Valpy was a noted early settler of Dunedin, New Zealand. He is sometimes referred to locally as "The father of Saint Clair", as he was the first settler in the area now occupied by the suburb of Saint Clair....
(1793–1852). Valpy and his family arrived in New Zealand in 1849, setting up a 48 ha farm property centred on what are now Valpy Street and Norfolk Street. The property was named "The Forbury" after Forbury Gardens
Forbury Gardens
Forbury Gardens is a public park in the town of Reading in the English county of Berkshire. The park is on the site of the outer court of Reading Abbey, which was in front of the Abbey Church. The site was formerly known as the Forbury, and one of the roads flanking the current gardens is still...
, a public gardens in Reading, Berkshire
Reading, Berkshire
Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....
. Valpy was born in Reading, where his father Richard Valpy
Richard Valpy
-Biography:He was born the eldest son of Richard and Catherine Valpy in Jersey. He was sent to schools in Normandy and Southampton, and completed his education at Pembroke College, Oxford. In 1777 he took orders. After holding a mastership at Bury, in 1781 he became head master of Reading grammar...
had been a schoolmaster. Valpy was reputedly the wealthiest man in New Zealand.
Chinese settlers were notable among early residents in the St Clair area, and largely through their effort the swampy land inland from the beach was drained, and converted into market gardens. Much of the young city's vegetable production was centred on Chinese allotments in an area close to what is now Macandrew Road, Forbury. Habitation remained sparse until the early twentieth century, but rapid growth immediately prior to World War I saw the population expand.
Francis Petre
Francis William "Frank" Petre was a prominent New Zealand-born architect based in Dunedin. He was an able exponent of the Gothic revival style, one of its best practitioners in New Zealand. He followed the Roman Church's initiative to build Catholic places of worship in Anglo-Saxon countries in...
built close to the beach in Cliffs Road, two of which survive. Noted early residents included the Petres, the Cargills, the Sideys (including Sir Thomas Sidey
Thomas Sidey
Sir Thomas Kay Sidey was a New Zealand politician from the Otago Region, remembered for his successful advocacy of daylight saving time.-Early life:...
), and the McIndoes. The McIndoe family included the founder of one of the city's main printing firms, John McIndoe, and Sir Archibald McIndoe
Archibald McIndoe
Sir Archibald McIndoe CBE FRCS was a pioneering New Zealand plastic surgeon who worked for the Royal Air Force during World War II. He greatly improved the treatment and rehabilitation of badly burned aircrew.-Background:...
, a pioneer in the field of plastic surgery
Plastic surgery
Plastic surgery is a medical specialty concerned with the correction or restoration of form and function. Though cosmetic or aesthetic surgery is the best-known kind of plastic surgery, most plastic surgery is not cosmetic: plastic surgery includes many types of reconstructive surgery, hand...
.
There was also major industry in the early days of the suburb, with both horticulture and quarrying being of importance. The latter supplied many of the materials for C & W Shiel's brickworks, one of the early city's most important industries. The brickworks lay on the eastern side of Forbury Road with a quarry to the west (the quarry is now the site of the LDS Church meetinghouse and the Francis Hodgkins Retirement village); the brickworks were fed via a conveyor over a structure which bridged Forbury Road.
The St Clair Beach has been a popular attraction for Dunedinites since the early days of the city. In 1912 a grandiose two-storeyed pavilion was erected on the esplanade, which was a popular if short-lived structure, burning to the ground in 1915. The site of the pavilion was later used for a band rotunda, though it too has long gone.
The cliffs above Second Beach were the site of a gun battery - part of a coastal defence system - from the 1880s until the end of World War I. Nothing now remains of the battery, the site of which was later subdivided for residential use.