Longbeach, New Zealand

Location map
New Zealand
label=Longbeach
lat_dir=S | lat_deg=44 | lat_min=06
lon_dir=E | lon_deg=171 | lon_min=42
position=right
width= 150
float=right
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: "This article is about the Canterbury locality. For the settlement in Otago, see Long Beach, New Zealand."

Longbeach is a lowly populated locality in the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island. [Land Information New Zealand, [http://www.linz.govt.nz/apps/placenames/index.html?p=18902 New Zealand Geographic Placename Database - Place Name Detail: Longbeach] , accessed 20 March 2007.] It is located in a rural area of the Canterbury Plains on the shore of the Pacific Ocean on the northern side of the Hinds River's mouth.

Nearby settlements include Waterton and Eiffelton to the north, and on the other side of the Hinds River, Lowcliffe to the west. The small township of Hinds is to the northwest, while the nearest significantly sized town is Ashburton, further north.

There is a Longbeach School, though it is actually located in nearby Willowby rather than Longbeach. It was formed when three local schools amalgamated in 2000 and caters for students in grades 1 to 8. [Longbeach School, [http://www.ashburton.co.nz/education/longbeach/aboutus.htm About Us] , accessed 20 March 2007]

In the 1860s, there was a proposal to build the Main South Line railway between Christchurch and Dunedin on a coastal route that would have passed through Longbeach, but this was abandoned in favour of a more inland route through Ashburton that had easier river crossings. [Geoffrey B. Churchman and Tony Hurst, "The Railways of New Zealand: A Journey Through History" (Auckland: HarperCollins, 1991), 179.] However, Longbeach continued to lobby for a railway. In 1878, a proposal was made to extend the Southbridge Branch from Southbridge across the Rakaia River to Longbeach and Waterton. It was primarily intended to serve agricultural interests in the area. Although an appropriate location for a bridge was found, the government never acted on the proposal and it lapsed. [ [http://southbridgebranch.googlepages.com/proposedextension "Proposed Extension: The Proposed Extension of the Southbridge Branch Line"] , "New Zealand's Southbridge Branch Line", accessed 13 November 2007.]

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