Mornington, Dunedin

Mornington is a suburb of the city of Dunedin, in the South Island of New Zealand. It is situated on hilly slopes 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) to the west of the city centre, the slopes forming part of a ridge which surrounds the heart of the city.

Mornington

Map showing location of Mornington within Dunedin

Mornington's distinctive former post office building in Mailer Street.

According to the 2013 New Zealand census, Mornington has a population of 3,267, a decrease of 126 people since the 2006 census. There were 1,518 males and 1,749 females.[1]

The use of the name Mornington for the area was first recorded in 1862.[2] There seems to be some conjecture about the origin of the name – some sources record it as being purely descriptive, with the suburb receiving the first rays of the sunrise.[3] There is some likelihood, however, that it was named by early landholder David Mailer after Mornington, Victoria. Mornington was a separate borough until amalgamation with Dunedin city in 1916[4]

Mornington's main streets are Mailer Street, Elgin Road, Glenpark Avenue, Eglinton Road, and Kenmure Road. It is a mainly residential suburb, with a retail area on Mailer Street. The suburb is surrounded by the suburbs of Kenmure to the west, Roslyn to the north, Maryhill to the southwest, Belleknowes to the northeast, and The Glen – divided roughly between Mornington and Caversham in the southeast.

To the east lies the City Rise, an area that includes some old grand houses which surround the southern end of the city centre. The Town Belt, a bush-clad green belt dating to the early years of Dunedin's settlement, follows the slopes of the ridge, and lies immediately below Mornington, most prominently to the northeast.

Mornington is the home to several sports grounds and teams, and was the site of New Zealand's first golf course, opened in 1872. The Zingari-Richmond Rugby Club is based at Montecillo ground in Eglinton Road. Montecillo, the city's home for war veterans, was moved from Eglinton Road to South Dunedin in the 1990s. Immediately above Montecillo ground is Unity Park, which is a venue for Mornington Football (soccer) club. Unity Park affords panoramic views across the central city, and is the site of a statue of Antarctic explorer Admiral Richard Byrd, commemorating the 1928 departure for the southern continent from Dunedin by Byrd's 1928 expedition[5]

Landmarks within Mornington include the suburb's former post office in Mailer Street, a distinctive building completed in 1905 with small a mock-Byzantine domed tower above the entrance.