Mornington, Otago
Encyclopedia
Mornington is a suburb of the 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...

, in the South Island
South Island
The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...

 of New Zealand
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...

. 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.

At the time of the 2006 census
New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings
The New Zealand government department Statistics New Zealand conducts a census of population and dwellings every five years. The census scheduled for 2011 was cancelled due to circumstances surrounding the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, however, and legislation introduced to hold the next...

, the permanent population was 3,393, a decrease of 15 since 2001.

The use of the name Mornington for the area was first recorded in 1862. 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. There is some likelihood, however, that it was named by early landholder David Mailer after Mornington, Victoria
Mornington, Victoria
Mornington is a sea side town on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia, located 57 km south-east of Melbourne's central business district. It is in the Local Government Area of the Shire of Mornington Peninsula....

. Mornington was a separate borough until amalgamation with Dunedin city in 1916

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
Roslyn
-Places:* Roslyn, Manawatu-Wanganui, a suburb of the city of Palmerston North* Roslyn, Otago, a suburb of the city of Dunedin and a former electorate Roslyn...

 to the north, Maryhill
Maryhill, New Zealand
Maryhill is a residential suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is located on a ridge to the southwest of the central city between the suburbs of Mornington, Kenmure, and Caversham. The smaller suburb of Balaclava lies immediately to its west. Maryhill takes its name from a district in the...

 to the southwest, Belleknowes to the northeast, and The Glen - divided roughly between Mornington and Caversham
Caversham, 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...

 in the southeast.

To the east lies the City Rise
City Rise
City Rise is an inner suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. One of the city's older suburbs, it is, as its name suggests, centred on the slopes which lie close to the city centre, particularly those closest to the city's original heart of The Exchange...

, an area of old grand houses which surround the southern end of the city centre. The Town Belt
Town Belt
The Town Belt is a green belt which surrounds the centre of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. Covering a total of over , it extends around three sides of the city's centre at a distance from it of some 1-3 km in a broad crescent from the Oval at Kensington in the south through the suburbs of...

, a bush-clad
The Bush
"The bush" is a term used for rural, undeveloped land or country areas in certain countries.-Australia:The term is iconic in Australia. In reference to the landscape, "bush" describes a wooded area, intermediate between a shrubland and a forest, generally of dry and nitrogen-poor soil, mostly...

 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
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 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
Richard Byrd
Richard Byrd is the name of:*Richard C. Byrd , American politician*Richard Evelyn Byrd , admiral, polar explorer, aviator*Richard Byrd , American Olympic athlete...

, commemorating the 1928 departure for the southern continent from Dunedin by Byrd's 1928 expedition

Landmarks within Mornington include the suburb's former post office in Mailer Street, a distinctive building completed in 1905 with small a mock-Byzantine
Byzantine architecture
Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire. The empire gradually emerged as a distinct artistic and cultural entity from what is today referred to as the Roman Empire after AD 330, when the Roman Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire east from Rome to...

domed tower above the entrance.
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