Avonside is an eastern suburb in
Christchurch
Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...
, New Zealand. It is one of the oldest suburbs of the city, with only
Heathcote being older.
History
The Avonside district was first mentioned in the Lyttelton times as a local district by Bishop Selwyn in 1855. The newly established parish in Avonside built a church dedicated to the
Holy Trinity and the church and burial grounds were consecrated on 24 February 1857. Avonside was home to
Avonside Girls' High School. It also has the
Avon River / Ōtākaro flowing through it.
The boundaries of the original Anglican parish of Avonside were fixed in 1859 and covered much of what is now suburbs such as
Aranui,
Burwood,
Linwood,
Marshland
In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in general ...
,
New Brighton,
North New Brighton,
Parklands and part of
Phillipstown. The area once covered the whole of north east Christchurch as far as the
Styx River.
The area borders the Avon River / Ōtākaro and is built on the rich soils of the Avon River flood plain. In the early years of Christchurch the area was known to be extremely swampy and difficult to travel across.
Earthquakes

During the 4 September
2010 Canterbury earthquake, Avonside suffered a large amount of
liquefaction
In materials science, liquefaction is a process that generates a liquid from a solid or a gas or that generates a non-liquid phase which behaves in accordance with fluid dynamics.
It occurs both naturally and artificially. As an example of t ...
. In particular Keller Street, Bracken Street, Retreat Road and Cowlishaw Street were left with large areas covered in water and grey silt. Avonside Drive also experienced a great deal of damage with cracked roads and buildings. Power and water were lost, in some cases for several days, and there was extensive damage to the sewer system.
The more devastating 22 February
2011 Christchurch earthquake
A major earthquake occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. New Zealand Daylight Time, local time (23:51 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC, 21 February). The () earthquake struck the Canterbury Region ...
further damaged infrastructure and houses in the suburb. Liquefaction and flooding was more prominent than in September, along with the damage to roads, and many houses were more severely damaged along with the land they were built on. Power was lost for two to three weeks for many residents and for most houses the sewer infrastructure needed to be replaced or repaired. The
New Zealand Army
The New Zealand Army (, ) is the principal Army, land warfare force of New Zealand, a component of the New Zealand Defence Force alongside the Royal New Zealand Navy and the Royal New Zealand Air Force.
Formed in 1845, as the New Zealand Mil ...
and many other volunteer organisations based in Christchurch (especially the
Student Volunteer Army and the
Farmy Army) helped residents remove silt from their sections because of the sheer volume, with many streets having large mounds piled up on the side of the road.
Local electorate MP
Brendon Burns, in association with local community leaders, hosted meetings at Retreat Park (a local park on the corner of Retreat Road and Patten Street) to inform residents of necessary information such as the provision of water and progress of power being re-connected.
Another
aftershock struck in June causing liquefaction and flooding along with damaging houses and the infrastructure of the suburb even more. Later in the month the New Zealand Government announced (along with other suburbs in Christchurch) that many homes in Avonside were part of the so-called
Red Zone and would be demolished due to the land being too badly damaged to rebuild or repair a house in the near future. Many streets were affected by this decision and residents had until April 2013 to vacate their homes and accept compensation deals that are being offered by both the government and insurance companies for land and house. Other areas of the suburb were placed in the city's Green Zone where insurance companies could begin repair or rebuild of damaged properties. Many sections and houses in the suburb (mainly on Patten Street, Retreat Road and Cowlishaw Street) remained in limbo while the New Zealand government decided whether their land could be remediated or not. This was referred to as the Orange Zone. These decisions have since been made.
Demographics
Avonside covers .
It had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km
2.
Avonside had a population of 1,671 at the
2018 New Zealand census
The 2018 New Zealand census, which took place on Tuesday 6 March 2018, was the thirty-fourth national census in New Zealand. The population of New Zealand was counted as 4,699,755 – an increase of 457,707 (10.79%) over the 2013 census.
Resu ...
, a decrease of 24 people (−1.4%) since the
2013 census, and a decrease of 228 people (−12.0%) since the
2006 census. There were 678 households, comprising 837 males and 834 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.0 males per female. The median age was 36.5 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 318 people (19.0%) aged under 15 years, 354 (21.2%) aged 15 to 29, 801 (47.9%) aged 30 to 64, and 195 (11.7%) aged 65 or older.
Ethnicities were 77.4% European/
Pākehā
''Pākehā'' (or ''Pakeha''; ; ) is a Māori language, Māori-language word used in English, particularly in New Zealand. It generally means a non-Polynesians, Polynesian New Zealanders, New Zealander or more specifically a European New Zeala ...
, 19.4%
Māori, 8.1%
Pasifika, 7.0%
Asian, and 3.1% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity.
The percentage of people born overseas was 18.0, compared with 27.1% nationally.
Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 52.2% had no religion, 33.0% were
Christian
A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
, 0.9% had
Māori religious beliefs, 0.9% were
Hindu
Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
, 1.4% were
Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
, 0.5% were
Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
and 1.6% had other religions.
Of those at least 15 years old, 165 (12.2%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 315 (23.3%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $23,600, compared with $31,800 nationally. 123 people (9.1%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 612 (45.2%) people were employed full-time, 162 (12.0%) were part-time, and 87 (6.4%) were unemployed.
Education
Avonside Girls' High School opened in Avonside in 1919, but the site suffered earthquake damage in 2011. The school moved to
North New Brighton in 2019.
References
External links
*
Avonside with Wards Malthouse and Brewery at the left, Christchurch (photo circa 1863)Avonside Parish ChurchAvonside Girls' High SchoolStatistics New Zealand Suburb Profile
{{Christchurch earthquakes
Suburbs of Christchurch