Mount Cargill, known in

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

as ,
Place names
'' on Kāti Huirapa Runaka ki Puketeraki website, viewed 4 January 2012 is a volcanic outcrop which dominates the skyline of northern

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. The peak is named for Captain William Cargill, an early leader of the Province of

Otago Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local go ...

. Māori legend tells of the mountain showing the profile of a prominent warrior, and indeed from Dunedin Buttar's Peak and Mount Cargill between them do form the outline of a reclining figure, with the nearby Buttar's Peak being the head and Mount Cargill the body. Panoramic views of Dunedin and its surrounding area are visible from the summit, making it a popular, if difficult to access, site. A single rough road ascends to the peak, and several popular walking tracks also ascend the slopes. Mount Cargill is topped by a telecommunications station and mast, the Mount Cargill Transmitting Station. The mast is Dunedin's tallest man-made structure.

Geography

Mt. Cargill is situated some 15 kilometres (9 miles) north of the city centre, and dominates the city's northern skyline. It rises to a height of 676 metres (2,218 ft). To the north and east of Mount Cargill's peak are several smaller peaks including Mount Zion, Mount Holmes and (most notably) Buttar's Peak. A rough road from the end of Pine Hill Road provides vehicular access to the summit, and several walking tracks also lead to the top, notably a walk from Bethune's Gully in North East Valley at the northern end of Dunedin's urban area and a walk through Graham's Bush, which starts in

Sawyers Bay Sawyers Bay is a suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is located to the southwest of Port Chalmers in a wide valley on the shore of Mussel Bay, to the northeast of Dunedin city centre. The suburb, on the western shore of Otago Harbo ...

close to

Port Chalmers Port Chalmers () is a town serving as the main port of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. Port Chalmers lies ten kilometres inside Otago Harbour, some 15 kilometres northeast of Dunedin's city centre. History Early Māori settlement The or ...

. These tracks pass through regenerating native bush and volcanic outcrops before a sharp climb along the northern flank immediately below the summit.Hamel, A. (2008). ''Dunedin tracks and trails.'' Dunedin:Silver Peaks Press. pp. 5.14–5.17 The tracks pass two significant points of interest. One of these is a prominent formation of columnar jointed basalt known as the Organ Pipes. Similar outcrops are found elsewhere in the Dunedin area, at Blackhead near Waldronville and at Second Beach, Saint Clair. The second point of interest is the small temperate

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, Montane forest, montane, Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist forest characteri ...

which dominates the vegetation of the upper slopes. Though not a true cloud forest, in that it is not tropical, it bears many of the hallmarks of true cloud forest, with abundant moss and fern cover under thick low canopy. The cloud forest is protected within a reserve, which includes the peak of the mountain as well as several secondary peaks. Although the tracks are easy (but steep), care should be taken by walkers, as the weather conditions on Mount Cargill are notoriously unpredictable and can change very rapidly. The peak is, along with the similarly high Flagstaff one of the highest points surrounding Dunedin, and as such, it is a popular lookout. From the summit, views can be obtained of the entire Dunedin urban area, as well as a considerable stretch of open countryside and much of Otago's coastline, from Shag Point near Palmerston to Nugget Point in

The Catlins The Catlins (sometimes referred to as The Catlins Coast) comprise an area in the southeastern corner of the South Island of New Zealand. The area lies between Balclutha, New Zealand, Balclutha and Invercargill, straddling the boundary between ...

. Particularly notable is the view of the

Otago Peninsula The Otago Peninsula () is a long, hilly indented finger of land that forms the easternmost part of Dunedin, New Zealand. Volcanic in origin, it forms one wall of the eroded valley that now forms Otago Harbour. The peninsula lies south-east of Ot ...

and Otago Harbour, the entire length of which can be seen from the summit.

Geology

Mount Cargill, and the nearby smaller peaks are among the youngest parts of the massive extinct

Dunedin Volcano The Dunedin Volcano is an extensively eroded multi-vent shield volcano that was active between 16 and 10 million years ago. It originally extended from the modern city of Dunedin, New Zealand to Aramoana about 25 km away. Extensive erosion ...

and was formed between 16 and 10 million years ago. Its peak comprises a

nepheline Nepheline, also called nephelite (), is a rock-forming mineral in the feldspathoid groupa silica-undersaturated aluminosilicate, Na3 K Al4 Si4 O16, that occurs in intrusive and volcanic rocks with low silica, and in their associated pegmatit ...

phonolite Phonolite is an uncommon shallow intrusive or extrusive rock, of intermediate chemical composition between felsic and mafic, with texture ranging from aphanitic (fine-grained) to porphyritic (mixed fine- and coarse-grained). Phonolite is a var ...

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

, an intrusion through earlier pyroclastics and phonolite flows, suggesting that the volcanic origins of the peak were as a

pyroclastic cone Volcanic cones are among the simplest volcanic landforms. They are built by ejecta from a volcanic vent, piling up around the vent in the shape of a cone with a central crater. Volcanic cones are of different types, depending upon the nature and s ...

, followed by a plugging with the nepheline dome. Buttar's Peak and Mt. Zion are similar, smaller domes. Mt. Holmes is a more distinct plug, featuring the columnar jointed basalt of the Organ Pipes.

Demographics

Fallen rock pillar pieces below Organ Pipes

The Mount Cargill statistical area includes

Waitati Waitati, from the Māori language, Māori Waitete, is a small seaside settlement in Otago, New Zealand, within the city limits of Dunedin. It is located close to the tidal mudflats of Blueskin Bay, 19 kilometres north of the Dunedin city centre. ...

Pūrākaunui Pūrākaunui (formerly spelt Purakanui) is a small settlement in Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand. It is located within the bounds of the city of Dunedin, in a rural coastal area some to the north of the city centre. Pūrākaunui lie ...

and

Aramoana Aramoana is a small coastal settlement north of Dunedin on the South Island of New Zealand. The settlement's permanent population in the 2001 Census was 261. Supplementing this are seasonal visitors from the city who occupy Bach (New Zealand), ...

. It covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km². Mount Cargill had a population of 2,016 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 ...

, an increase of 240 people (13.5%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 261 people (14.9%) since the 2006 census. There were 798 households, comprising 1,038 males and 975 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.06 males per female. The median age was 47.0 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 390 people (19.3%) aged under 15 years, 192 (9.5%) aged 15 to 29, 1,119 (55.5%) aged 30 to 64, and 312 (15.5%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 92.9% 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 ...

, 7.9%

, 0.9% Pasifika, 2.4% Asian, and 3.6% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity. The percentage of people born overseas was 23.7, compared with 27.1% nationally. Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 62.9% had no religion, 25.1% 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 ...

, 0.4% had

Māori religious beliefs Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

, 0.1% 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 ...

, 0.7% 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 3.4% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 639 (39.3%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 189 (11.6%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $34,000, compared with $31,800 nationally. 363 people (22.3%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 822 (50.6%) people were employed full-time, 291 (17.9%) were part-time, and 54 (3.3%) were unemployed.

Transmitting station

The Mount Cargill transmitting station sits atop the mountain, broadcasting television and FM radio to Dunedin and the eastern Otago area. The station was completed in 1970, transmitting television channel

DNTV2 DNTV2 was a television station in Dunedin, New Zealand established by the then New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation in 1962. Its base, and studio complex operated from the historic Garrison Hall in Dowling Street. Until 2010 Garrison Hall wa ...

(now part of

TVNZ 1 TVNZ 1 () is the first national television channel owned and operated by the state-owned broadcaster Television New Zealand (TVNZ). It is the oldest television broadcaster in New Zealand, starting out from 1960 as independent channels in the ...

) and replacing the original station at Highcliff. The station features a mast, the tallest structure in Dunedin. The following television stations and radio stations broadcast from Mount Cargill: *

Former analogue television frequencies

The following frequencies were used until 29 April 2013, when Mount Cargill switched off analogue broadcasts (see Digital changeover dates in New Zealand).

References

Sources *Automobile Association (1987). ''AA Guide to Walkways: South Island, New Zealand''. Sydney: Weldon Publishing. . *Bishop, G. and Hamel, A. (1993). ''From Sea to Silver Peaks''. Dunedin: John McIndoe. .

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cargill, Mount Mountains of Otago Geography of Dunedin Columnar basalts of New Zealand Volcanic plugs of New Zealand Rock formations of Otago Towers in New Zealand Transmitter sites in New Zealand Lookouts in New Zealand