Eiffelton is a lightly populated locality in the

Mid-Canterbury Mid Canterbury (also spelt Mid-Canterbury and mid-Canterbury) is a traditional, semi-official subregion of New Zealand's Canterbury Region extending inland from the Pacific coast to the Southern Alps. It is one of four traditional sub-regions o ...

region of New Zealand's

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

Geography

Eiffelton is situated on the

Canterbury Plains The Canterbury Plains () are an area in New Zealand centred in the Mid Canterbury, to the south of the city of Christchurch in the Canterbury region. Their northern extremes are at the foot of the Hundalee Hills in the Hurunui District, and ...

near the

Hinds River The Hinds River (Māori: Hekeao) is a river in the Canterbury region of New Zealand. Its north and south branches drain the eastern flank of the Moorhouse Range, part of the Southern Alps, and their confluence is near Anama and Mayfield. T ...

, which reaches the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

in nearby Longbeach. The small township of

Hinds Hinds may refer to: Places *Hinds, New Zealand, a small town *Hinds County, Mississippi, a US county *Hinds Lake, a lake in Minnesota *Hinds River, a river that flows through Hinds, New Zealand Other * A plural of deer, especially female deer (do ...

is to Eiffelton's west. Other nearby settlements include Lynnford between Eiffelton and Hinds, Willowby to the north, and Flemington and the ghost town of Waterton to the east. The closest town of significant size is Ashburton to the north.

Ashburton balls

Eiffelton's major claim to fame is that in 1978, it was the site of the discovery of an object similar to the Ashburton balls six years after the original balls were found. The balls were pieces of

space debris Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, space garbage, or cosmic debris) are defunct human-made objects in spaceprincipally in Earth orbitwhich no longer serve a useful function. These include dere ...

from the failed

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n space vessel Cosmos 482.

Religion

Eiffelton once had a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

church.

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

was first said in the area in 1888 in Waterton's town hall, but it was subsequently held in Eiffelton at either the school or the town hall. On 4 June 1961, a proper church was built, the Church of St Thomas More, and 300 people gathered for its formal opening. It seated 80 for regular services, but declining attendance meant that Mass was held only monthly in the early 1970s. It closed on 7 November 1976, with the altar taken to a church in Hinds and the church's building moved to a nearby site to be used by local

scouts Scouting or the Scout Movement is a youth social movement, movement which became popularly established in the first decade of the twentieth century. It follows the Scout method of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activi ...

.Catholic Diocese of Christchurch
"Eiffelton"
accessed 23 January 2008.

Services

Eiffelton has a town hall and formerly had a primary school. As of 2000, it merged with two other nearby schools and relocated to a site in Willowby. It also had a play centre for children under primary school age, but between 2001 and 2005, the play centre also relocated to Willowby.Education Review Office

September 2005, accessed 20 March 2007.

Transport

Eiffelton is not located on major transport routes. It is not far from

State Highway 1 The following highways are numbered 1. For roads numbered A1, see list of A1 roads. For roads numbered B1, see list of B1 roads. For roads numbered M1, see List of M1 roads. For roads numbered N1, see list of N1 roads. For roads numbered S ...

and the

Main South Line The Main South Line, sometimes referred to as part of the South Island Main Trunk Railway, is a railway line that runs north and south from Lyttelton, New Zealand, Lyttelton in New Zealand through Christchurch and along the east coast of the ...

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

, which both pass through Hinds.

Demographics

The Eiffelton statistical area, which also includes Ashton, Flemington,

Huntingdon Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by John, King of England, King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver C ...

, Lake Hood, Longbeach, Waterton and Willowby, covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km². Eiffelton had a population of 2,466 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 (10.8%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 678 people (37.9%) since the 2006 census. There were 870 households, comprising 1,293 males and 1,170 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.11 males per female. The median age was 38.1 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 546 people (22.1%) aged under 15 years, 429 (17.4%) aged 15 to 29, 1,179 (47.8%) aged 30 to 64, and 312 (12.7%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 88.2% 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 ...

, 5.1%

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 ...

, 0.7% Pasifika, 7.5% Asian, and 3.2% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity. The percentage of people born overseas was 16.9, compared with 27.1% nationally. Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 46.4% had no religion, 44.5% 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 ...

, 0.1% 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 ...

, 1.0% 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 ...

, 0.5% 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 0.6% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 333 (17.3%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 363 (18.9%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $43,700, compared with $31,800 nationally. 435 people (22.7%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 1,140 (59.4%) people were employed full-time, 372 (19.4%) were part-time, and 30 (1.6%) were unemployed.

References

{{Ashburton District, New Zealand Ashburton District Populated places in the Canterbury Region