Dunsdale

Living in Dunsdale

Dunsdale is a Southland locality in the farming country of the eastern Southland district, carrying the Scottish naming tradition that the early settlers applied with consistency across the district's rural localities. The dun in the name is the Scottish word for a hill fort or a dull brown-grey colour, both of which are geographically plausible depending on which aspect of the locality inspired the settler who named it and how much poetry they were applying to the process.

The farming around Dunsdale runs the eastern Southland model: sheep, beef and dairy on the flat to rolling country that the district's reliable rainfall supports, with the farming families managing operations that have been in continuous production through the economic cycles of Southland agriculture. The locality sits in the productive country east of the Mataura Valley, in the pastoral working land that the eastern Southland plain extends across.

Gore is the nearest full service centre, providing the schools, shops and social infrastructure that the Dunsdale community accesses for the daily requirements that the locality itself doesn't maintain at full urban scale. The farming district's connections run through Gore's institutions in the way that eastern Southland's rural communities organise themselves.

Children from Dunsdale attend Gore's schools for the primary and secondary years.

Schools & Enrolment Zones in Dunsdale

Schools in zone for Dunsdale

Children living in Dunsdale have a guaranteed right to enrol at these schools, based on Ministry of Education home zones.

• Hedgehope School

  Full Primary · roll 53 · decile 9

• Central Southland College

  Secondary (Year 9-15) · roll 686 · decile 6

• Southland Adventist Christian School

  Full Primary · roll 123 · decile 4

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