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 Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until superseded by Auckland on the creation of the Auckland Council in November 2010. Dunedin was the largest city in New Zealand by population until about 1900.

The Dunedin urban area lies on the central-eastern coast of Otago, surrounding the head of Otago Harbour. The harbour and hills around Dunedin are the remnants of an extinct volcano. The city suburbs extend out into the surrounding valleys and hills, onto the isthmus of the Otago Peninsula, and along the shores of the Otago Harbour and the Pacific Ocean.

The city's largest industry is tertiary education – Dunedin is home to the University of Otago, New Zealand's first university (1869), and the Otago Polytechnic. Students account for a large proportion of the population: 21.6 percent of the city's population was aged between 15 and 24 at the 2006 census, compared to the New Zealand average of 14.2 percent.



Geography

Dunedin City has a land area of 3,314.8 square kilometres (1,279.9 sq mi), slightly smaller than the American state of Rhode Island or the English county of Cambridgeshire, and a little smaller than Cornwall. It was the largest city in land area in New Zealand until the formation of the 5,600 km2 (2,200 sq mi) Auckland Council on 1 November 2010. The Dunedin City Council boundaries since 1989 have extended to Middlemarch in the west, Waikouaiti in the north, the Pacific Ocean in the east and south-east, and the Waipori/Taieri River and the township of Henley in the south-west.

Dunedin is the farthest city in the world from London at 19,100 km (11,870 mi) (90 km (56 mi) more than Invercargill, and 100 km (62 mi) more than Christchurch), and from Berlin at 18,200 km (11,310 mi). Its antipodes are some 300 km (190 mi) north of the Spanish city of A Coruña, in the Bay of Biscay.

Inner city

The heart of the city lies on the relatively flat land to the west of the head of the Otago Harbour. Here is The Octagon – once a gully, filled in the mid nineteenth century to create the present plaza. The initial settlement of the city took place to the south on the other side of Bell Hill, a large outcrop which had to be reduced in order to provide easy access between the two parts of the settlement. The central city stretches away from this point in a largely northeast-southwest direction, with the main streets of George Street and Princes Street meeting at The Octagon. Here they are joined by Stuart Street, which runs orthogonally to them, from the Dunedin Railway Station in the southeast, and steeply up to the suburb of Roslyn in the northwest. Many of the city's notable old buildings are located in the southern part of this area and on the inner ring of lower hills which surround the central city (most of these hills, such as Maori Hill, Pine Hill, and Maryhill, rise to some 200 metres (660 ft) above the plain).

Dunedin is home to Baldwin Street, which, according to the Guinness Book of Records, is the steepest street in the world. Its gradient is 1 in 2.9. The long since abandoned Maryhill Cablecar route had a similar gradient close to its Mornington depot.

Beyond the inner range of hills lie Dunedin's outer suburbs, notably to the northwest, beyond Roslyn. This direction contains Taieri Road and Three Mile Hill, which between them formed the original road route to the Taieri Plains. The modern State Highway 1 follows a different route, passing through Caversham in the west and out past Saddle Hill. Lying between Saddle Hill and Caversham are the outer suburbs of Green Island and Abbotsford. Between Green Island and Roslyn lies the steep-sided valley of the Kaikorai Stream, which is today a residential and light industrial area. Suburban settlements – mostly regarded as separate townships – also lie along both edges of the Otago Harbour. Notable among these are Portobello and Macandrew Bay, on the Otago Peninsula coast, and Port Chalmers on the opposite side of the harbour. Port Chalmers provides Dunedin's main deep-water port, including the city's container port.

The Dunedin skyline is dominated by a ring of (traditionally seven) hills which form the remnants of a volcanic crater. Notable among them are Mount Cargill (700 m/2,300 ft), Flagstaff (680 m/2,230 ft), Saddle Hill (480 m/1,570 ft), Signal Hill (390 m/1,280 ft), and Harbour Cone (320 m/1,050 ft).

Hinterland

The hinterland of Dunedin city encompasses a variety of different landforms. To the southwest lie the Taieri Plains, the broad, fertile lowland floodplains of the Taieri River and its major tributary the Waipori. These are moderately heavily settled, and contain the towns of Mosgiel, East Taieri, and Allanton. They are separated from the coast by a range of low hills rising to some 300 metres (980 ft). Inland from the Taieri Plain is rough hill country. Close to the plain, much of this is forested, notably around Berwick and Lake Mahinerangi, and also around the Silverpeaks Range which lies northwest of the Dunedin urban area. Beyond this, the land becomes drier and opens out into grass and tussock-covered land. A high, broad valley, the Strath-Taieri lies in Dunedin's far northwest, containing the town of Middlemarch, one of the area's few concentrations of population.

To the north of the city's urban area is undulating hill country containing several small, mainly coastal, settlements, including Waitati, Warrington, Seacliff and Waikouaiti. State Highway 1 winds steeply through a series of hills here, notably The Kilmog. These hills can be considered a coastal extension of the Silverpeaks Range.

To the east, Dunedin City includes the entirety of the Otago Peninsula, a long finger of land that formed the southeastern rim of the Dunedin Volcano. The peninsula is lightly settled, almost entirely along the harbour coast, and much of it is maintained as a natural habitat by the Otago Peninsula Trust. The peninsula contains several fine beaches, and is home to a considerable number of rare species, such as penguins, seals, and shags. Most importantly, it contains the world's only mainland breeding colony of Royal Albatross, at Taiaroa Head on the peninsula's northeastern point.

List of suburbs

Inner suburbs

Woodhaugh; Glenleith; Leith Valley; Dalmore; Liberton; Pine Hill; Normanby; Mt Mera; North East Valley; Opoho; Dunedin North; Ravensbourne; Highcliff; Shiel Hill; Challis; Waverley; Vauxhall; Ocean Grove (Tomahawk); Tainui; Andersons Bay; Musselburgh; South Dunedin; St Kilda; St Clair; Corstorphine; Kew; Forbury; Caversham; Concord; Maryhill; Kenmure; Mornington; Kaikorai Valley; City Rise; Belleknowes; Roslyn, Otago; Kaikorai; Wakari; Maori Hill.
Outer suburbs

Burkes; Saint Leonards; Broad Bay; Company Bay; Macandrew Bay; Burnside; Green Island; Waldronville; Saddle Hill; Sunnyvale; Fairfield; Abbotsford; Bradford; Brockville; Halfway Bush; Helensburgh.
Towns within city limits

Waitati; Waikouaiti; Karitane; Seacliff; Warrington; Purakanui; Long Beach; Aramoana; Deborah Bay; Careys Bay; Port Chalmers; Sawyers Bay; Roseneath; Otakou; Portobello; Brighton; Taieri Mouth; Henley; Allanton; East Taieri; Momona; Outram; Mosgiel; West Taieri; Waipori; Middlemarch; Hyde.
Since local council reorganisation in the late 1980s, these are suburbs, but are not commonly regarded as such.


Transport

The Dunedin urban area is served by two State Highways, with an additional two State Highways and one tourist route serving other parts of the district. The main State Highway in Dunedin is State Highway 1, which runs in a north to south-west direction through the middle of the city, connecting Dunedin with Invercargill to the south and Timaru and Christchurch to the north. Between The Oval and Mosgiel, State Highway 1 follows the eleven-kilometre Dunedin Southern Motorway. Other State Highways in the city are: State Highway 86 connecting SH 1 at Allanton with Dunedin International Airport, State Highway 87 connecting SH 1 at Kinmont with SH 85 at Kyeburn via Middlemarch, serving the Dunedin city hinterland, and State Highway 88 connecting central Dunedin to the citys port facilities at Port Chalmers. Dunedin is the northeastern terminus of the Southern Scenic Route, a tourist highway connecting Dunedin to Te Anau via The Catlins, Invercargill and Fiordland.

Buses in Dunedin are organised by the Otago Regional Council under the GoBus brand. A total of 64 buses operate on 17 weekday routes and 13 weeknight/weekend/holiday routes across the city. Buses are run by two operators, Ritchies Transport with two routes and private Invercargill-based operator Passenger Transport with the remainders. Dunedin City Council-owned operator Citibus was a major player until 2011 when Passenger Transport(New Zealand) purchased Citibus from Dunedin City Holdings. In addition, Mosgiel Coach Services operate a loop service in Mosgiel on weekdays.

Dunedin Railway Station, located east of the Octagon, is the city's main railway station. Once the nation's busiest, decline in rail over the years saw the withdrawal of most services. Suburban services ceased in 1982, and the last regular commercial passenger train to serve Dunedin, The Southerner, was cancelled in February 2002. The Taieri Gorge Railway currently operates tourist-orientated services from the station, the most prominent of which is the Taieri Gorge Limited, a popular and famous train operated daily along the former Otago Central Railway through the scenic Taieri Gorge. Taieri Gorge Railway also operates to Palmerston once weekly. The station is also sometimes visited by excursions organised by other heritage railway societies, and by trains chartered by cruise ships docking at Port Chalmers.

Dunedin International Airport is located 30 km (18.64 mi) southwest of the city, on the Taieri Plains at Momona. The airport operates a single terminal and 1,900-metre (6,200 ft) runway, and is the third-busiest airport in the South Island, after Christchurch and Queenstown. It is primarily used for domestic flights, with regular flights to and from Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, Rotorua, Palmerston North, and seasonal flights to and from Queenstown, Wanaka, and Fiordland, but it also has international flights arriving from and departing to Brisbane year round and seasonally to Sydney and Melbourne. In recent years, a decline in International passengers can be attributed to less international flights operating direct to the airport. Ferries operated between Port Chalmers and Portobello in the late 19th and early 20th centures. Occasional calls have been made to revive them, and a non-profit organisation, Otago ferries Inc., has been set up to examine the logistics of restoring one of the original ferries and again using it for this route.

In 1866, plans were made for a bridge across the Otago Harbour between Port Chalmers and Portobello, but this grand scheme for an 1140-metre structure never eventuated. Plans were also mooted during the 1870s for a canal between the Pacific coast at Tomahawk and Andersons Bay, close to the head of the harbour. This scheme also never came to fruition.