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Brightwater
Wairoa | |
|---|---|
Town | |
 | |
 | |
| Coordinates: 41°22′44″S 173°06′50″E / 41.379°S 173.114°E | |
| Country | New Zealand |
| Territorial authority | Tasman |
| First Settled | 1843 |
| Named | 1855 |
| Electorates | |
| Government | |
| • Territorial Authority | Tasman District Council |
| • Mayor of Tasman | Tim King |
| • West Coast-Tasman MP | Maureen Pugh |
| • Te Tai Tonga MP | Tākuta Ferris |
| Area | |
| • Total | 4.67 km2 (1.80 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 33 m (108 ft) |
| Population (June 2023)[2] | |
| • Total | 2,370 |
| • Density | 510/km2 (1,300/sq mi) |
Brightwater (Māori: Wairoa) is a town 20 kilometres (12 mi) southwest of Nelson in Tasman district in the South Island of New Zealand.[3] It stands on the banks of the Wairoa River. Brightwater was first named Spring Grove. Alfred Saunders, the owner of a local flax mill situated on the banks of the Wairoa River and a prominent temperance activist,[4] renamed it Brightwater because of the clarity of the water in Wairoa River.[5] The settlement was named in 1855, but the area was settled as early as 1843.[citation needed]
Brightwater was the birthplace of Nobel Prize-winning scientist, the "father of nuclear physics", Ernest Rutherford,[6] and has an elaborate Lord Rutherford Birthplace memorial on Lord Rutherford Road.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Areawas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Population estimate tables - NZ.Stat". Statistics New Zealand. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
- ^ Reed, A. W. (2002). The Reed Dictionary of New Zealand Place Names. Auckland: Reed Books. ISBN 0-7900-0761-4.
- ^ McGibbon, Ian (1990). "Saunders, Alfred". Te Ara: Encyclopedia of New Zealand. New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
- ^ Discover New Zealand - A Wises Guide (9th ed.). Wises Publications. 1994. p. 285.
- ^ "Rutherford, Earnest (1871–1937)". Bateman New Zealand Encyclopedia (6t ed.).[permanent dead link]