Green Island, New Zealand 3.54

Green Island is a suburb of Dunedin, New Zealand. It is not on the sea — formerly a borough, it took its name from the Green Island bush, uncleared native forest extending from the valley where the town is centred over the hills towards the coast. The name of the nearby offshore island — Green Island (Okaihe) — was used to identify the bush.Green IslandGreen Island, since 1989 officially an outer suburb of Dunedin, is on State Highway 1 8km west of the Dunedin CBD, at. It has a population (2001) of 2,430. Green Island's main economy is based on light and small scale heavy industry.SchoolsSt Peter Chanel is a Catholic primary school located on Main South Rd. Other schools in the town are Abbotsford Primary and Green Island Primary.SportingGreen Island has a football club Green Island FC based at Sunnyvale Park. The park is also the home of the Green Island Cricket Club. The Cricket Club has been highly successful in recent times winning multiple national club championships. The town is home to a successful boxing club as well. Green Island Rhythmic Gymnastics Club is also a nationally ranked local sporting club.AbbotsfordImmediately to the north of Green Island, and only separated from it by the State Highway and South Island Main Trunk Railway, is Abbotsford. Abbotsford is an entirely residential suburb with virtually no retail or service sector of its own - for these it relies on Green Island which lies only some 300 metres to the south. Abbotsford has a population of 1,677.The Abbotsford landslipOn the night of August 8, 1979, a major landslide occurred in Abbotsford, resulting in the destruction or relocation of some 69 houses, and requiring the evacuation of over 600 people. No-one was killed. This remains the largest landslip to have occurred in an urban area of New Zealand.