Second-largest urban centre in Canterbury, 85 km south-west of Christchurch. The population in 2006 was 15,303, and has been static for 30 years. The site was originally a treeless plain, but the Ashburton Domain is now beautifully planted. An accommodation house was built on a ferry reserve on the Ashburton River bank in 1858. The town, surveyed in 1863–64, served local farms. Industries also sprang up, including flour mills, dairy factories, freezing works, brickworks, a glass works and a motor-body works. Grain stores and stock and station agencies lined the main road and railway line. A stretch of the Tinwald–Mt Somers railway line, which closed in 1967, is kept at the Plains Vintage Railway and Historical Museum south of the town.
Asburton
Meaning of place name
Originally known as 'Turtons' after William Turton who with his wife was the first European settler in this part of the Canterbury Plains, and who kept an accomodation house, and in 1858 established a ferry station. The town site was surveyed in 1864 and named 'Ashburton' in honour of the 2nd Baron Ashburton, William Bingham Baring (1799-1864), one of the foundation members of the Canterbury Association.