Shotover Country
Suburb
Shotover Country
Coordinates: 45°00′25″S 168°46′19″E / 45.007°S 168.772°E / -45.007; 168.772
Country	New Zealand
City	Queenstown
Local authority	Queenstown-Lakes District Council
Electoral ward	Queenstown-Wakatipu Ward
Area [1]
• Land	304 ha (751 acres)
Population  (June 2023)[2]
• Total	4,360

Shotover River	Shotover Country	(Lake Hayes Estate)
Shotover Delta	(Kawarau River)

Shotover Country is a suburb of Queenstown in the South Island of New Zealand. It has around 810 sections and was originally 202 hectares when first rezoned from rural to residential. The suburb began in 2012 when sections first came up for sale.^[3]

It is bordered by the older sub division of Lake Hayes Estate and the Kawarau and Shotover Rivers. The main access point is via the main highway of State Highway 6.

History

The area was originally known as Islay Farm before being named Shotover Country which is inspired from the names of the nearby Shotover River and Lower Shotover area.

Fourteen stages of sections came up for sale in November 2012 with the final stage released in June 2016. By 2019 additional stages had been released and a total of more than 20 had come to market by that time, all marketed by the original owners Grant and Sharyn Stalker. In October 2019 the last of the residential sections went unconditional bringing to an end seven years of development, although some commercial and medium density unit development as still to occur.^[4]

In 2016 forty-four homes were built by the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust as affordable houses in the sub-division of Shotover Country. Three quarters of the homes were sold to families under the trust's Shared Ownership programme with the remainder going into the rental scheme.^[5]

Demographics

Shotover Country covers 3.04 km² (1.17 sq mi)^[1] and had an estimated population of 4,360 as of June 2023,^[2] with a population density of 1,434 people per km².

Shotover Country had a population of 2,187 at the 2018 New Zealand census, an increase of 2,145 people (5107.1%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 2,142 people (4760.0%) since the 2006 census. There were 633 households. There were 1,110 males and 1,077 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.03 males per female. The median age was 30.3 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 525 people (24.0%) aged under 15 years, 546 (25.0%) aged 15 to 29, 1,071 (49.0%) aged 30 to 64, and 42 (1.9%) aged 65 or older.

Ethnicities were 74.5% European/Pākehā, 6.4% Māori, 2.3% Pacific peoples, 14.8% Asian, and 8.8% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities).

The proportion of people born overseas was 44.7%, compared with 27.1% nationally.

Although some people objected to giving their religion, 64.6% had no religion, 26.7% were Christian, 1.5% were Hindu, 0.8% were Muslim, 0.8% were Buddhist and 2.5% had other religions.

Of those at least 15 years old, 510 (30.7%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 96 (5.8%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $45,700, compared with $31,800 nationally. 378 people (22.7%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 1,242 (74.7%) people were employed full-time, 189 (11.4%) were part-time, and 24 (1.4%) were unemployed.^[6]

Education

Shotover Primary School is a co-educational state primary school for Year 1 to 8 students,^[7][8] with a roll of 573 as of April 2023.^[9]

References