Ravensbourne, New Zealand

Ravensbourne is a suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is located on the steep southeastern slopes of Signal Hill above the Otago Harbour. It lies on the harbour's northern shore, 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) east-northeast of the city centre. Ravensbourne's 2001 population was 1,269.

Rail and road links between central Dunedin and Port Chalmers run through Ravensbourne on the narrow strip of land between the hill slopes and harbour. A cycleway also links the suburb with the main part of the city, which lies to the west on the far side of a bluff partly occupied by the Logan Point Quarry. One of the older harbourside suburbs, it has a distinct identity from the rest of the city's inner suburbs.

The suburb is mainly residential, but is dominated by two large industrial plants, the Logan Point Quarry and the Ravensdown Fertiliser factory, which is located at the harbour's edge at the southern end of the suburb. Ravensdown contains 25,062 shareholders and has over 90 stores New Zealand wide. Ravensdown has many partnerships including spreading companies such as Spreading Sandfords, Spreading Northland, Spreading FBT

Ravensbourne contains a significant number of smaller homes, quite a number of which are occupied as flats by students from the University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic, which lie 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) to the west. The suburb consists mainly of the Dunedin-Port Chalmers highway, State Highway 88, and numerous narrow winding roads which climb the hill to its northwest. Above the suburb is Burns Park Scenic Reserve, which occupies much of the upper slopes of Signal Hill.

The suburb, along with the nearby suburbs of Maia, Burkes, and Saint Leonards, are often collectively referred to as West Harbour. Under this name, the area was a separate borough for many years from 1877 until amalgamation with the city of Dunedin in 1963.

The suburb takes its name from the property of the first mayor of West Harbour, Thomas De Lacy, who was mayor from 1877 to 1878. The name was due to the profusion of weka in the area of De Lacy's property, whose cockiness reminded De Lacy of the ravens in his native Scotland. The Maori name for the area is Kaitaki Tamariki, though this is rarely used today.

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