page_title: Waimate
section_title: Economy
hierarchical_section_title: Waimate / Economy
caption_attribution_description: Photo of a sunset over the hills of en:Waimate, en:New Zealand. I grant full permission to use it under the terms of the GFDL.
context_page_description: Waimate is a town in Canterbury, New Zealand and the seat of Waimate District. It is situated just inland from the eastern coast of the South Island. The town is reached via a short detour west when travelling on State Highway One, the main North/South road. Waimate is 45.7 km south of Timaru, Canterbury's second city, 20 km north of the Waitaki River, which forms the border between Canterbury and the Otago province to the south and 47.5 km north of Oamaru, the main town of the Waitaki District.
  The population of the Waimate District was recorded in the 2006 census as 7,206 people. The district's area of 3,582.19 square kilometres forms the southern section of the agriculturally rich Canterbury Plains.
  Waimate is well known for its population of Bennett's wallabies. These marsupials were introduced from Australia and now live wild in the countryside surrounding the town. It is also recognised for the White Horse Monument which is a silhouette of a white horse that can be seen on the hills behind the town. It commemorates the Clydesdale horses that helped breaking in the land in earlier days.
context_section_description: Like much of rural New Zealand, Waimate suffered from an economic downturn in the 1980s, with the closure of the dairy factory and a number of sawmills. For the last decade of the 20th century the biggest employers in the district were two furniture manufacturers, a vegetable processing plant and a factory making French fries and other potato products at Makikihi. All but the latter closed within the first few years of the 21st century. However, a newly developed large scale sawmill and the development of a large milk powder factory, coupled with the wealth of dairy farms and the nationwide real estate bubble of 2003-2007, saw a renewed confidence in Waimate.
caption: Photo of a sunset over the hills to the south of Waimate, taken from near the town centre.
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