Cheesiest town in the South

Edendale is situated on the Southland Plains, just to the west of the Mataura River and is now bypassed by State Highway 1.

Before the town — which has a population of about 600 — was called Edendale, it was known by the names Maorirua, Mataura Plains and Stuart’s Bush.

Edendale is dominated by its milk-processing plant that was originally run by the Southland Dairy Co-operative and is now operated by Fonterra.

The Edendale factory began as a cheese-processing plant and in the 1990s expanded to include milk powder processing.

The plant has been expanded several times since and was in 2009 the largest raw milk-processing plant in the world.