page_title: Bluestone
section_title: New Zealand
hierarchical_section_title: Bluestone / New Zealand
caption_attribution_description: English: Dunedin Railway Station (left) and Law Courts (right), downtown Dunedin, New Zealand
context_page_description: Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties, including:
  basalt in Victoria, Australia, and in New Zealand
  dolerites in Tasmania, Australia; and in Britain
  feldspathic sandstone in the U.S. and Canada
  limestone in the Shenandoah Valley in the U.S., from the Hainaut quarries in Soignies, Belgium, and from quarries in County Carlow, County Galway and County Kilkenny in Ireland
  slate in South Australia
context_section_description: Timaru bluestone (also known as Port Chalmers bluestone) is an attractive building material, used both historically and to the present. It is a grey basalt similar to Victorian bluestone, quarried near Timaru in the South Island. Bluestone from near Kokonga in Central Otago is also widely used, and is the main construction material (often with facing of Oamaru stone, a local compact limestone) in many of the notable historic buildings in the southern South Island, most of which were constructed during the financial boom following the Central Otago gold rush. Prominent structures to use this combination include Otago University Registry Building, Dunedin Law Courts, and Dunedin Railway Station. Similar construction using Timaru bluestone was used for Christchurch Arts Centre.
caption: Dunedin Railway Station and Law Courts, New Zealand, showing dark bluestone and creamy Oamaru stone construction
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