Pine Hill is a suburb, hill, and general area of the New Zealandcity ofDunedin. It is sited on the hill of the same name, a spur of Mount Cargill overlooking North East Valley and Glenleith to the north of the city centre. This spur lies in the fork of the confluence of the Water of Leith and its largest tributary, the Lindsay Creek. The term Pine Hill is used generally to refer to a group of suburbs which lie on the hill's slopes: Pine Hill suburb itself, which sits on the upper slopes of the spur, and also two other suburbs which lie on the lower slopes, Dalmore and Liberton. The combined population of these suburbs in 2001 was 2,259.
Dalmore
Of the suburbs on Pine Hill, Dalmore is the oldest and also the southernmost, lying close to The Gardens, a suburb and shopping precinct at the mouth of North East Valley close to the Dunedin Botanic Gardens for which it is named. Dalmore lies on the steep slopes immediately to the northwest of The Gardens and north of the northern end of George Street, arguably the city's main street. The suburb is connected with Dunedin's CBD by way of two streets – the narrow and winding Gladstone Road, and the Pine Hill Extension. This latter route forms the lower part of Pine Hill Road and also part of State Highway 1. This winds up the steep flanks of Dalmore above the valley of the Water of Leith before a tricky junction which connects the extension with the upper part of Pine Hill Road and the Dunedin Northern Motorway.
Liberton
Liberton is largely made up of post-World War II state housing. It lies immediately above Dalmore, on a series of avenues and crescents which branch from Pine Hill Road. A tiny arcade of shops lies at the end of Dalmore and beginning of Liberton, but other than this the suburb is entirely residential. Pine Hill School, the area's main primary school, lies in Liberton, as does Liberton Christian School, Dunedin's first special-character Protestant primary school. Other than road connections with Dalmore and Pine Hill, the only road connecting Liberton with Dunedin's other suburbs is a steep and winding connection with Buccleugh Street, North East Valley. At one time there were plans to create a subdivision linking Liberton with Selwyn Street, North East Valley, but these never came to fruition.
The upper slopes
Beyond Pine Hill School lies the suburb of Pine Hill itself. In its lower reaches, it is suburban residential in nature, but in the upper reaches it becomes semi-rural, with farmlets and farms as some of the properties closer to the top of Pine Hill Road and Campbells Road, the only other road of any great length in the suburb. From Campbells Road, there are views across North East Valley and Normanby to the suburb of Opoho and the summit of Signal Hill, to the east. The upper section of Pine Hill around Campbells Road is occasionally referred to as Pine Heights, but not recognised by the Dunedin City Council,or maps, and has no separate postcode. The term is commonly used by people living in houses on the hill, in what used to be farmland, to separate themselves from the state house-dominated lower suburbs. Pine Hill Road continues to climb into rural land above the top of the suburb, connecting with Maxwellton Street, a narrow rural road which crosses a bridge over the Dunedin Northern Motorway before connecting with Patmos Avenue in the suburb of Glenleith. Pine Hill Road terminates in a junction with Cowan Road, a steep rural road which climbs to the summit of Mount Cargill, and which is the service road for the television transmitter station on its summit. As such, Cowan Road is the highest road close to Dunedin's main urban area. Other than Pine Hill School, the major landmarks within the area are the early 1950s Aquinas College, a University of Otagohall of residence on the slopes of Dalmore, and the impressive Santa Sabina Convent building, which lies close to the top of Buccleugh Street between Liberton and North East Valley. This building is surrounded by a recent controversial housing complex.
