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Story: Rock, limestone and clay

Phosphate shipment, Ravensbourne

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Phosphate shipment, Ravensbourne

New Zealand imports almost all of its phosphate, as local sources are negligible. Fertiliser works such as those at Ravensbourne in Otago process it into superphosphate. When the nearby Milburn phosphate deposits were quarried in the 1920s, it was local rather than imported phosphate that was railed to Ravensbourne – over a distance of some 50 kilometres.

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Ravensdown Fertilizer

by Mike Arnold

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How to cite this page

Carl Walrond, Rock, limestone and clay – Raw materials, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/5204/phosphate-shipment-ravensbourne (accessed 3 June 2026).

Story by Carl Walrond, published 2 March 2009.