Ealing, New Zealand

Ealing is a lightly populated rural locality on the bank of the Rangitata River in the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island. It has a community hall, a small combined Protestant faith church and a rural fire unit based in the centre of the town. Ealing was settled as a railway village in the 1870s whilst the Main South Line's bridge over the Rangitata River was being built. Along with the schools in nearby Lynnford and Maronan, the local school was shut due to population decline during the 1930s and students sent to the primary school in Hinds, a small nearby town to the northeast and Carew in the west. The former school building is now the church. Ealing is more a common locality than a settlement, with the area being referred to as the "Ealing district". Each year a Guy Fawkes Night fireworks display and a Christmas party in Ealing District Hall are held to foster community spirit.