Riccarton, New Zealand

The Al Noor Mosque on Deans Avenue is a place with a very recent and tragic history. It was the site of a mass shooting during the Christchurch mosque shootings on March 15, 2019.

Back in 1840, on April 12, the ship Sarah and Elizabeth brought the first European settlers to the plains, including Herriot, McGillivray, Ellis, Shaw and his wife, and McKinnon with his wife and child, who tried to start a farm here in Riccarton. They gave up on that attempt in January 1841. The Deans brothers, John and William, were part of the second group of European settlers in Christchurch in 1843, and they named this suburb after their birth parish in Ayrshire, Scotland. They also named the River Avon after a river in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Riccarton House, commissioned by Jane Deans around 1855, is now a restaurant and function centre, and their original cottage is still on the grounds, though it's been moved twice.

Just next to Riccarton House is Riccarton Bush, also known as Deans Bush, or Pūtaringamotu in Māori, which means either 'the place of an echo' or 'the severed ear', referring to a bush isolated from the rest. It's one of only four remaining pieces of the original forest that once covered the Canterbury plains, having survived the huge fires from the moa hunter period. It's mostly kahikatea trees. In 1848, the Deans brothers signed an agreement to protect what was then about 22 hectares of this forest. By 1914, the remaining 6.4 hectares were formally protected by the Riccarton Bush Act. This bush is also significant for New Zealand entomology, as many native insects were first collected and named from here, including a plume moth in 1859. The bag moth, *Mallobathra metrosema*, is only known to exist in Riccarton Bush.

Another interesting spot is Antonio Hall on Riccarton Road. It's a large property with 279 rooms, once called "one of the finest in Christchurch and vicinity," but it's fallen into decay despite being a Category II listed building. In July 2019, 30% of it was lost to a fire started by a 14-year-old.

The Riccarton Racecourse Hotel is said to be one of New Zealand's most haunted places. It's believed that the ghost of former licensee Donald Fraser walks the corridors looking for his killer. He was murdered in his bedroom in 1933 by two shotgun blasts, but no one was ever found guilty.

Riccarton is also home to Westfield Riccarton, one of New Zealand's largest shopping malls, which opened in 1965 and has been expanded several times, most recently in 2009. The residential areas here had a population of 9,198 at the 2018 census, and due to its closeness to the University of Canterbury, it has a younger population.