Dunedin is connected by rail with Christchurch northward and Invercargill southward, with numerous branches.
Dunedin is governed by a mayor and corporation, and most of its numerous suburbs are separate municipalities.
The first eruptions piled up huge domes of lavas rich in soda, including the geburite-dacites and sOlvsbergites of Mount Macedon in Victoria, and the kenyte and tephrite domes of Dunedin, in New Zealand.
Its Gaelic name was Dunedin.
The Cainozoic volcanic history of New Zealand begins in the Oligocene, when the high volcanic domes of Dunedin and Banks Peninsula were built up. The Dunedin lavas including tephrites and kenytes correspond to the dacite eruptions in the volcanic history of Victoria.