Brightwater

Brightwater (Māori: Wairoa) is a town 20 kilometres (12 mi) southwest of Nelson in Tasman district in the South Island of New Zealand.[3] It stands on the banks of the Wairoa River. Brightwater was first named Spring Grove. Alfred Saunders, the owner of a local flax mill situated on the banks of the Wairoa River and a prominent temperance activist,[4] renamed it Brightwater because of the clarity of the water in Wairoa River.[5] The settlement was named in 1855, but the area was settled as early as 1843.^{[citation needed]}

Brightwater Wairoa
Town
Brightwater Rutherford Monument
Coordinates: 41.379°S 173.114°E / -41.379; 173.114
Country	New Zealand
Region	Tasman Region
District	Tasman District
Ward	Moutere-Waimea Ward
First Settled	1843
Named	1855
Area [1]
• Total	4.84 km2 (1.87 sq mi)
Elevation	33 m (108 ft)
Population  (June 2022)[2]
• Total	2,340
• Density	480/km2 (1,300/sq mi)

Brightwater was the birthplace of Nobel Prize-winning scientist, the "father of nuclear physics", Sir Ernest Rutherford,[6] and has an elaborate Lord Rutherford Birthplace memorial on Lord Rutherford Road.