Seddon is a small town in Marlborough, New Zealand. It is located south of Blenheim, close to the mouths of the Awatere and Blind Rivers and the Lake Grassmere salt works. Salt and lime are major local industries, and the Awatere Valley is an important part of the Marlborough wine region. The town was named for a former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Richard Seddon. Geography Earthquakes Seddon has been close to the epicentres of several significant earthquakes. On the morning of 16 October 1848, Marlborough was struck by a damaging earthquake later estimated to be between magnitude 7.4 and 7.7. The epicentre of this earthquake was 45 km southeast of Seddon. On 23 April 1966, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake with an epicenter in Cook Strait, 40 km east of Seddon was most strongly felt in the town, damaging the chimney on almost every house in town. In July and August 2013 Seddon was closest settlement to the epicentres of a doublet earthquake event. First, in late July, a series of sizeable earthquakes struck the region over a period of a few days being felt strongly in Blenheim, Wellington and the rest of Central New Zealand, the strongest being a magnitude 6.5 and having its epicentre in Cook Strait. Then on 16 August 2013 a magnitude 6.6 earthquake with its epicentre under Lake Grassmere struck about 2:30 PM and was followed by a series of aftershocks over the next few hours, one of which was above magnitude 6 and several others above magnitude 5. This came just a few years after devastating earthquakes affected Christchurch, 285 km away. Demographics Seddon is defined by Statistics New Zealand as a rural settlement and covers . It is part of the wider Awatere statistical area. Seddon had a population of 552 at the 2018 New Zealand census, an increase of 63 people (12.9%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 57 people (11.5%) since the 2006 census. There were 192 households. There were 300 males and 252 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.19 males per female, with 96 people (17.4%) aged under 15 years, 93 (16.8%) aged 15 to 29, 282 (51.1%) aged 30 to 64, and 75 (13.6%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 78.3% European/Pākehā, 16.8% Māori, 13.0% Pacific peoples, 2.7% Asian, and 2.7% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities).