It is bounded mainly by the Avon River / Ōtākaro, stretching in a circular area from the intersection of Gayhurst Road, Dallington Terrace and Locksley Avenue along to New Brighton Road, North Parade and Banks Avenue where it meets the intersection at the other end of Dallington Terrace and River Road.

First mentioned in The Press in 1883 when "beautiful suburban villa sites on the banks of the Avon in the suburb of Dallington, lately known as Broom Farm" are advertised for sale by Henry Jekyll.

[3] On 4 September 2010, it was severely hit by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, causing immense damage.

Consequently, the St Paul's parish church and school which had suffered greatly from the effects of the quake, were forced to relocate their church services to the Marian College chapel and the students to the Catholic Cathedral College site, for the following couple of years estimated that it would take to rebuild.

Large areas of Dallington were placed into a residential red zone, under which houses were acquired and demolished by the Crown.