Dobson is a small town on the banks of the Grey River in the South Island of New Zealand.

It is 10 kilometres (6 mi) east from the river's mouth at Greymouth.

The settlement of Taylorville is across the river from Dobson, but no bridge directly connects the two.

[9] A hydroelectric dam was proposed for the area by TrustPower in 1999 but it failed to secure access to public land that needed to be flooded for the scheme.

[10] In 2003 Nick Smith, who was an Opposition MP at the time, attempted to remove the reserve status from the land needed for the dam reservoir in order to allow the scheme to go ahead, but was unsuccessful.

Dobson and Taylorville are defined by Statistics New Zealand as a rural settlement and cover 6.09 km2 (2.35 sq mi).

Before the 2023 census, Dobson and Taylorville had a smaller boundary, covering 4.19 km2 (1.62 sq mi).

Before the 2023 census, Dobson statistical area had a smaller boundary, covering 169.89 km2 (65.59 sq mi).