Bindal

Bindal kommune
Municipality
Photo showing some of the landmarks in Bindal, including the second highest mountain Heilhornet (center-right part of the image)

Coat of arms

Nordland within
Norway

Bindal within Nordland
Coordinates: 65°05′48″N 12°35′19″E / 65.09667°N 12.58861°E / 65.09667; 12.58861Coordinates: 65°05′48″N 12°35′19″E / 65.09667°N 12.58861°E / 65.09667; 12.58861
Country Norway
County Nordland
District Helgeland
Established 1852
Administrative centre Terråk
Government
  Mayor (2015) Britt Helstad (AP)
Area
  Total 1,264.25 km2 (488.13 sq mi)
  Land 1,192.19 km2 (460.31 sq mi)
  Water 72.06 km2 (27.82 sq mi)
Area rank #76 in Norway
Population (2017)
  Total 1,473
  Rank #354 in Norway
  Density 1.2/km2 (3/sq mi)
  Change (10 years) -12.9%
Demonym(s) Bindaling[1]
Time zone UTC+01:00 (CET)
  Summer (DST) UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code NO-1811
Official language form Bokmål
Website bindal.kommune.no

Bindal is a municipality in the Helgeland region in the extreme southwest part of Nordland county, Norway. The administrative centre is the village of Terråk. Other villages include Bindalseidet, Holm, Vassås, Horsfjord and Åbygda.

The 1,264-square-kilometre (488 sq mi) municipality is the 76th largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Bindal is the 354th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 1,473. The municipality's population density is 1.2 inhabitants per square kilometre (3.1/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 12.9% over the last decade.[2]

General information

Hildringen in Bindal (1852).

In 1838, the parish of Bindal was split into two municipalities (see formannskapsdistrikt) because the parish included land in both the counties of Nord-Trøndelag and Nordland. The new law required that municipalities be located only in one county, so the parish was divided into two municipalities: Nordbindalen and Sørbindalen. In 1852, the county border was moved south to its current position and the municipalities of Nordbindalen and Sørbindalen were merged back together to form the municipality of Bindal. On 1 January 1964, the Tosen-Lande area (population: 296) was transferred to Brønnøy.[3]

Name

The Old Norse form of the name was Birnudalr. The first element is the genitive case of the river name Birna (now Åbjøra) and the last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale". The river name is derived from the word birna which means "(female) bear".[4][5]

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times (1990). The arms show six gold rivets on a blue background to represent the boat building industry in the municipality.[6]

Churches

The Church of Norway has two parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Bindal. It is part of the Sør-Helgeland prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland.

Churches in Bindal
Parish
(Sokn)
Church NameLocation
of the Church
Year Built
SolstadSolstad ChurchHolm1888
VassåsVassås ChurchVassås1733

Geography

Bindal borders four municipalities in Nord-Trøndelag county: Høylandet and Nærøy in the south, Namsskogan in the southeast, and Leka in the west. Bindal also has borders with the Nordland municipalities of Sømna, Brønnøy, and Grane. The Bindalsfjorden runs through the central part of the municipality.

From the coast, the municipality reaches into the mountains towards the lake Majavatnet in Grane. The tallest mountain is the 1,058-metre (3,471 ft) tall Heilhornet.[7] It also includes part of the lakes Eidevatnet and Fjellvatnet, which also partially lie in Brønnøy municipality. Other lakes include Åbjørvatnet, Kalvvatnet, and Saglivatnet. The river Åbjøra runs through the eastern part of Bindal. Part of the island of Austra is in Bindal.

Government

All municipalities in Norway, including Bindal, are responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of elected representatives, which in turn elect a mayor.

Municipal council

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Bindal is made up of 17 representatives that are elected to four year terms. Currently, the party breakdown is as follows:[8]

Bindal Kommunestyre 2015–2019
Party NameName in NorwegianNumber of
representatives
 Labour PartyArbeiderpartiet9
 Centre PartySenterpartiet2
 Socialist Left PartySosialistisk Venstreparti1
 Local ListsLokale lister5
Total number of members:17

Economy

The most important industries in Bindal are aquaculture, farming and forestry.

Culture

Boat races for Nordland boats have been held annually since 1978 in the main village of Terråk during the last weekend of June. Bindal has a traditional boat-building industry and Nordland boats are still manufactured here.

Education

Bindal has two schools; one of them is classified as independent and therefore not administered by the municipality.

  • Terråk skole in Terråk is a 1st-10th grade school and the largest in Bindal with approximately 100 students attending it.
  • Bindalseidet friskole is an independent school located in Bindalseidet. It is a 1st-10th grade school.

References

  1. "Navn på steder og personer: Innbyggjarnamn" (in Norwegian). Språkrådet. Retrieved 2015-12-01.
  2. Statistisk sentralbyrå (2017). "Table: 06913: Population 1 January and population changes during the calendar year (M)" (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2017-09-09.
  3. Jukvam, Dag (1999). "Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Statistisk sentralbyrå.
  4. Den Norske historiske forening (1871). "Bemerkninger om stedsnavnene i den søndre del af Helgeland". Historisk tidsskrift (in Norwegian). Kristiania: 108. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
  5. Rygh, Oluf (1905). Norske gaardnavne: Nordlands amt (in Norwegian) (16 ed.). Kristiania, Norge: W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri. p. 1.
  6. Store norske leksikon. "Bindal" (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2011-11-01.
  7. "Heilhornet". Retrieved 2008-11-19.
  8. "Table: 04813: Members of the local councils, by party/electoral list at the Municipal Council election (M)" (in Norwegian). Statistics Norway. 2015.
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