Brunnerton
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Brunnerton
Brunner, originally called Brunnerton, is a town in the northwest of New Zealand's South Island. It is east of Greymouth, on the south bank of the Grey River. It is on the Midland Line railway near its junction with the Stillwater–Westport Line (SWL) in neighbouring Stillwater. Passenger trains ceased running along the SWL to Reefton and Westport in 1967, but the TranzAlpine runs the length of the Midland Line from Christchurch to Greymouth and it continues to stop in Brunner. Historically connected with coal mining, the town was the site of a major disaster in 1896, when an explosion killed 65 miners in the Brunner Mine. Other important industries in the town have included forestry. The population was 1,144 in the 1956 census but is very small now. The town, formerly called Brunnerton, was named after the explorer Thomas Brunner Thomas Brunner (April 1821 – 22 April 1874) was an English-born surveyor and explorer remembered for his exploration of the West Coas ...
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Brunner Mine
The Brunner Mine was a coal mine on the West Coast of the South Island in New Zealand. The Brunner Mine was one of several mines situated on the banks of the Grey River, at an area known as "Coal Gorge" between the townships of Stillwater and Taylorville. The town of Brunner (formerly Brunnerton) is nearby. Coal was discovered on the West Coast by Nelson surveyor Thomas Brunner "during the most arduous of his journeys in search of more agricultural land". The coal was of extremely high quality and it did not take long before it attracted interest. And, of course, "The West Coast had the added attraction of gold mining and it seems that the employment opportunity offered by coal mining was in the difficult economic times not one to be turned down". Brunner Mine disaster In March 1896 an explosion deep in the mine killed all 65 miners inside, and was labelled the worst mining disaster in New Zealand’s history. It seemed most likely that the explosion was caused by firedamp, a ...
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Thomas Brunner
Thomas Brunner (April 1821 – 22 April 1874) was an English-born surveyor and explorer remembered for his exploration of the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Brunner was born in April 1821 in Oxford. When he was fifteen, he began to learn architecture and surveying. In 1841, he joined the New Zealand Company in its venture to establish a settlement in the north of the South Island of New Zealand, to be called Nelson. As well as working as an apprentice surveyor and laying sections and roads for the new settlement, he explored the interior, seeking pastoral land for a growing colony. In 1846 he undertook extensive journeys with Charles Heaphy and a Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri tohunga named Kehu towards and along the West Coast. In December 1846, Brunner commenced an expedition, accompanied by four Māori including Kehu, which began from Nelson. The party travelled down the Buller River and along the West Coast reaching as far south as Tititira Head, near Lake Paringa befo ...
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Stillwater, West Coast
Stillwater is a town in the South Island of New Zealand east of Greymouth on the banks of the Grey River, at the confluence with the Arnold River, in the Grey District of the West Coast, next to Brunner. There is also a Stillwater, Auckland in the North Island. History The junction of the Arnold and Grey rivers, known as Kotukuwhakaoho, was an important site of battles for Ngāi Tahu, as it was the location where Ngāti Wairangi was defeated in the late 18th century, and later Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri in the 1810s. The miners who died in the Brunner Mine Disaster on 26 March 1896 were buried in the cemetery at Stillwater. Thirty three men were buried in a mass grave. Hundreds of people came by train from towns on the West Coast to attend the funerals. In 1906 the town's industry was centred on saw milling. It had a hotel, store, post and telegraph office and a school which opened in 1888. In 2015 the hotel was still in operation but has since closed. Sawmilling In Novembe ...
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South Island
The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, and to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean. The South Island covers , making it the world's 12th-largest island. At low altitude, it has an oceanic climate. The South Island is shaped by the Southern Alps which run along it from north to south. They include New Zealand's highest peak, Aoraki / Mount Cook at . The high Kaikōura Ranges lie to the northeast. The east side of the island is home to the Canterbury Plains while the West Coast is famous for its rough coastlines such as Fiordland, a very high proportion of native bush and national parks, and the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. The main centres are Christchurch and Dunedin. The economy relies on agriculture and fishing, tourism, and general manufacturing and services. ...
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Greymouth
Greymouth () (Māori: ''Māwhera'') is the largest town in the West Coast region in the South Island of New Zealand, and the seat of the Grey District Council. The population of the whole Grey District is , which accounts for % of the West Coast's inhabitants. The Greymouth urban area had an estimated population of A large proportion of the District, 65%, is part of the Conservation Estate owned and managed by the Department of Conservation making Greymouth a natural centre for walkers and trampers. Location The town is located at the mouth of the Grey River, on a narrow coastal plain close to the foot of the Southern Alps. In clear weather, Aoraki / Mount Cook can be clearly seen to the south from near the town. The mouth of the river divides the town into three areas: Blaketown, close to the river's mouth on the south bank; Karoro, to the southeast, separated from Blaketown by a series of small estuarine lagoons; and Cobden, formerly a separate town, on the river's north ...
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Grey River (New Zealand)
The Grey River / Māwheranui is located in the northwest of the South Island of New Zealand. It rises 12 kilometres southwest of the Lewis Pass in Lake Christabel, one of numerous small lakes on the western side of the Southern Alps, and runs westward for 120 kilometres before draining into the Tasman Sea at Greymouth. Thomas Brunner, who explored the area in the late 1840s, named the river in honour of Sir George Grey, who first served as Governor of New Zealand from 1845 to 1854. The Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998 changed the official name of the river to Grey River / Māwheranui in 1998. The Māori name for the river system and surrounding area is ''Māwhera'', with ''Māwheranui'' being distinguished from the northern branch Little Grey River / Māwheraiti. The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "broad and widespread (river mouth)" for ''Māwheranui''. Numerous small rivers are tributaries of the Grey, and several of them also drain ...
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Midland Line, New Zealand
The Midland line is a 212 km section of railway between Rolleston and Greymouth in the South Island of New Zealand. The line features five major bridges, five viaducts and 17 tunnels, the longest of which is the Otira tunnel. It is the route of the popular TranzAlpine passenger train. History Railway development in the South Island in the 1870s was concentrated on a main line linking the established centres of Christchurch, Timaru, Dunedin and Invercargill and light, easily constructed branch lines serving the arable plains; (see Vogel Era). These later included a branch to Springfield which was reached by January 1880. In 1882 the East and West Coast Railway League was formed and in 1884 a Royal Commission, although fully aware of the construction difficulties of the Waimakariri Valley-Arthurs Pass route, as compared with the somewhat easier but longer Hurunui Valley-Harpers Pass route, chose the more direct route. The construction of the line was rejected in 1883 ...
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Railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prepared flat surface, rail vehicles (rolling stock) are directionally guided by the tracks on which they run. Tracks usually consist of steel rails, installed on sleepers (ties) set in ballast, on which the rolling stock, usually fitted with metal wheels, moves. Other variations are also possible, such as "slab track", in which the rails are fastened to a concrete foundation resting on a prepared subsurface. Rolling stock in a rail transport system generally encounters lower frictional resistance than rubber-tyred road vehicles, so passenger and freight cars (carriages and wagons) can be coupled into longer trains. The operation is carried out by a railway company, providing transport between train stations or freight customer facilit ...
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Grey District
Grey District is a district in the West Coast Region of New Zealand that covers Greymouth, Runanga, Blackball, Cobden, and settlements along the Grey River. It has a land area of . The seat of the Grey District Council, the local government authority that administers the district, is at Greymouth, where % of the district's population live. The Grey District is on the West Coast of the South Island. It stretches from the south banks of the Punakaiki River in the north, southeast to Mt Anderson, north to The Pinacle, southeast to Craigeburn, in a southeast direction to Mt Barron, southwest to Jacksons and following the Taramakau River to the Tasman Sea. The district is rich in history and character. Key industries are tourism, mining, agriculture, fishing, manufacturing and services industries. The main hospital for the West Coast is in Greymouth. Demographics Grey District covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km2. live i ...
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Reefton
Reefton is a small town in the West Coast region of New Zealand, some 80 km northeast of Greymouth, in the Inangahua River valley. Ahaura is 44 km south-west of Reefton, Inangahua Junction is 34 km to the north, Maruia is 63 km to the east, and the Lewis Pass is 66 km to the south-east. In 1888, it was the first town in New Zealand and the Southern Hemisphere to be lit by electricity, generated by the Reefton Power Station. Reefton was a thriving gold mining town in the late 19th century, and gold mining lasted from the 1870s to the 1950s. Its economy is based on tourism, forestry, coal mining and farming. Reefton is home to the Inangahua County Library. Name The rich veins of gold found in a quartz reef near the town led to its name, originally spelled "Reef Town". Two nicknames in use soon after it was founded were "Rest Town" and "Quartzopolis". The main street, Broadway, was named after West Coast magistrate Charles Broad. The nearby Wealth of Na ...
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Westport, New Zealand
Westport ( mi, Kawatiri) is a town in the West Coast region of the South Island of New Zealand. Established in 1861, it is the oldest European settlement on the West Coast. Originally named Buller, it is on the right bank and at the mouth of the Buller River, close by the prominent headland of Cape Foulwind. It is connected via State Highway 6 with Greymouth Greymouth () (Māori: ''Māwhera'') is the largest town in the West Coast region in the South Island of New Zealand, and the seat of the Grey District Council. The population of the whole Grey District is , which accounts for % of the West Coas ..., to the south, and with Nelson, New Zealand, Nelson in the northeast, via the Buller Gorge. The population of the Westport urban area was as of . The Buller District had a population of . Name The Māori language name for the river and the region is ''Kawatiri,'' meaning deep and swift. The town is thought to have been named after Westport, County Mayo in Ireland, alth ...
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