Brunner, originally called Brunnerton, is a town in the northwest of New Zealand's

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 ...

. It is east of

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 ...

, on the south bank of the Grey River. It is on the Midland Line

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 pre ...

near its junction with the Stillwater–Westport Line (SWL) in neighbouring Stillwater. Passenger trains ceased running along the SWL to

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 ...

and Westport in 1967, but the

TranzAlpine The TranzAlpine is a passenger train operated by The Great Journeys of New Zealand in the South Island of New Zealand over the Midland Line; often regarded to be one of the world's great train journeys for the scenery through which it passes ...

runs the length of the Midland Line from

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

to Greymouth and it continues to stop in Brunner. Historically connected with

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

, the town was the site of a major disaster in 1896, when an explosion killed 65 miners in the

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 T ...

. Other important industries in the town have included

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. Th ...

. 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 Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Brunner was born in April 1821 in Oxford. When he was fifteen, he began t ...

, who discovered coal there.

References

External links

Photo of Brunner, c1900Brunner
''Encyclopedia of New Zealand''. {{Grey District, state=expanded Grey District Populated places in the West Coast, New Zealand

Further reading

References

External links