Summerlea is a lightly populated locality on the

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

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 ...

. Summerlea is on the

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea (Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abe ...

coastline with the

Glasgow Range The Glasgow Range is a mountain range on the northern West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. It is north of the Papahaua Range and its most significant river is the Mōkihinui River. History of settlement The Glasgow Range is largely dev ...

to the east. To the north of the town is the neighbouring settlement of

Mokihinui Mokihinui ( mi, Mōkihinui) is a lightly populated locality on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Mokihinui is on the Tasman Sea coastline north of Westport and is on the southern side of the Mōkihinui River's mouth, the third larg ...

and the rivermouth of the

Mōkihinui River The Mōkihinui River is a river located on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island, about 40 kilometres north of Westport. Meridian Energy had proposed the Mokihinui Hydro project on the river in 2007 but it was cancelled in May 2012. In ...

. State Highway 67 passes through the locality. It is included in the Mokihinui statistical area by Statistics New Zealand, and according to the

2013 New Zealand census The 2013 New Zealand census was the thirty-third national census. "The National Census Day" used for the census was on Tuesday, 5 March 2013. The population of New Zealand was counted as 4,242,048, – an increase of 214,101 or 5.3% over the 20 ...

, Mokihinui has a population of 186, an increase of 15 people since the 2006 census. In the early 1890s, a

branch line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industri ...

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 ...

was opened from Westport through Summerlea, opening to

Seddonville Seddonville is a lightly populated locality on the West Coast, New Zealand, West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. It is most famous for the historical role it played in New Zealand's coal mining industry. Geography Seddonville is in the is ...

on 23 February 1895 and thus acquiring the name of the

Seddonville Branch The Seddonville Branch, later truncated as the Ngākawau Branch, is a branch line railway in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island. Construction began in 1874 and it reached its terminus at the Mokihinui Mine just beyond Seddonvi ...

. Passenger services were provided to Summerlea by

mixed train A mixed train or mixed consist is a train that contains both passenger and freight cars or wagons. Although common in the early days of railways, by the 20th century they were largely confined to branch lines with little traffic. Typically, servic ...

s until 14 October 1946, when the line became freight-only. Coal was almost the sole traffic on the line from this point, and when coal mining activity declined in the 1970s, the line's maintenance costs came to outweigh revenue. Accordingly, the line closed beyond

Ngakawau Hector and Ngakawau are two lightly populated settlements located at the mouth of the Ngakawau River in the West Coast region of New Zealand. Both settlements are situated on State Highway 67 between Westport and Karamea. Despite a low populat ...

on 3 May 1981, and much of the line's

formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...

can still be seen passing through the countryside around Summerlea.David Leitch and Brian Scott, ''Exploring New Zealand's Ghost Railways'', rev. ed. (Wellington: Grantham House, 1998), 52-4.

References

Buller District Populated places in the West Coast, New Zealand {{WestCoastNZ-geo-stub