Abandoned Historical Mining Town and Incline (Part Two)
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- Опубліковано 9 жов 2024
- #exploring #theforsakenexplorernz #ghosttownnz #ghosttowns #nzhistory #historynz #mining #abandoned #realurbex
Millerton is a small settlement in the northwestern South Island of New Zealand in the West Coast region. It is in the Papahaua Ranges, around 33 kilometres by road north of Westport, via SH67 from Westport to Karamea.
The history of Millerton bears some resemblance to that of Denniston, being a town that lived from and for the coal that was mined in the Ranges. Millerton has a population of approx 30-40. It was classified like Denniston as a ghost town in the 1970s but has had a resident population for several decades. It is possibly New Zealand's only populated hilltop township.
Despite its elevation of 300 metres being considerably lower than that of Denniston (600 metres), the steep grade between the coastline and Millerton still meant that the coal was difficult to get down from the hilltop to the coastal railway near sea level. The Westport Coal Company built the Millerton Incline in 1891[2] and the Millerton Mine began production in 1896. Mining at Millerton ended in the late 1960s, as it largely did at Denniston.[2]
The Millerton Incline was a narrow gauge (2 ft or 610 mm) incline consisting of two parallel sets of tracks on which the coal tubs ran, being hauled by rope. Remnants of tracks, trucks, bath house and other installations are still visible. The Millerton Incline was a significant engineering achievement for its time, and the remains of this incline and its infrastructure are more accessible than those of the more famous Denniston Incline. The Millerton Incline was used to convey tubs of coal from the mines around the Millerton area to the bins at Granity, which were once the largest coal loading bins of wooden construction in New Zealand. The bins no longer exist, but the incline remains and can still be seen today.
Further images of Millerton, its ropeways and incline, can be accessed via the 'External links' below.
The Hon. William McIntyre from Millerton was a member of the Legislative Council from 1921 until he died in 1949, and was known as the Father of the Upper House. A miner from Scotland, he (with his brother) set a record for the coal mined in one shift at the Millerton Mine.
With the Denniston and the smaller Millerton mining operations having ended, the nearby Stockton coalfield is continuing the tradition of West Coast coal. Solid Energy New Zealand has planned to extend the life of the Stockton mining area by opening up the old Millerton Mine workings, albeit as an open cast pit.
The Millerton football (soccer) club, known as the Millerton All Blacks,[3] were twice runners-up in the Chatham Cup, New Zealand's knockout football competition, in 1932 and 1933.[4]
Millerton had its own Lodge of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes (Lookout Lodge No 127 of the R.A.O.B. NZ Constitution of the Grand Lodge of England). The Lodge was opened in 1950 and closed sometime in the mid-1980s.
Lyell was named by the geologist Julius von Haast after the British geologist Charles Lyell, a friend of Sir George Grey, whose writings had influenced Charles Darwin.[1]
The gold rush in Lyell began in 1862 when Māori prospectors found gold in Lyell Creek, a tributary of the Buller River.[2][3] In 1869 two Italian miners, Antonio Zala and Giorgio Zanetti, discovered gold in quartz veins in the Lyell Creek area. The mine in this quartz reef was worked from 1872 until 1912.[4] Gold in quartz reefs was successfully mined in only two places on the West Coast: Lyell and Reefton.[5]
The settlement grew quickly with a population of about 100 in 1863, despite the area being inaccessible, difficult to work and prone to flooding.[3] In the 1870s Lyell had a main street, Cliff St, with banks, newspaper offices and hotels. The population grew to more than 2000 in the late 1880s.[6] By 1901 the population was 90 with 40 children at the school and in 1905 the Alpine Extended Gold Mining Co Ltd still employed 60 people.[3]
Local newspapers were published during the height of settlement: the Lyell Argus and Matakitaki Advertiser from 1873 to 1882 and the Lyell Times and Central Buller Gazette from 1881 to 1898. The newspaper office and other buildings in Cliff St were destroyed by a fire in 1896.[6]
One of the miners who worked at Lyell in the 1880s and 1890s was the Irish woman Bridget Goodwin, known as Biddy.[3] The Italian miners later turned to dairy farming in the Lyell area.[7]
A small settlement at Lyell continued until the 1960s.[4] The ghost town is now a campsite maintained by the Department of Conservation. None of the original buildings remain but a track from the campsite leads to a cemetery and an old stamping battery. A dray road that was built at the time of the gold working towards the Lyell Saddle is now the start of the Old Ghost Road, a mountain biking and walking trail, 85 km (53 mi) in length, that finishes at Seddonville.[8]
This is beautiful mate
Thank you, and thank you for watching and commenting 😎👍
Awesome video mate. Thanks for taking us on a adventure and showing us around NZ. Wonder if there's anything to explore up in around Auckland area? For those who want to explore without traveling very far.
Love these kinda videos as it shows a bit of what they use to do back in the day
Very interesting thank you for your time and effort.
Your welcome, thank you for watching and commenting 😎👍
Gratitude for your amazing mahi
Respect for showing me the most remote cemetry ive ever seen ... would love to find unmarked urupa
... many spirits/tupuna wld roam that land/whenua - if only they could talk (they can)
Your welcome, thank you for watching and commenting 😎👍
Amazing! So cool to see this piece of history. Gas detector, hey? Hope you havent been eating beans! LOL!!! Thanks for an excellent tour!
Hahaha funny, if only it worked for bean eaters lol, thanks for the laugh and also watching, cheers 🙂👍
Loved seeing the incline again, its surroundings, the damaged road and the graveyard. Super sweet video! Cheers mate 😁
Your welcome mate thank you for watching 🙂
Great Video, Loved the Millerton incline, interesting route,and old gear! The Lyell cemetery was equally interesting, on a side note, you filmed a group of rusting trucks beside the road and made no comment, I seem to remember something similar in the buller gorge? Thanks for sharing
Yes that's right Buller gorge, Thank you for watching and commenting 😎👍
That old zig zag road was closed iabout 2007
Sad, was a great drive. Delia Morris
Your intro makes me think Indiana Jones. 😅 It is amazing what gets left behind in abandoned locations. Those carts are very cool. Wow amazing location. The cemetery was really cool.
Yes it's a great place, I'll have to watch he intro again and see 😂😂 Thank you for watching and commenting 😎👍
Actually the definition of a ghost town IS technically as you describe it - where a town used to be and now there is nothing remaining. Lyall Cemetery has at least one interesting story attached, one of the interments murdered 2 people in separate incidents, before taking his own life, he was incredibly violent and seemingly a psychopath. It's an interesting story. Also the reason why there's few intact headstones is because of the succession of quakes over time.
That's awesome, Thank you for sharing that information with the viewers, Also thank you for watching and commenting 😎👍
There is some really weird stuff around New Zealand most people just don’t pay attention and see it, I once found an old homestead in the middle of nowhere while backpacking around NZ- I will not reveal where
Love from Texas
That's awesome, Thank you for watching and commenting 😎👍
How long is that incline tunnel?
I'm not sure as there is not any information available about this online, Thank you for watching and commenting 😎👍