Research Catalog

Title

Reflections on Charming Creek : mills and mines, tramways and walkways of a pioneering West Coast enclave / Bill Prebble

Author

Prebble, Bill.

Publication

Wellington, N.Z. : New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society, 2012.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society.

Description

187 p. : ill. (chiefly col.), maps (some col.); 30 cm.

Summary

The Charming Creek story is one of West Coast pioneering enterprise. Brothers Robert and George Watson, at the turn of the century set about extracting timber from the Charming Creek valley by way of an incline over the Radcliffe Ridge. Slow, and hard on horses tasked for the job, they subsequently blasted a ledge through the spectacular Ngakawau Gorge for a new tramway. Morphing into a coal railway with the opening of the Charming Creek mine, this tramway ferried miners and workmen to the mine each workday in open coal trucks. The story of the men, this fledgling company, and how they coped with the Depression and war years, successive bridge failures, runaway trains, and a riot, add intrigue into an otherwise fascinating operation. Personal accounts from those that worked both the Charming Creek line and mine are well documented, together with photographs on some of these exploits. The final chapter features the current DOC walkway, written as a guide for those visiting this fabulous site, one of the little-known wonders of the West Coast.

Subject

• Coal mines and mining > New Zealand > Buller District > History
• Charming Creek Coal Mine (N.Z.) > History

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-184) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

• Albion Mine -- Brown's Creek -- Bridgevale Consolidated Ltd -- Bridgevale Holdings Ltd -- Bridgevale Mining Ltd -- Buller coal fields -- Buller County Council -- Buller River -- Cardiff Coal Company -- Charming Creek Miners Union -- Chasm Creek -- Coal and Energy NZ Ltd -- Coal Creek Mine -- Conservation Department -- Granity Creek Hotel -- Granity Creek Sawmills -- Granity railway station -- Hydro Coal Mines Ltd -- Karamea Dairy Company -- Lands and Survey Department -- Levy and Stack -- Mangatini Falls -- Marris and Woollett -- McGowan and McGee Ltd -- McNarns Hotel -- Millerton Miners Union -- Mines Department -- Mt Torlesse mine -- New Zealand Forest Service -- New Zealand Railways -- New Zealand Walkway Commission -- NZR Road Services -- Patten's Creek -- Public Works Department -- Rome Creek -- Seddonville State Colliery -- Solid Energy -- State Mines Department -- State Mines Act -- Stockton -- Irishman's tunnel -- Mangatini tunnel -- Papa tunnel -- Union Steam Ship Company of N.Z -- Watersiders Federation -- Watson Stream -- Westport Co-operative Coal Co. -- Westport-Cardiff Coal Co. -- Westport-Charming Creek Coal and Timber Co Ltd -- Westport-Stockton Coal Co. Ltd -- Westport-Wallsend Coal Co. Ltd -- Westport-Watersider's Union -- Yellow Pine Exploration Co.
• Ambury, W. -- Atkinson, Gordon -- Atkinson, Stephen -- Bishop, J. -- Bishop, Otto -- Brown, Wattie -- Buist, Charlie -- Burnett, James -- Burns, Bill -- Calvert, Bob -- Cobbe, J.G. -- Cochrane, Alan -- Coghlan, Don -- Cook, Jom -- Cornes, Jack -- Crawford, Bill -- Crowe, Jim -- Duggan, George -- Duncan, Red -- Enright, J.H. -- Fitzgibbons, H.F. -- Flanagan, Tiddly -- Fleming, Johnny -- Forsyth, Wally -- Fyfe, Neville -- Gage, Maxwell -- Gilbert, George -- Hale, Teddy -- Hall, Lance -- Hankinson, Tom -- Hector, Sir James -- Higginson, H.P. -- Humphrey, J.W. -- Hunter, Bill -- Hunter, George -- Hutchinson, H. -- James, Francis -- James, I.A. -- Johnston, Rex -- Johnson, Vern -- Jones, Fred -- Laurie, Danny -- Laurie, Malcolm -- Learmont, Tom -- Leitch, Walter -- Leoni, Bill -- Levy, Otto -- Levy, Pat -- Lovell, H. -- Marsh, Sam -- Marshall, Sandy -- McArthur, J. -- McDonald, Alexander -- McDonald, Judith -- McDonald, Lewis -- McDonald, Murdoch -- McGhie, Peter -- McGhie, Tim --^
• McKendry, Les -- McIntyre, W.H. -- McLachlan, Colin, Hon -- McLagan, Angus, Hon -- McLean, John -- McMillan, Bill -- McTaggart, Calvin -- Meek, Bill -- Milligan, Bill -- Moseley, Lancelot -- Moynihan, Bill -- Mulholland, Ginger -- Mumm, Bill -- Mumm, Detlef -- Mumm, Joe -- Nicholson, Eddie -- Nicholson, Johnny -- O'Brien, J, Hon -- Owen, Possum -- Pascoe, John -- Philp, Bob -- Pullem, Neil -- Rochfort, James -- Rochfort, John -- Rogers, Jack -- Russell, Ray -- Scammel, Tom -- Scanlon, Tom -- Scanlon, W.P. -- Schadick, Cam -- Seaton, George -- Seaton, Joe -- Semple, Robert (Bob) -- Shaw, Jack -- Slee, Wilfred -- Snowden, Pat -- Stack, Jack -- Stack, Martin -- Stack, Noel -- Strachan, Allan -- Stuart, Percy -- Theobold, Fred -- Thin, Kerry -- Turnbull, Charlie -- Haast, Julius Von -- Vosseler, Harry -- Wakefield, Jim -- Watson, George M. -- Watson, John -- Watson, Robert -- Watson, Robert Tannahill -- Watson, Robert Tannahill II (Bob) -- Wearn, Jack -- Webb, Patrick Charles (Paddy) --^
• White, Mick -- Willman, Donny -- Willman, George -- Woollett, Ab

ISBN

• 9780908573875 (pbk.)
• 0908573871 (pbk.)

OCLC

• 820351580
• SCSB-12650955

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library