Seddonville | |
|---|---|
 Seddonville in 2009 | |
  Seddonville | |
| Coordinates: 41°33′6″S171°59′24″E / 41.55167°S 171.99000°E | |
| Country | New Zealand |
| Region | West Coast |
| District | Buller District |
| Electorates | West Coast-Tasman Te Tai Tonga |
| Population (2013) | |
| • Total | 53 |
Seddonville is a lightly populated locality [1] on the 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.
Seddonville is in the isolated north of the West Coast in the foothills of the Glasgow Range, on the southern bank of the Mokihinui River. To the west are Summerlea and Mokihinui on the coast of the Tasman Sea, and to the north is Corbyvale on the road to Karamea. State Highway 67 ends just before reaching Seddonville.
In 1911 Seddonville's population was 426, [2] 222 in 1951, [3] 70 in 1976 [4] and in 2013 its 3 meshblocks totalled 53. [5]
A rare mollusc, Powelliphanta lignaria rotella , is found only in the Seddonville area. It is considered nationally endangered. [6]
Seddonville was named after Prime Minister of New Zealand Richard Seddon. It was established in the late 19th century as a mining community after the discovery of significant coal reserves in the area. Several mines nearby opened, with varying degrees of success, [7] until the last one closed in 1986, due to having up to 6% sulphur in its coal. [8]
Coal was first discovered in 1862, [9] when the Nelson and Mokihinui Coal Mining Company Ltd was formed. [10] However, dense bush made the seams hard to locate, [11] so mining didn't begin until about 1869. [12] By 1874 a short tramway had been built to the river and barges started taking the coal to the river mouth. [13] A Wellington and Mokihinui Coal Mining Company was formed in 1877 [14] and was exploring a seam by 1880, [15] but didn't open the mine until 1885. [16] In 1889 the company raised further money to develop the mine and arranged for the river bar to be dredged [17] and a wharf built [18] for use by the former Newcastle steam collier, Lawrence. [19] She was wrecked on the bar in 1891 [20] and remnants can still be seen on the beach. [21]
A mine at Chasm Creek opened in 1892, the year before Dick Seddon opened the railway and his name was given to the village. [22] One of the earliest state-owned mines opened in 1903, but was worked out by 1914. [23] Charming Creek mine, between Seddonville and Ngakawau, [24] opened in 1929, employed about 70 men, producing over 40,000 tonnes a year in the 1940s and closed in 1986. Its former railway now forms the Charming Creek walkway from Ngakawau. [25]
On 23 February 1895, the last section of the Seddonville Branch railway from Westport was opened from Mokihinui to Seddonville and included an extension to the Mokihinui Coal Company's mine. Passengers were catered for by mixed trains; after 12 June 1933, they ceased to carry passengers past Seddonville, and on 14 October 1946 they were cancelled. Coal was the predominant traffic, especially after the late 1930s when increasingly developed roads allowed most other freight to be carried by road. In 1974, the Mokihinui Coal Company's mine closed, as did the railway beyond Seddonville. Coal from other mines provided some freight for the rest of the decade, but mining production was in decline and demand had dropped, and by 1980 the maintenance cost was well in excess of revenue. The railway closed beyond Ngakawau on 3 May 1981. [26]
Seddonville is now a small rural village. It provides access to the Mokihinui back country and fishing, tramping, and whitewater rafting attract visitors. [27] The gates to Seddonville Domain form a small war memorial, commemorating 18 men from Seddonville: 13 in World War I and five in World War II. [28] Seddonville houses the H. E. Holland Memorial Library, which was named in honour of local MP and first leader of the Labour Party, Harry Holland, who made a public appeal to replace the collection after the first library was destroyed by flooding in 1929. [29] [30]
Part of the route of the railway is preserved as the Chasm Creek Walkway. On the approach to Seddonville, it follows the formation of the line, passes through a tunnel and over two railway bridges. The platform of Seddonville railway station is still extant in the village. [31] The Old Ghost Road, a mountain biking and walking track, finishes in Seddonville. [32]
The Ahaura River is in the South Island of New Zealand. This river drains the western flanks of the Southern Alps and flows into the Grey River.
The Awarau River, usually known as Larry's Creek is located within the South Island of New Zealand. The river is about 27 kilometres (17 mi) long and runs northwest from its headwaters in the Victoria Range to its confluence with the Inangahua River north of Reefton. It also drains part of the Brunner Range and there was a track along that range linking to Lyell by 1901, though none existed in 1874. A track also ran south over Kirwan Hill to the Montgomerie River.
The Buller River is a river in the South Island of New Zealand. The Buller has the highest flow of any river in the country during floods, though it is only the 13th longest river; it runs for 177 km (110 mi) from Lake Rotoiti through the Buller Gorge and into the Tasman Sea near the town of Westport. A saddle at 710 m (2,330 ft) separates the Buller from the Motupiko River and that is divided from the Wairau River by a 695 m (2,280 ft) saddle, both aligned along the Alpine Fault, as is the top of the Buller valley.
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The Stillwater Ngākawau Line (SNL), formerly the Stillwater–Westport Line (SWL) and the Ngakawau Branch, is a secondary main line, part of New Zealand's national rail network. It runs between Stillwater and Ngakawau via Westport on the West Coast of the South Island. It was one of the longest construction projects in New Zealand's history, with its first section, at the south end, opened in 1889, and the beginnings of the Ngākawau Branch, at its Westport end, in 1875. The full line was completed in 1942. The only slower railway projects were Palmerston North to Gisborne, 1872 to 1942, and the Main North Line to Picton, 1872 to 1945.
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 Seddonville in 1895. In 1981 it was closed past Ngākawau and effectively became an extension of the Stillwater–Westport Line, since formalised as the Stillwater–Ngākawau Line.
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 2019, it was announced that 64,400 ha of land in the Mōkihinui River catchment, including 15 km (9.3 mi) of river bed, would be added to Kahurangi National Park.
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The Ngākawau River is a river of the West Coast Region of New Zealand's South Island. It flows generally northwest, reaching the Tasman Sea at Hector.
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The Glen Afton Branch was a branch railway line of 7.9 km in the Waikato in New Zealand, built to serve coal mines in the Awaroa district west of Huntly at Rotowaro, Pukemiro and Glen Afton. Rotowaro is Māori for "coal lake".
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Mokihinui is a lightly populated locality on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island.
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The Charming Creek Tramway was a 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) long private bush tramway at Ngakawau in Buller District on the West Coast in New Zealand. It was used from 1903 or 1905 to 1958.
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Media related to Seddonville at Wikimedia Commons