It was the site of a punt that connected Westport to the south bank before the "black bridge" was constructed at Westport itself. State Highway6 runs on the southern bank of the river, and the Stillwater - Westport Linerailway runs on the northern bank. This railway was opened to Te Kuha from Westport in 1912, but a connection through the Buller Gorge to connect with the railway in Inangahua Junction was not completed until 1942. Passenger services no longer pass through Te Kuha and the railway mainly transports coal to the east coast port of Lyttelton.
There is not much evidence that the village at Te Kuha even existed now in 2023. The road ends as the railway enters the Buller Gorge, and the surrounding flats are used for farming. There are no building remains, and further access on the railway side of the Buller river is discouraged by the railway activity. Although this point was the punt crossing in the early days for the road on the south bank at Windy Point, the building of the black bridge across the Buller spelt the death knell of Te Kuha. However, the railway was opened as far as Cascade Creek where coal bins stored the coal flumed down from the Cascade Mine for loading into trains for shipment at Westport. During World War II the Government completed the Buller Gorge Railway in 1942 and finally connected the isolated "Westport section" to the rest of the South Island Railway system.
Te Kuha was classified as a "limited employment locality" in 2004, with the government cancelling benefits for unemployed individuals who moved to the area.
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.
Westport is a town in the West Coast region of the South Island of New Zealand. Established in 1861, it is the oldest European settlement on the West Coast. Originally named Buller, it is on the right bank and at the mouth of the Buller River, close by the prominent headland of Cape Foulwind. It is connected via State Highway 6 with Greymouth, 100 kilometres (62 mi) to the south, and with Nelson 222 kilometres (138 mi) in the northeast, via the Buller Gorge. The population of the Westport urban area was 4,290 as of June 2022. The Buller District had a population of 9,730.
Inangahua is a small settlement in the northwest of New Zealand's South Island. It consists of three settled areas: Inangahua Junction at the confluence of the Inangahua and Buller Rivers, 34 kilometres (21 mi) north of Reefton and 46 kilometres (29 mi) southeast of Westport; Inagahua Landing, 10 km further up the Inangahua River; and Inangauhua township, 2 km east of the Junction. Murchison is 52 kilometres (32 mi) further east. After the 1968 Inangahua Earthquake, most of the inhabitants left the area or shifted to the township, which is now the population centre and known simply as Inangahua.
In the U.S. state of Oregon, U.S. Route 30, a major east–west U.S. Highway, runs from its western terminus in Astoria to the Idaho border east of Ontario. West of Portland, US 30 generally follows the southern shore of the Columbia River; east of Portland the highway has largely been replaced with Interstate 84, though it is signed all the way across the state, and diverges from the I-84 mainline in several towns, as a de facto business route. Out of all the states U.S. Route 30 traverses, it spends the most time in Oregon. At 477 miles, it is also the longest road in the state.
The Midland line is a 212 km section of railway between Rolleston and Greymouth in the South Island of New Zealand. The line features five major bridges, five viaducts and 17 tunnels, the longest of which is the Otira tunnel. It is the route of the popular TranzAlpine passenger train.
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.
Cronadun is a small village located in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island. It is situated on the east bank of the Inangahua River, near its junction with Boatmans Creek. SH 69 and the Stillwater–Westport Line railway pass through the village.
The Papahaua Range is a mountain range on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island east of the town of Westport. It is a geological continuation of the Paparoa Range that is south of the Buller River and it runs north from the Buller Gorge to the Mōkihinui River. At its north end, it meets the Glasgow Range.
The East Coast Main Trunk (ECMT) is a railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, originally running between Hamilton and Taneatua via Tauranga, connecting the Waikato with the Bay of Plenty. The ECMT now runs between Hamilton and Kawerau, with a branch line to Taneatua from the junction at Hawkens. The line is built to narrow gauge of 1,067 mm, the uniform gauge in New Zealand. It was known as the East Coast Main Trunk Railway until 2011, when the word "Railway" was dropped.
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 Conns Creek Branch was a 2.7 kilometre branch line railway in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island. It diverged from the Seddonville Branch at Waimangaroa and followed the southern bank of the Waimangaroa River to the line's terminus at Conns Creek at the foot of the Denniston Incline. The line operated from 1877 until 1967 and existed for the sole purpose of conveying coal from mines to the port of Westport.
State Highway 6 is a major New Zealand state highway. It extends from the Marlborough region in the northeastern corner of the South Island across the top of the island, then down the length of the island, initially along the West Coast and then across the Southern Alps through inland Otago and finally across the Southland Plains to the island's south coast. Distances are measured from north to south.
State Highway 3 (SH 3) is one of New Zealand's eight national state highways. It serves the west coast of the country's North Island and forms a link between State Highway 1 and State Highway 2. Distances are measured from north to south.
The Brunner Mine was a coal mine on the West Coast of the South Island in New Zealand.
The Ōhikaiti River is a river of the West Coast Region of New Zealand's South Island. It flows north from Mount Galileo, in the Paparoa Range, paralleling the course of the larger Ōhikanui River which lies two kilometres to the west. The Ōhikaiti empties into the Buller River at the Buller Gorge, 15 kilometres southwest of Westport.
The 1968 Inangahua earthquake struck 25 kilometres (16 mi) west of Murchison, New Zealand, near the small town of Inangahua Junction at 5:24 am NZDT on 24 May 1968. The earthquake had a moment magnitude of 7.1, a local magnitude of 6.7, a surface wave magnitude of 7.4 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Exreme). It occurred at a depth of 12 kilometres (7.5 mi), being extremely shallow for an earthquake of its size. It resulted in the deaths of three people, with a further 14 people injured, making it the fifth deadliest earthquake in New Zealand's recorded history. Numerous aftershocks followed the quake, including 15 that were magnitude 5 or greater and occurred within a month.
The Koranui Incline was an inclined tramway on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand that, for four years from late 1882 to the end of 1886, brought coal from a mine high on Mt Frederick down to a railway line near sea level.
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.
Mount Rochfort is a mountain peak 1,040 metres (3,410 ft) in elevation, located approximately 10 km east of Westport in the Buller District on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It rises above the south-west portion of the Denniston Plateau and overlooks the town of Westport and the plains of the Buller River.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
