Westport Visitor Information Centre

Westport is a small port town (population 3,600) near the mouth of the Buller river. Its origins date to the gold boom of the 1860s but the district's main industry has been coal mining. A cement plant fired by local coal closed in 2016 after 50 years.

Attractions here include displays at the Coaltown museum which is part of the I-Site and a seal colony at Cape Foulwind. Both north and south of Westport is some wonderful coastal scenery while the road north to Karamea gives access to several worthwhile inland walks.

WESTPORT HERITAGE

Westport owes its existence to gold discoveries in the Buller region, but it was black gold that sustained it. For almost a century the town’s wealth came from coal.

John Rochfort Born in London, Rochfort studied under the famous engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. When he emigrated to New Zealand, he settled in Nelson. Working as a surveyor for the Nelson Province in 1859, he made two expeditions to the West Coast. While his party was chaining the Buller River on his second survey, one of his men, F. Millington, discovered gold lying on the edge of the river.

Rochfort’s find and gold taken to Nelson by Maori prospecting in the Buller created interest in the area. An Englishman who came to New Zealand from the Victorian goldfields, settler Reuben Waite decided to try his luck in the Buller. In 1861, he chartered the ketch Jane, and, with 16 others, sailed to what is now Westport. T.S. Rogers, a member of the group, set up Westport’s first store. Waite went back to Nelson for provisions, and on his return started his own store. The Kawatiri Hotel, the first licensed hotel on the Coast was opened and other buildings added to the small settlement.

The early European settlers struggled. They depended on ships to bring supplies and were often short of food.

The goldfields were also disappointing. When richer and more accessible gold was found in Otago, many diggers lost interest in the Buller. West Coast Goldrushes 1865-1868 Eventually, finding gold in Otago became much more difficult. Two severe winters and floods which swept away sluices and claimed lives made diggers ready for change. The advent of the steamship meant easier journeys to the West coast. All they needed was the gold. Reports of good finds in the Grey, Greenstone and Taramakau Rivers, and the rush was on. The gold rush extended from Mokihinui in the north to Haast. Charleston and Brighton in the Paparoa region became thriving townships and Hokitika, a bustling port.

In 1860, explorer and geologist, Julius von Haast found a valuable seam of coal on the Denniston plateau behind the Waimangaroa River. Burnett, a colliery engineer, surveyed this field and a possible railway line from the Buller River. Other discoveries Coal was also found near Mokihinui and Ngakawau, but because of transport problems and the inferior nature of the coal, mining there was abandoned. Railways Once a rail line was completed between Westport and Waimangaroa in 1876, serious mining could begin. The Westport Coal Company constructed inclined railways for rapid transport of the coal from mines to railhead. The Denniston Incline (1878) with its steepest grade at 1 in 1.25 was a major engineering feat; the less precipitous Millerton Incline took coal down to Granity.

With a viable transport system, the Buller fields quickly became New Zealand’s most important source of bituminous coal, a hard coal used extensively for industry. As the output from the plateau increased, townships sprang up. The first houses were draughty and primitive and life in the clouds was not for the faint-hearted. Miners and their families had to travel in the coal wagons on the inclines, or walk on the rail tracks in all weathers - more than 5,000mm of rain falls a year on the plateau. A school inspector, after his unnerving experience of travel by coal wagon, refused to return to Denniston until there was a road! Gradually living conditions improved: hotels, stores and halls were built - and the eagerly awaited roads. By 1905, 1500 were living on the plateau.

Westport began to flourish when the rush shifted north, but floods and a tidal wave between 1867 and 1872 swept away most of its buildings. Finally, a new town was built further inland.

Images with thanks to Te Papa: Buller River and Paparoa, 1873, New Zealand, by William M Cooper. Acquisition history unknown. Palmerston Street, Westport, New Zealand, by Muir & Moodie studio, maker unknown.