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Coal flume to Seal Island.
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DescriptionDestroyed by fire late 1930's.ContributorMaye Dunn
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Location (city or town)Woodpecker BayLandmark (Place)Seal Island
Category Information
Category TagCoal Mining
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CommentsMalcolm Howell Andy Hunter certainly had a talent for ideas. If only the water on the lea side had been deeper.
7 December 2014 at 19:16 · Like · 2
Graham Ferguson The problem was Malcolm it was very exposed on the seaward side, to the sou-west, nor-west and the northerly, it was really like an open roadstead, but as you said the intention was well meaning.
7 December 2014 at 21:59 · Like · 2
Donald Levy Malcolm Howell Graham Ferguson Can you tell us more of the stories and history of the operation there ? love to hear about it
7 December 2014 at 22:15 · Like
Graham Ferguson The intention was to send coal from the Brighton Coal Mine to Seal Island, 300 yards off the coast, a flume 140 chains long had been constructed for this purpose. a series of spring piles were to form a pier to fend ships off the rock,which were to serve as a foundation on which bins were to be built, the bins were to hold 350 tons of coal. a long suspension span was built to carry the flume, it was supported by four steel cables 5 inches thick, each had a breaking strain of 100 tons, so there was ample margin for safety. The cables were anchored in concrete and were supported by two towers 43 feet high at each end of the suspension. The flume was 100 feet above the water, it was two feet wide, and 16 inches deep, and had a grade of 1 in 45. As far as is known they only managed to load one shipment of coal from this operation, it was loaded onto the small Coaster the Hokitika, from the Grey Harbour Board records, Hokitika departed Greymouth 12th of june 1940, for Woodpecker Bay, returned to Greymouth the 13th of June then departed for Wellington with coal, there is another entry for the Hokitika departing Greymouth for Woodpecker Bay on the 6th of August 1940, but she didn,t return here on that voyage, and there is no mention of her loading anymore coal there. It was an ambitious project in its time, i have got this information from a cutting from the Auckland Weekly News dated November 11th 1936. There is more to the story but the item needs to be scanned onto the WC History site so you can read the complete article, but in the meantime you will find this information interesting Donald.
7 December 2014 at 23:12 · Like · 5
Donald Levy Thanks Graham
7 December 2014 at 23:14 · Like
Graham Ferguson The flume system was built under the supervision of Mr Andrew Hunter, he designed and supervised the whole scheme, and was the contractor for the building of the Cascade flume, which carried coal from the mine to the railhead in the Buller Gorge a distance of seven miles. The flume at Seal Island was capable of carrying 100 tons an hour, which was in excess of the Co,s requirements On a trial run when there were only 4 in of water in the flume the coal was carried for about half the length of the flume. On this trial it was estimated that the flume was carrying about a 100 tons an hour, Lumps of coal up to 80Ib were carried by the water without any problem, A bit more info there for you Donald, it was certainly a novel idea in its day.
8 December 2014 at 10:25 · Like · 5
Donald Levy sounds like a huge amount of work and engineering went into this project , why only 1 ship loaded ? what was the main problem ?
8 December 2014 at 11:00 · Like · 1
Graham Ferguson Donald when you look at it, it was so exposed there to the weather swell etc, you would wonder as you said why they went to all that cost because that would have not been cheap even back then, to erect something of that scale. It would need breakwaters...See More
8 December 2014 at 12:08 · Like · 2
Lyn Wallace Yes Graham one of the buoys sat for years on the roadside out the front of my grandparents Baches at Fox River, now owned by Lindboms. Skelton was painted on it. Sat there for many a year, which mainly was used by us kids when young to clamber over. My Grandfather worked on the on the flume and remember my grandmother telling us of how she would walk across this structure to take Grandad his lunch and a billy of tea. Hence can't imagine the tea staying to hot by the time she got there. All of our childhood days were spent at Woodpecker/ Fox River, and still do today. So many fantastic memories, a wonderful place to grow up for sure, and so many will agree
8 December 2014 at 12:17 · Edited · Like · 6
Malcolm Howell I have dived out from the loading area from peg rock right out to the northern tip. I covered 30m out from the island on average. Not a great depth of water and noticeable clumps of rocks through out. Great country and I have been "bobbing" and diving there over many years. I brought Hunger for the Wild series overseas, and I played it on a big northsea complex in the UK.. The Rig Hands were most impressed seeing one of the locals balancing dangergously over a cliff (on the seaside of Seal Island) and throwing his "ring pot" down into a white water abyss. It brought back many great memories.
9 December 2014 at 01:47 · Like · 2
Malcolm Howell The same idea of using slurry to move coal to a SBM loading buoy is now used at many locations around the world. Its is very effective at loading, but the coal engained slurry and where to dump that is the big problem. I heard from one diver that a SBM loading buoy in Wales years ago, had all the seabed heavily contaminated for some 70 kms. The coal particles/dust had carried in the current for some distance. Not nice.
9 December 2014 at 01:51 · Like · 1
Graham Ferguson Malcolm. they use the slurry system or mono mooring buoy when loading the iron sands at Taharoa, the sand is pumped through the floating pipeline to the ship offshore, the Taharoa Express was on the run for some years, She got into trouble a couple of times, once she got to close inshore and touched the bottom, some damage was done, and when she was loaded with 140,000 tons of iron sand, she was up north near 90 Mile Beach, when they encountered problems. Seatow got the contract to tow her offshore, it was 50 miles for a start, then 100 miles they ended up halfway across the Tasman, they finally ended up well up into the Torres Strait, where they handed the tow over to a Japanese tug
Bob Homewood
Kerry Molloy that book is a excellent read
Ken Parlane
Remember going there in the 60s /70s with family and staying in the batch
7 December 2014 at 19:16 · Like · 2
Graham Ferguson The problem was Malcolm it was very exposed on the seaward side, to the sou-west, nor-west and the northerly, it was really like an open roadstead, but as you said the intention was well meaning.
7 December 2014 at 21:59 · Like · 2
Donald Levy Malcolm Howell Graham Ferguson Can you tell us more of the stories and history of the operation there ? love to hear about it
7 December 2014 at 22:15 · Like
Graham Ferguson The intention was to send coal from the Brighton Coal Mine to Seal Island, 300 yards off the coast, a flume 140 chains long had been constructed for this purpose. a series of spring piles were to form a pier to fend ships off the rock,which were to serve as a foundation on which bins were to be built, the bins were to hold 350 tons of coal. a long suspension span was built to carry the flume, it was supported by four steel cables 5 inches thick, each had a breaking strain of 100 tons, so there was ample margin for safety. The cables were anchored in concrete and were supported by two towers 43 feet high at each end of the suspension. The flume was 100 feet above the water, it was two feet wide, and 16 inches deep, and had a grade of 1 in 45. As far as is known they only managed to load one shipment of coal from this operation, it was loaded onto the small Coaster the Hokitika, from the Grey Harbour Board records, Hokitika departed Greymouth 12th of june 1940, for Woodpecker Bay, returned to Greymouth the 13th of June then departed for Wellington with coal, there is another entry for the Hokitika departing Greymouth for Woodpecker Bay on the 6th of August 1940, but she didn,t return here on that voyage, and there is no mention of her loading anymore coal there. It was an ambitious project in its time, i have got this information from a cutting from the Auckland Weekly News dated November 11th 1936. There is more to the story but the item needs to be scanned onto the WC History site so you can read the complete article, but in the meantime you will find this information interesting Donald.
7 December 2014 at 23:12 · Like · 5
Donald Levy Thanks Graham
7 December 2014 at 23:14 · Like
Graham Ferguson The flume system was built under the supervision of Mr Andrew Hunter, he designed and supervised the whole scheme, and was the contractor for the building of the Cascade flume, which carried coal from the mine to the railhead in the Buller Gorge a distance of seven miles. The flume at Seal Island was capable of carrying 100 tons an hour, which was in excess of the Co,s requirements On a trial run when there were only 4 in of water in the flume the coal was carried for about half the length of the flume. On this trial it was estimated that the flume was carrying about a 100 tons an hour, Lumps of coal up to 80Ib were carried by the water without any problem, A bit more info there for you Donald, it was certainly a novel idea in its day.
8 December 2014 at 10:25 · Like · 5
Donald Levy sounds like a huge amount of work and engineering went into this project , why only 1 ship loaded ? what was the main problem ?
8 December 2014 at 11:00 · Like · 1
Graham Ferguson Donald when you look at it, it was so exposed there to the weather swell etc, you would wonder as you said why they went to all that cost because that would have not been cheap even back then, to erect something of that scale. It would need breakwaters...See More
8 December 2014 at 12:08 · Like · 2
Lyn Wallace Yes Graham one of the buoys sat for years on the roadside out the front of my grandparents Baches at Fox River, now owned by Lindboms. Skelton was painted on it. Sat there for many a year, which mainly was used by us kids when young to clamber over. My Grandfather worked on the on the flume and remember my grandmother telling us of how she would walk across this structure to take Grandad his lunch and a billy of tea. Hence can't imagine the tea staying to hot by the time she got there. All of our childhood days were spent at Woodpecker/ Fox River, and still do today. So many fantastic memories, a wonderful place to grow up for sure, and so many will agree
8 December 2014 at 12:17 · Edited · Like · 6
Malcolm Howell I have dived out from the loading area from peg rock right out to the northern tip. I covered 30m out from the island on average. Not a great depth of water and noticeable clumps of rocks through out. Great country and I have been "bobbing" and diving there over many years. I brought Hunger for the Wild series overseas, and I played it on a big northsea complex in the UK.. The Rig Hands were most impressed seeing one of the locals balancing dangergously over a cliff (on the seaside of Seal Island) and throwing his "ring pot" down into a white water abyss. It brought back many great memories.
9 December 2014 at 01:47 · Like · 2
Malcolm Howell The same idea of using slurry to move coal to a SBM loading buoy is now used at many locations around the world. Its is very effective at loading, but the coal engained slurry and where to dump that is the big problem. I heard from one diver that a SBM loading buoy in Wales years ago, had all the seabed heavily contaminated for some 70 kms. The coal particles/dust had carried in the current for some distance. Not nice.
9 December 2014 at 01:51 · Like · 1
Graham Ferguson Malcolm. they use the slurry system or mono mooring buoy when loading the iron sands at Taharoa, the sand is pumped through the floating pipeline to the ship offshore, the Taharoa Express was on the run for some years, She got into trouble a couple of times, once she got to close inshore and touched the bottom, some damage was done, and when she was loaded with 140,000 tons of iron sand, she was up north near 90 Mile Beach, when they encountered problems. Seatow got the contract to tow her offshore, it was 50 miles for a start, then 100 miles they ended up halfway across the Tasman, they finally ended up well up into the Torres Strait, where they handed the tow over to a Japanese tug
Bob Homewood
Kerry Molloy that book is a excellent read
Ken Parlane
Remember going there in the 60s /70s with family and staying in the batch
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West Coast New Zealand History (24th Nov 2023). Coal flume to Seal Island.. In Website West Coast New Zealand History. Retrieved 20th Mar 2026 01:22, from https://westcoast.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/1609