The Denniston Incline with the settlement of Denniston at the top.ca.1900-1930s

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DescriptionThe Denniston Incline with the settlement of Denniston at the top.ca.1900s-1930s.
A small, almost abandoned coal town, 27 km north-east of Westport. It was named after R. B. Denniston, manager of the first major mine to open in the 1870s and later a director of the Westport Coal Company. On a bare plateau at an altitude of 600 metres, Denniston was the bleakest of the coal mining towns, often shrouded in fog. The nearby town of Burnetts Face was squashed into a narrow valley, close to the original coal discovery. Jenny Pattrick’s novel The Denniston rose (2003) gives a depressingly vivid picture of the lives of miners and their families.

Coal was transported from the plateau down to a branch railway line by the Denniston incline, a spectacular cable railway. Mining ceased in the 1990s, and only a few inhabitants remain. Part of the town is a historic reserve, with a museum and walking tracks around mining relics.

The Denniston Incline with the settlement of Denniston at the top, West Coast region. Williams, Edgar Richard, 1891-1983: Negatives, lantern slides, stereographs, colour transparencies, monochrome prints, photographic ephemera. Ref: 1/4-055917-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/30631388PhotographerEdgar Richard WilliamsDate of Photo1900s-1930sMap^[1]ContributorHeather Newby

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Location (city or town)DennistonEventThe Denniston Incline with the settlement of Denniston at the top.ca.1900s-1930s

Category Information

Category Tagghost town

From Facebook

Date Created20th February 2022CommentsJune David Campbell
Amazing photo. How tough the old folk were to exist up there. But it has been recorded that a lot said they had a great life up on the hill

Robert McMillan
Great photos - impressive engineering and you can see why people did not like using it it get in and out of Denniston.

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The Denniston Incline with the settlement of Denniston at the top.ca.1900-1930s

Editing is temporarily disabled