Story: Coal and coal mining
This coal seam, labelled ‘35 feet seam’ is in the Mokihinui Coal Company mine in the Buller area north of Westport and was mined in the 1880s. Some of the British miners who came to work on West Coast coalfields must have been impressed by the size of the seams, as they were used to working seams no more than 2 or 3 metres thick. Further south in the Paparoa and Brunner fields, seams up to 20 metres thick were found.
About this item
Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: 1/2-035123; F
Photograph by Henry Thomas Lock
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.