Thursday 30 March 2023

Coal River Heritage Park

 

Next to the wharf and waterfront in town is the Coal River Heritage Park. It sits beside the Grey River and was created by the Greymouth Heritage Society in conjunction with the Grey District Council. It has views out the river mouth, the Tasman Sea and towards the Southern Alps.


This short walk tells the story of the town's coal mining history - many boats would've pulled up to this wharf to pick up their order of coal which would've been taken to other places around New Zealand.


Some leftover railway tracks and electric cranes still sit here today as an example of what was used back then.



And this building on top of the hill has inside some explanations and history about it's past. Coal was an important export from the 1870s and by 1881 the population of Greymouth was bigger than Hokitika.

Here's a short video I found on youtube about someone elses visit to this spot. Linking up with Skywatch Friday, All Seasons and Tom's signs. 

19 comments:

Tigger's Mum said...

Just think - every ship that called at that wharf had to make it over the bar (twice - once in ballast, once laden). The bars of West Coast rivers claimed a lot of ships back in those days - many of them passenger ships.

Bill said...

A great place to learn about the coal industry's early history.

Tom said...

...it's good to honor the history of the area!

Jim said...

Great post.

William Kendall said...

Beautiful views.

Jocelyn said...

Beautiful shots!

Spare Parts and Pics said...

What an interesting history. Looks like you picked a wonderful day to visit!

Yogi♪♪♪ said...

This is interesting.

We lived in a little coal mining community in central Utah when I was a kid. We heated our house with coal. My parents would order the coal and they would come and load it into a room in our basement. My brother and I took turns shoveling the coal into the automatic stoker ever night.
Everybody used coal to heat and when it snowed the snow would turn gray after three days. Who knows what it did to our lungs.

magiceye said...

Beautifully captured!

NKH said...

Thanks for introducing. Excellent pictures as well

s.c said...

The traces of the past, beautifully photographed.

Carol @Comfort Spring Station said...

fascinating history - thanks for sharing

Iris Flavia said...

A time-warp, nice.

Photo Cache said...

Nice place to walk around and sightsee.

Worth a Thousand Words

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Interesting to learn the history ... coal was so important back then. We still see long coal trains when we drive through the State of Wyoming here in the States.

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Interesting to learn the history ... coal was so important back then. We still see long coal trains when we drive through the State of Wyoming here in the States.

Lydia C. Lee said...

That building looks like an old station - it's oddly out of place sort of. Thanks for joining in #Allseasons

Anonymous said...

That is really interesting! Thanks for sharing!

Light and Voices said...

Interesting blog about coal this week.

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