The community on The Hill
on Denniston and at Burnetts Face on New Zealand's west coast continued to
live a life centred around work in the coal mines and on the Incline
until the Incline was closed in 1967, though the mine at Burnetts Face
closed earlier. This close-knit community was unique in a number of
respects, but especially because of the absence of crime.
Their way of life should not be forgotten. Former residents belong to a
group called "Friends of the Hill" and are working to preserve memories and
records of life on The Hill and maintain a museum in the former high
school.
Miners highly esteemed
Miners were held in high esteem in the community. Men entered mining as a
lifetime career and often worked in the industry for forty or fifty years.
Maidie Meek's grandfather worked in the mine till he was seventy four, and
then took what he considered to be "a lighter job" making bricks at the
powerhouse. When the mines were open for a full week the miners earned a
good wage, but had to pay for some of their work gear, such as carbide for
their lamps and explosives.
Workers on The Hill were employed in a dangerous environment and had to be
constantly on the alert against accidents. During the ninety years of the
Incline's operation seventy people died in accidents recorded on the
Incline or in the mines. Women thought it important always to have in the
drawer a new pair of pyjamas for taking in the ambulance in case of a
fatality.
Access to and from the plateau improved
After 1910 when the road was built there was a coach service drawn by four
horses from Denniston to the railway station at Waimangaroa. The first
motor transport was in 1915. Radiators would boil as vehicles struggled up
the hill. Radiators would be re-filled at the creek part way up. There was
an open-topped Cadillac car which charged 2s 6d return to take passengers
to the rail. Roadmen were needed to ease the sharp bends. The Cadillac
became unreliable through constant use.
Buildings on The Hill
Cecilia Adams in The Hill comments on the random way houses were
situated on Denniston. They were built anywhere they could be put. There
were street names but no house numbers.
She makes a further comment about buildings. "In all the years of
occupation at Denniston there was never anything of beauty built. Churches,
halls, houses and all public buildings conformed to the one description -
austerity."
The aim in building houses was to make them comfortable, strong,
weather-proof and utilitarian. Open porches would only have given leverage
to a storm attacking the houses. A severe storm could cross the Tasman Sea
building up momentum and strike the mountain with such ferocity that it
could lift the roofs off many houses. Any porches were soon glassed in.
With open fires for heating and a coal range for cooking and heating water
fires were an ever-present danger and the Volunteer Fire Brigade was often
called on.
Bowling green
A bowling green was thought to provide a good place of relaxation for the
miners but to provide a flat area and keep it grassed seemed an
impossibility. In 1928 an area was levelled with dynamite and turf was
brought up from Fairdown on the coast. When shifts in the mine were reduced
during the 1930s depression it was re-sown and became a source of real
enjoyment for
men and women for the rest of the years of the settlement.
The Recreation Ground
Hockey, rugby and cricket were played on the Recreation Ground, but players
had to be prepared for skinned knees if they fell as the ground consisted
of rocks barely covered with sand. Maidie Meek recalls basketball and
hockey tournaments at Queen's Birthday weekend. Both Denniston and Burnetts
Face had a rugby team and their games were followed with enthusiasm.
Visiting teams sometimes found playing in the persistent fog somewhat
confusing.
No gardens on The Hill
No one could develop a garden on the rocky ground. The wind across the
Plateau tore at any shrubs which had managed to take hold in the barren
ground and few survived. Indoor plants were very popular. Most houses had
date palms and green pot plants and ferns. Wandering Willie, asparagus and
maiden-hair fern were popular choices.
Refuse and sewage
There was no system of refuse collection or disposal. All rubbish was burnt
in the household fires and the ash was used to form paths - a very
satisfactory cement-like surface.
Sewage was collected by a man who would usually be called a nightman, but
on Denniston collection was done in the daytime.
Delivery services
Despite the lack of street numbers deliveries were made to the houses -
mail, bread and meat. For many years there was no fresh milk and everyone
used tinned milk. Then fresh milk was brought up the incline and a milkman
began delivering it - a most demanding job lugging heavy cans of milk on
the uneven ground and walking miles without a day off for years.
Medical services
Doctors in Denniston in the early years, all men, had to be very fit. In
the case of an accident a horse was provided to take him to the mine
entrance. Then he would have to go down the mine to the scene of the
accident.
In those early years a midwife delivered the babies and walked miles to
attend to mothers and babies.
In 1910 a hospital was built between Burnetts Face and Denniston subsidised
by the miners through numerous fund-raising activities. In 1912 a maternity
wing was added. In the early years the miners paid a levy of sixpence a
fortnight which guaranteed them a bed in the hospital when they needed
it.
In 1913 a horse-drawn ambulance was introduced and this was upgraded to an
ambulance with a motor in 1923.
Services to the sick were severely stretched during the influenza epidemic
in 1918, as Denniston's isolation did not protect it from being seriously
hit by the epidemic.
The community felt it was well served by its nurses and doctors, though few
stayed for many years like the hospital matron, Olive Raynor, who worked
there from 1939 to 1952.
Murchison Earthquake 17 June 1929
This serious earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale, was
centred around Murchison, only nine miles (14.5km) from Denniston. It
occurred in the middle of the morning when hundreds of men and boys were at
work in the mine. The noise like thunder which preceded the quake was much
more terrifying in the mine. The ground in the mine shook, bumped and
twisted while the miners stood paralysed with terror, not knowing whether
they would ever get out of this terrifying situation.
Meanwhile in the town the children were taken from the school to open
ground. Water tanks bounced off their stands, chimneys were smashed, four
houses were demolished, others were shaken and damaged, and crockery
shattered. The people in the town were terrified by the moving of the earth
and petrified to think what was happening to their menfolk.
A miracle
The big buses which took the miners to work waited at the mine entrances to
bring back any survivors. In twos and threes the survivors came from the
mine and miraculously by the end of the day all the men had been accounted
for.
Some were so terrified by this appalling experience that they left to find
any poorly paid work elsewhere rather than go down the mine again. The
mines were shut for two weeks while gangs repaired the damage. Most
remained on the Hill, but after they returned to work they had to endure
many after-shocks.
Picture shows were held in the hall to provide some distraction for the
people when the mines and the schools were shut. Chimneys, tanks and
houses were repaired, but it was a long time before the emotional impact of
that day was healed.
In the 1931 Napier earthquake two years later the men left the mines for a
time, and there was some damage to the houses.
By the time of the Inangahua earthquake in 1968 the Incline was closed, but
it was considerably damaged by the quake.
Talking to Maidie Meek (now Ibbetson) and Billie Meek (now Stevens)
about their memories
Billlie and Maidie looked at a 1993 calendar put out by Friends of the Hill
showing old photos of Denniston and recalled familiar landmarks.
Denniston and Marshalvale and Burnetts Face are seen in a photo of the area
under snow. Blizzards and snow were experienced every winter. Marshalvale
was home to a lot of English immigrants and was known as Pommytown. To the
left was the Camp, the site of Jenny Pattrick's story, The Denniston
Rose.
The Bridle Track from Waimangaroa took some two hours walking up and one
hour walking down.
They recognised many houses including one in which they grew up. Their
parents, Jack and Chris Meek, came to Denniston from Scotland in 1923, and
were married in the Presbyterian church in 1924. They had a family of
three - two girls and a boy.
Their daughters well remember their mother cooking on a coal range with a
boiler on the open fire. Coal was readily available of course. Water was
boiled in the copper for washing and for the baths. Jack Meek altered a
two-bedroom house to give three bedrooms and a new kitchen. He was the
Westport Coal Company's painter and decorator. His son Doug was apprenticed
to him and worked on Denniston before moving to Westport.
Billie Meek learnt the piano from Eunice Pullar and later went to the
convent in Westport for music lessons and passed her ATCL. She taught music
in Denniston until she married Tom Glendinning, an electrician on The
Hill.
Maidie (later known as Mary) trained as a primary school teacher. She
married Herb Ibbetson and returned to teaching as their children grew up.
The Miners' Union Hall
Movies were shown in the hall on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday nights. At
first there were silent pictures with a memorable film being The Old
Dark House starring Boris Carloff.
Later there were "talkies" and showings on Saturday afternoon with serials
which attracted the children to attend regularly and pay their threepence
to keep up with the weekly episodes of The Mark of Zorro and
Fu Manchu.
Close to the Miners' Hall was the Working Men's Club. With the hotels, the
activities at the Miners' Hall and the Working Men's Club, the very
successful brass band, and the bowling green the men's social life was well
catered for.
For the families the Miners' Picnic was the annual highlight, travelling to
Tauranga Bay, Cape Foulwind or Carters Beach.
Swimming
A swimming pool was built for the community, but the children preferred to
swim in the powerhouse dam where the water was warm.
