Higher than the top of the Incline
were settlements where the mine workers and their families lived 2000 feet
above sea level in the community of Denniston. The weather was rigorous
with thick mist over the hill much of the time and storms and snow every
winter, and the work in the mines was fraught with danger. In spite of the
hardships - or perhaps because of them - a good community spirit developed
and people who lived there even in the early years had positive memories of
their time in Denniston.
The first settlement on the Rochfort Plateau developed at what was called
"The Camp" as it was where the first men set up their tents. It was on a
rocky ledge, yet somehow the people fitted in houses, a sizeable school, a
large hall, shops, sheds and engineering rooms, the ropeway and a road.
The first houses were two-roomed dwellings with corrugated iron chimneys.
They were wired to the cliffs to prevent them from being blown away.
This was probably the setting of Jenny Pattrick's novel, The Denniston
Rose, set in Denniston in the 1880s.
There was no running water and rain water was collected in household tanks.
Dealing with sewage was always a problem on the plateau. It was impossible
to dig a hole and build a long drop. The sewage was often thrown over the
cliff. If it was thrown into the stream then the only clean water found in
it was upstream of the settlement.
At first there was no hotel and liquid refreshments were brought up the
Incline in small amounts. Then it was found that the Westport Coal Company
had no legal grounds for prohibiting it and a hotel was opened called "The
Sons of Freedom". The miners had proved that they were free to open a
hotel, but once they had wives and families to support they were bound by
rules to work for the Westport Coal Company and had to stay on the Hill, as
the Denniston area was called.
When there was plenty of work the miners earned good money from their
dangerous job, but if the bar at the Westport Harbour silted up with floods
in the Buller River there would be no work. A buzzer sounding in the
afternoon meant that there would be no work the following day. Strikes in
1890 and in 1913 caused great suffering in the town, and there was little
for the idle men to do. They hadn't the money to drink in the hotel and
they had no gardens to tend as the rocky ground made it impossible to
develop gardens.
The town of Denniston
Higher on the hill than The Camp the town of Denniston grew steadily and
two miles further along a new settlement began at Burnetts Face, sited up a
valley and built on each side of a stream. The attraction of living there
was that it was closer to work for the miners employed in the Burnetts Face
mine.
Information in "The Cyclopaedia of New Zealand" 1906
The 1906 edition of "The Cyclopaedia of New Zealand" printed by Horace J.
Weeks Ltd in Christchurch, New Zealand gives the following information
about Denniston and Burnetts Face.
Denniston
The population was 793 in the 1901 census, and 1,500 in the 1905 census.
The Westport Coal Company operated the Incline over a distance of 1.5 miles
to forward coal and bring back stores and take occasional passengers.
There were four hotels, two stores, two drapers, a bootmaker, a butcher,
three fancy goods shops, and a fruiterer. The Post Office provided two
mail deliveries a day. The town also had a Working Men's Club, a public
library with a billiards room and a reading room, a Masonic Lodge (Aorangi
No 89 New Zealand Constitution) and a brass band. The school of 200 pupils
was staffed by a head teacher, two assistant teachers and two pupil
teachers, but there was no grass and no playground at the school. The
Denniston Volunteer Rifle Corps had its own drill hall.
There were mines at Denniston and at Burnetts Face 1.5 miles away. Coal was
conveyed by an endless rope system over a main haulage road of 1.5 miles.
There was a Denniston Collieries Accident and Relief Fund Association which
was to cover
- medical attendance to men, wives and families of all in the employment of
the Westport Coal Company
- payment of 25 shillings a week if an accident disabled men from working
- fifty pounds for total disablement through an accident at work
- forty five pounds to a widow in the event of death through an accident
- the salary of the resident medical officer.
Burnetts Face
The" Cyclopaedia" states that the settlement at Burnetts Face was founded
in 1886. The 1901 census states that the population was 212. There were two
hotels, a bakery, three stores, a butchery, and fancy goods store and a
public school. Post Office and telephone bureau services were available at
one store.
Dependence on the Incline
For many years the community was totally dependent on the Incline. It took
down the coal to be sold to earn their wages. It brought up supplies, mail
and sometimes people. It was even able to bring up a grand piano and more
than one full-sized billiard table.
No burials on Denniston
The Incline also took from Denniston the coffins of the deceased. No one
was ever buried in Denniston as the hard rocky ground made digging graves
impossible. There would be a service in one of the Denniston churches and
then while the coffin went down the Incline the men would walk down to
Waimangaroa to the cemetery for the burial.
Working hours
The mines worked six days a week with three shifts every 24 hours. Every
second Saturday there was a half holiday and the men would be paid on the
Saturday afternoon. For many people Sunday was a family day for church
going or afternoon walks in best clothes.
Leisure activities
In their free time the men went to the hotel to share drinks with their
workmates, or to play billiards.
Reminiscences in The Hill
In The Hill the author Cecilia Adams who lived on the Hill for
twenty years gives fascinating glimpses into life "ON Denniston". She tells
us that you could say that something had happened IN or AT Burnetts Face,
but the correct phrase was always "ON Denniston".
She interviewed many people and recorded their memories. The Brakehead she
describes as being popular because it was close to the summit of the
Incline. There the Westport Coal Company built "The Quarters", a
well-equipped building to accommodate visiting staff and directors of the
company. Soil was brought up the hill so that there could be a lawn in
front of the building. The Brakehead, like the Camp, was a very cramped
settlement as there was so little area available for building.
Daily life for the men and women
Work in the mines was dangerous and physically demanding, and the miners
often saw few hours of daylight in the week.
Life for the women too was filled with hard work. There was no hot water
over the sink and dishes were washed with hot water from a kettle on the
stove. At least there was an ample supply of coal.
There was a huge amount of washing to be done in the washhouse which was a
tin shed with a copper. Washing would be boiled in the
copper.
Scrubbing boards and soap, often home made, were used to clean the dirt
off other dirty washing. Clothes worn by the miners would often have coal,
tar and oil stains. After scrubbing, the clothes would be put through a
hand-operated wringer. There would seldom be suitable weather to dry the
clothes outside so the clothes were hung on lines attached to a pulley
which would lift them to the kichen ceiling where they would dry with the
heat of the stove.
Clothes were smoothed by being put through the mangle. Ironing was done
with flat irons heated on the stove.
Transport
Until a road up the hill was opened in 1902 the only transport to Denniston
was by the Incline. Otherwise people walked up the steep hill by the foot
track established in 1884. In Denniston in the early years the only
vehicles using the poor roads in the town were the horse and dray which
delivered goods, the butcher's cart and the baker's cart.
Social life
For social occasions like weddings or dances or the more formal balls
people had to walk, carrying their wedding or dancing shoes. or to ride in
the cart or dray. There was frequently wet weather or drenching fog, so
they covered their finery with mackintoshes. Umbrellas were of no use in
the winds of Denniston.
The main social life for the women was at the dances and the whole family
would attend and put the babies and children to sleep with a blanket at the
building where the dance was held.
The Lodges ran dances - formal dress affairs with the men in dark suits and
white gloves and the women in formal ball dresses. On Denniston the great
occasion of the year was the Druids Ball and the fabrics, patterns and even
dresses were imported from as far away as Australia.
Life continued to involve hours of work for all the adults and many of the
children on Denniston, but they got more access to the outside world in the
remaining years.
For further reading
The Hill by Cecilia Adams and The Spirit of Denniston
Hill by Dai Hayward both make very interesting reading. However, one
problem in using these books for historical research is that neither book
has an index and few of the events described give the date - an unavoidable
problem when much of the source material is people's memories.
Another article to come in this series "Denniston - the later years".
