DESCRIPTION: The Brunner coal seam was discovered by Thomas Brunner in 1848. Commercial mining of the seam was established sixteen years later by Matthew Batty and in 1866 the lease of the mine was granted to the Nelson Coalmining Company. Two years later this lease was cancelled, however, and the mine was subsequently worked by the Nelson Provincial Government until 1874 when the lease was granted to Martin Kennedy, a Greymouth merchant, who was the managing director of the Brunner Coalmining Company. Under Kennedy's direction the mine greatly increased its production, necessitating the construction of a railway line from Brunnerton to Greymouth to transport the coal to the port in 1876 and encouraging the establishment of large-scale brick and coke making plants in the early 1880s. By 1885 Brunner had become New Zealand's largest mine, employing more than two hundred men and producing over twenty per cent of the country's total output of coal per annum. Coal, coke and brick production at Brunner reached a peak in the 1890s after the mine had been taken over by the Grey Valley Coal Company in 1888, and by 1891 the borough of Brunnerton, which included the satellite towns of Wallsend, Dobson and Taylorville, was the largest coal mining community in New Zealand. Brick products and coke were sold to a wide market, including the metal smelting industries of Australia and New Caledonia. In 1895 the Greymouth to Point Elizabeth Railway & Coal Company took over the lease of the mine and in the following year New Zealand's worst mining disaster occurred when an explosion on March 26 killed all sixty-five men who were working in the mine that day. Ten years later the Brunner Mine was finally closed, having become a state mine in 1902, but the opening of the St Kilda mine on the same lease allowed the brickworks and coke ovens to maintain production. Following a period in which small mines were operated in the old workings, the last coal was taken from the Brunner lease in 1942. More recently the New Zealand Historic Places Trust has worked to stabilise and protect the structures still extant at the mine site and it is now open to the public.

ARCHITECT/ENGINEER/DESIGNER: Various, unknown ARCHITECT/ENGINEER/DESIGNER: The major development of the Brunner mine occurred during the 1870s and 1880s, when the mine was leased by the Brunner Coalmining Company (1874-88) and the Grey Valley Coal Company (1888-95). The employees of these companies were responsible for the construction of the brickworks, beehive coke ovens, and mine plant foundations which are still extant at the site, although individuals cannot be credited with the design of specific structures. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: The former mine is located on the north bank of the Grey River, thirteen kilometres from the river mouth. A number of industrial ruins and structures are located at the site, and collectively they comprise the Brunner industrial site. These were associated either with: (a) the extraction of coal; or (b) the associated brick and coke industries. The site is linked to the Tyneside site across the Grey River, physically by Brunner suspension bridge, and visually by the bridge and the Tyneside chimney. Neither these features nor the Tyneside site are dealt with in this report. (a) Structures associated with Coal Mining The mining structures are located on the higher river terrace. The main entrance to the principal mine at Brunner now lies buried under the Taylorville-Stillwater road and is not visible. (i) The Air Return and Fan Housing The air return adit is open to the surface. A brick lined, arched tunnel about 3 metres high, it is driven underneath the road at a slight downward angle. At about 20 metres it has been blocked off and against this stopping water accumulates, preventing further or closer inspection. At the entrance of the tunnel are the two side walls of the fan housing building. These fragments of the former building are of brick and about 4 metres high. They have been braced by major timbers because of their obvious instability. The building housed a Schiele fan installed in the early 1880s. (ii) Other Structures On the terrace in front of the fan housing are the substantial brick or concrete bases for the machinery which powered the mine, including the boilers and engines, water pumps, winding gear and compressors. Alongside the road to the bridge is the substantial brick base for the coal screens and bins. (b) Structures associated with Ancillary Industries The largest and most prominent of the original structures on the site are related to the coke and brick making industries, which were carried on in conjunction with the production of coal. (i) The rectangular coke ovens The oldest extant structures at the mine are two rectangular coke ovens which were built by the Nelson Coalmining Company in 1867. Standing near the original mine entrance at the river's edge, these ovens are barrel vaulted with concrete slab roofs resting upon stone insulation walls. They are lined with bricks imported from Melbourne but were repaired with Brunner bricks in the early 1870s. The facing of the structure is of local ganister rock. The ovens are situated on the lower terrace on the river bank immediately downstream from the bridge. The river worn rock surface immediately in front of the site shows the holes cut into the rock, and some of the iron fastenings, which were part of the original moorings for river barges, and footings for the coal bins and loading chutes. (ii) Beehive coke ovens The largest and most prominent structure on the main terrace of the Brunner site is the ovens built between 1875 and 1890 to use the slack coal from the coal screening plant for the production of coke. Now protected from the weather by a pitched roof shelter built by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, the ovens are in varying states of decay, ranging from largely complete to almost destroyed. The first six beehive ovens were built in 1875, with a further six erected in the early 1880s and a second row of twelve built back-to-back with the first row between 1889 and 1890. Beside the ovens are the bases of three by-product ovens built in 1890 for the collection and utilisation of the volatile by-products of the coke burning process. These ovens were demolished soon after construction. From the 1930s to the 1970s the disused coke ovens were also gradually dismantled by local residents salvaging and reusing the bricks from which they were built. The ovens are circular in plan and beehive-shaped in cross-section. The bases consisted of horizontal flat flags of fire brick enclosed in a ring of shaped edging blocks which formed the footing for the double skin arch of bricks which formed the walls and dome of the ovens. The arching was achieved by using bricks manufactured on the site, which were tapered on all sides so that as the oven was built the layers reduced in circumference as they curved over into the arched roof. The individual bricks gradually rotated, layer by layer, so that the narrow end of each remained oriented to the centre of the oven space, so maintaining the overall thickness of the wall. The bricks are placed unmortared. The space between the brick skins was void. The space between the adjacent ovens was first covered with a layer of unfired clay against the exterior of the brick arch, and then filled with a mixed rubble of bricks, stone and clay. The structure was finally surfaced by rectangular pavers of fired brick. The ovens have circular charging holes at their tops, and each has a flue vent for the discharge of combustion gases. These vents of the earlier ovens discharge separately but later ovens exhaust into a common flue. Above the more intact part of the bank of ovens are the remains of the brick bases which carried the tramway for the charging of the ovens with coal slack. The whole of the structure was originally enclosed in a wall about three metres high of local ganister rock, the rectangular blocks being roughly smoothed. The wall has a course of overhanging capping stones. The door of each oven has an arched frame of large fired bricks. Several of them retain the iron hooks from which the metal doors which controlled the supply of air to the ovens were suspended. This coke oven complex was excavated during archaeological investigations in the early 1980s. The bases and floors of the less complete ovens have since been filled over with sand to protect them from visitor damage. The whole structure has been roofed over in corrugated galvanised iron to protect it from the weather, the sides being left open. (iii) The brickworks The other major works at the Brunner Mine were the brickworks which produced a wide range of products using the fireclay found with the coal seams. Situated between the mine entrance and the coke ovens, the brickworks were erected in the early 1880s, although bricks had been manufactured on the site since c.1870. The remains of four horizontal draft kilns, a brick drying shed, bagging shed, grinding and pug mills and an engine house are still visible, although they are much less complete than the ruins of the adjacent coke ovens. This area was also investigated archaeologically in the early 1980s, but much of the less robust brickwork, particularly the hypocaust heating system of the drying sheds have been backfilled to protect them from the weather. MODIFICATIONS: Since its abandonment as an active industrial site, first in c.1910 and finally in the 1940s, the Brunner industrial site has degenerated into an industrial ruin. Only the coke ovens remain as anything more than brick or concrete bases of the former buildings. Since the Historic Places Trust became involved in the late 1970s, the site has been cleared of vegetation, and some of the structures freed from general debris. The twin coke ovens have been stabilised and some stonework rebuilt, and a concrete roof put in place. The beehive coke ovens and the brick manufactory have been investigated archaeologically, and a protective cover erected over the ovens. A stone faced platform has been built in front of the twin ovens. Some stabilisation and repointing of brickwork has been done.