Directions

From Westport, take State Highway 67 to Granity. Watch out for a tiny turn off marked Stockton Mine (over the railway line), just past the Granity Village recycling bins. Follow this spectacular new road (it won the Small Roading Project of the Year Award) in 2007, to the Millerton turnoff. Wind down through the ‘Mansions’ of Millerton – quaint mining cottages perched on rock in the middle of the forest, follow the road until it finishes in a car pack perched on the edge of a bluff looking right up the coastline towards Karamea. A must for photo fans.

Granity Dam Walk

Marvellous old high altitude mining town – and million dollar views!

The walkway follows a terraced pathway down to the old Granity Dam – the water from which was used to power coal loading and unloading at the bottom of the Granity Incline (see history below).  Follow the track over to your right to see wagons still sitting on the Incline just as they were when it closed when mining stopped in the 1960s.  A private mine in Millerton has since re-opened.

History and facts about the Incline

At 300 metres (just under 1,000 ft) above sea level virtually straight up, getting coal from the underground mountain mines to the railway was a challenge.  But our early settlers were clever.

The Westport Coal Company built the Millerton Incline in 1891 and the Millerton Mine began production in 1896.

The Millerton Incline was a narrow gauge (2ft) alpine railway consisting of two parallel tracks on which the coal tubs ran from loading point to the Bins in Granity. They were hauled by wire rope….full down, and empty up.  Remnants of tracks, trucks, bath house and other installations are still visible. 

The Millerton Incline was in its day it quite a feat of engineering and though smaller and less famous than the much higher and larger Denniston Incline, is well worth a look.

And for you sports fans – did you know that:

The Millerton soccer (football) club was known as the Millerton All Blacks, and were twice runners-up in the Chatham Cup, New Zealand's knockout football competition, in 1932 and 1933.

Itinerary Ideas:

Combine this walk with the Millerton Bathhouse Walk, and a visit to the Northern Buller Museum in Granity to see the restored coke ovens (coke was a fuel used in many household stoves and ovens in earlier days), fascinating collections donated by mining families over the years, and to find long ago relatives who came here to mine coal or gold.