Liverpool Mine, Greymouth, Grey District, West Coast Region, New Zealandi

Regional Level Types
Liverpool Mine	Mine
Greymouth	- not defined -
Grey District	District
West Coast Region	Region
New Zealand	Country

Abandoned coal mine. The Liverpool Mine is 20 kilometres north-east of Greymouth. The area can be accessed along the former Rewanui railway line, which has now been converted to a cycle way. The trail leaves Dunollie following the Seven Mile Creek, passing through tunnels to the Rewanui railway station site (the station and some items remain), then walk trails north, covering several kilometres. Despite the mines having a long history, temperate rainforest has reclaimed the area, although coal carts and other reminders of mining days can be seen along the track.

The Liverpool Mine comprises numerous mines. Liverpool 1 and 2 were the first mines, and are found at the head of Seven Mile Creek. Liverpool 3 was a later mine, along the creek valley just north of the Rewanui station site. Liverpool 4 reached a pre-feasibility stage by Solid Energy around 2011, but the mine never eventuated. Liverpool 1-3 were underground mines.

The Paparoa Coal Measures are sub-divided into four sections named Jay, Morgan, Rewanui, and Dunollie, separated by three dark brown to brown-grey siltstone and mudstone units called Ford, Waiomo, and Goldlight. Some mollusc, snail, plant matter fossils, and leaf impressions are found in the siltstone and mudstone.

At the Liverpool mines the Rewanui and Morgan Formations were the most productive for coal. Morgan contains two bituminous coal seams called No. 4 (Morgan), and No. 2 (Sub-Morgan), 0-40 feet above the Ford unit. Several coal seams in the Rewanui Measure were worked in the Liverpool 3 Mine.
Some oil seepage was found in section 3A of the Liverpool 3 mine.

Mining started here on a small scale in 1908, known at the time as the Point Elizabeth No. 2 Mine. The mine was formally opened in 1913, this time named as Liverpool, as a New Zealand state government enterprise, which remained the case for the rest of its history. It was initially operated by the Mines Department, then the lease owned by Coal Company from 1987, which morphed into Solid Energy, and was liquidated in 2015.

Four men were killed in the mine up until 1926, with Andrew Baker (47) in a fall of coal, and John Kennedy (70) crushed while transporting coal to the boiler-house, mentioned. William Timlin (55) in 1934, William Patrick Kennedy (57) in 1939, and Michael Granich (50) in 1942, were killed, all in falls of coal.

The mines operated over the decades 'continuously' until Liverpool 3 was closed in 1984. Production was interrupted often, sometimes by fires (three found 1937 to 1940), a landslide cutting the railway, excess coal mined which could not be transported out of the mine easily, but most often from strikes. They were many, and reasons often trivial, at least by the standards of labour relations in Australia and New Zealand today. January 1931, none of the workforce showed up for two days. A search found many of them attending a trotting meeting in Greymouth, with a subsequent day needed to recover.

Map- location shown is on Seven Mile Creek, about midway between the Liverpool 1 and 2 mines, and Liverpool 3 Mine to the south.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References