Puponga is 22 kilometres north of Collingwood. It is the end of the road, with a dozen houses beside the tidal flats of Golden Bay. Visitors come here to see the immense birdlife on Farewell Spit, some rock arches on the seaward side of the peninsular, undertake several walks in the area, or just because it is the turnaround point from a drive out of Nelson.

Just past the Puponga horse trek place on the gravel road to wharariki, a very short walk leads to the former mine site, a chunky metallic relic can be seen, in now thickly forested swampy ground. On the shorefront, parallel rows of wharf stumps can be seen marching across the tidal flats. The wharf for the mine collapsed in 1943. A coal wagon from the 2.5 kilometre railway from the mine to the wharf is on display outside the Collingwood courthouse.

Donald the 0-4-0 loco worked the railway for 30 years from 1901. It was found in the swamp in the 1980's lying on its side and rusting away. Members of the Collingwood Museum dug it out, and it was then given to the Blenheim Riverside Railway Society, who were able to restore the locomotive after 25 years of hard work.

Spencer Taylor found coal at Puponga, however it was his father, Joseph Taylor, who developed a mine here. In March 1895, Taylor, a mining engineer, and James Walker, a mine manager applied for a lease over the area. The coal seam was 3 to 7 feet thick. Walker soon lost interest. Over the next five years Taylor undertook development work, with the Puponga Coal and Gold Mining Company formed in 1900.

In September 1902, Taylor was convicted over the misuse of company funds, and was sentenced to prison. New management took over. In April 1904, the neighbouring Cape Coal Company was purchased. Vessels were acquired to carry coal to Wellington and Nelson, although the tidal nature of the bay made loading coal difficult.

Output in 1905 was 20 155 tonnes of coal. By 1910 it was around 30 000 tonnes of coal per annum. In 1913, in contravention of a written order from the Inspector of Mines, the coal pillars were extracted, leading to a collapse and flooding in the mine workings.

Un-flooded portions of the mine were worked intermittently over the decades, until 1954 when Owen Collieries pumped the water out, and coal was mined until 1974.

(Savage, 1971) states blue opalescent quartz can be found near Puponga, but provides no further details.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

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