Dobson, New Zealand
Encyclopedia
South Island
The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...
of New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. It is 10 kilometres east from the river's mouth at Greymouth
Greymouth
Greymouth is the largest town in the West Coast region in the South Island of New Zealand, and the seat of the Grey District Council. The population of the whole Grey District is , which accounts for % of the West Coast's inhabitants...
. The settlement of Taylorville is across the river from Dobson, but no bridge directly connects the two. State Highway 7
New Zealand State Highway 7
State Highway 7 is a major New Zealand State Highway. One of the eight national highways, it crosses the Southern Alps to link the West Coast Region with Canterbury and to form a link between the South Island's two longest highways, State Highway 1 and State Highway 6...
passes through Dobson.
The population of Dobson and its surrounds, including Taylorville, was 672 in the 2006 Census
New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings
The New Zealand government department Statistics New Zealand conducts a census of population and dwellings every five years. The census scheduled for 2011 was cancelled due to circumstances surrounding the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, however, and legislation introduced to hold the next...
, a decrease of 72 from 2001.
History
The town is named for the surveyor George Dobson, who was murdered at this site in 1866. He was killed in a bungled robbery by a gang who had mistaken him for a gold buyer carrying gold from the nearby Arnold goldfieldGold mining
Gold mining is the removal of gold from the ground. There are several techniques and processes by which gold may be extracted from the earth.-History:...
. A monument
Monument
A monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, or simply as an example of historic architecture...
now stands where George Dobson was murdered.
Dobson was the site of one of the West Coast
West Coast, New Zealand
The West Coast is one of the administrative regions of New Zealand, located on the west coast of the South Island, and is one of the more remote and most sparsely populated areas of the country. It is made up of three districts: Buller, Grey and Westland...
's many coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
mines
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
. The Dobson mine was opened in 1919, and closed in 1968. It was the site of one of the country's worst mining disasters. Nine men were killed in an explosion at the mine in 1926.
A hydroelectric dam was proposed for the area by TrustPower
TrustPower
TrustPower Limited is a New Zealand electricity generation and electricity retailing company, listed on the New Zealand stock exchange.TrustPower is New Zealand's fifth largest electricity generator and the fourth largest electricity retailer , serving 260,000 customers throughout New Zealand...
in 1999 but it failed to secure access to public land that needed to be flooded for the scheme. In 2003 Nick Smith
Nick Smith (New Zealand)
Nicolas Rex "Nick" Smith is a New Zealand politician and a member of the New Zealand Parliament as a National Party MP...
, who was an Opposition MP at the time, attempted to remove the reserve status from the land needed for the dam reservoir in order to allow the scheme to go ahead.
Education
Paparoa Range School is a coeducational full primary (years 1-8) school with a decile ratingSocio-Economic Decile
Decile, Socio-Economic Decile or Socio-Economic Decile Band is a widely used measure in education in New Zealand used to target funding and support to more needy schools....
of 3 and a roll of 121. The school was established in 2005 when Blackball, Kaiata, Stillwater and Brunnerton Primary Schools were merged onto the Brunnerton Primary School site.