Millerton is a small settlement in the northwestern South Island

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...

 in the West Coast region

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...

. It is in the Papahaua Ranges

Papahaua Ranges

The Papahaua Range is a mountain range on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island east of the town of Westport. It is a geological continuation of the Paparoa Range that is south of the Buller River and it runs north from the Buller Gorge to the Mokihinui River...

, around 25 kilometres north east of Westport

Westport, New Zealand

-Economy:Economic activity is based around fishing, coal mining and dairy farming. Historically, gold mining was a major industry, and coal mining was much more extensive than today . However, the region still is home to New Zealand's largest opencast mining operation in Stockton...

, on SH67 from Westport to Karamea

Karamea

Karamea is a town on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand.It is the northernmost settlement of any real size on the West Coast, and is located 96 kilometres north-east by road from Westport. There is no other connecting road to the town - the road north ends at the Kohaihai River some...

.

The history of Millerton bears some resemblance to that of Denniston, being a town that lived from and for the 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...

 that was mined

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...

 in the Ranges. As Denniston, Millerton is now almost without population, sometimes classified as a ghost town

Ghost town

A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...

 .

Mining

Despite its elevation of 300 m being considerably lower than that of Denniston (494 m), the grade between the coastline and Millerton still meant that the coal was difficult to get down to the railway. The Westport Coal Company built the Millerton Incline in 1891 and the Millerton Mine began production in 1896. Mining at Millerton ended in the late 1960s, similar again to Denniston .
The Millerton Incline was a narrow gauge (2ft) incline consisting of two parallel tracks on which the coal tubs ran, being hauled by rope. Remnants of tracks, trucks, bath house and other installations are still visible.
The Millerton Incline was in its day it was quite a feat of engineering and the remains of this incline and its infrastructure are more accessible then those of the more famous Denniston incline. The Millerton Incline was used to convey tubs of coal from the mines around the Millerton area to the Bins at Granity, which in their day were the largest coal loading bins of wooden construction in NZ. The Bins are long Gone, but the incline remains and is well worth a look.

With the Denniston and the smaller Millerton mining operations having stopped, the nearby Stockton

Stockton, New Zealand

Stockton is a former settlement in the northwestern South Island of New Zealand in the West Coast region. It is located in the Papahaua Ranges about 30 kilometres linear distance north east from Westport....

 coalfield is continuing the tradition of the West Coast coal hoever plans are afoot by Solid Energy New Zealand to extend the life of the Stockton mining area by opening up the old Millerton Mine workings, albeit as an open cast pit. It is also proposed to build a hydro scheme up on the Stockton plateau mostly in the former mining areas. The result. The Millerton Incline will not be torn apart, however the Electric Loco Line as well as the Stockton Incline (The incline that ran to Ngakawau) will each suffer severe degradation as a result of the flooding of certain areas to create the hydro lakes for the new power scheme.

Community

In terms of the community, in its heyday Millerton had its own Lodge of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes, this being the Lookout Lodge No 127 of the R.A.O.B. NZ Constitution of the Grand Lodge of England. The Lodge was opened in 1950. Support in terms of membership of the lodge was strong enough that eventually The Lookout Lodge acquired its own Lodge hall in Millerton which was the old Rechabites Lodge Hall (according to some old timers recollections of the area). The Lookout Lodge RAOB outlived the Millerton Incline by about 20 years, and closed sometime in the mid 1980s. A letter of correspondence between LookOut Lodge and Mount Rochfort Lodge advising of the date of a lodge ceremony, is dated May 1981 and has been cited by this historian.

The Millerton football (soccer)

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 club, known as the Millerton All Blacks, were twice runners-up in the Chatham Cup

Chatham Cup

The Chatham Cup, currently known as the ASB Chatham Cup for sponsorship purposes, is New Zealand's premier knockout tournament in men's football...

, New Zealand's knockout football competition, in 1932 and 1933.

Tourism

Few tourists seem to venture further up the West Coast north of Westport and with the narrow, steep and winding road, even fewer of them visit Denniston and the smaller Millerton site. Nevertheless, the local community offers maps which show the various objects that are still visible. The road to Millerton has spectacular views across the coast and the rain forest. Some short walkways connect the roads with historic and scenic places.