Denniston Incline

The Denniston Incline, located north of Westport was an engineering marvel in an era when Mt Rochfort Plateau was mined for its coal. The incline was a track and pulley system that sent wagons with around 10-12 tonnes of coal down a steep hill, its weight causing an empty wagon to rise to the top. When the incline ceased operation in 1967, an estimated 12 million tonnes of coal had been shifted down the hill.

NZ's Department of Conservation have preserved what's left of the incline, and the Denniston village that was once perched at the top of the hill. There's a small shed containing stories from the incline's heyday and some are quite remarkable. One woman detested the walk up the hill so much that she didn't leave Denniston for 14 years. In another, a drunken miner tried to walk up the incline to get home, using the sleepers like rungs on a ladder. Halfway up he missed a rung and fell all the way to the bottom. In the morning he woke up and couldn't remember how he'd got there. A more gruesome story is about a boy who tried to ride an empty wagon. His body was eventually found with one arm missing.

This picture of Kirwin was taken on 24-Dec-2008. If you look carefully you can see a scar in the bush above Kirwin's beak. That is where the incline used to run, so it gives you a good idea about just how steep the incline was. The township of Waimangaroa is in the distance.




This photograph of Kirwin studying a DoC plaque shows Denniston when it was a flourishing town. Although many of the foundations are still visible, sadly most of the buildings are gone. Today only a half dozen remain. You can click on the image to enlarge it.

The road to Denniston Incline is steep and windy, but sealed all the way. Take it easy on the hairpins as occasionally you'll meet a truck coming down the hill and they need to swing wide to get around the corner. Here's a view taken on a rare straight stretch of the road, near the top looking back towards Westport.