Brunner

12km east of Graymouth on Highway 7 is the Brunner coalfield, with four coal mines that were once of great importance - Dobson, Wallsend, Stillwater and Taylorville. The rich deposits of coal on both sides of the Gray River were discovered by Thomas Brunner while surveying the west coast in 1846-8; mining started in 1864. An accident in the Brunner mine in 1896 cost 67 lives.