Mahi Tupuna (The work of our ancestors)
The Birth of Blackball
Coal mining began here in the 1800s. The community gained its name from the Blackball Shipping Line. This company shipped Blackball coal from the port of Greymouth to the bigger ports of Lyttelton and Wellington.
In 1892 the mine was bought by a British shipping company needing a secure supply of coal for steamships carrying frozen meat to Britain. A five-kilometre aerial ropeway was built to carry the coal across the Grey River. The ropeway operated until 1909, when a new railway and bridge replaced it. The wide verges of Stafford Street once sited the standards which supported the coal buckets.
In 1899 the British shipping magnate Sir Edwyn Sandys Dawes took a controlling interest in the mine, and also owned most of the land in Blackball township.
Miners who built their own houses had to pay rent to him. Several of the streets are still named after members of the Dawes family, such as Sir Edwyn’s son and successor William. Neither of those men ever came to Blackball.
From 1902 the company chairman was Canterbury businessman George Stead. He had earlier organized strikebreakers on the Lyttelton water-front during the great 1890 Maritime strike.
So by 1908 Blackball was a company town. Almost every resident relied, directly or indirectly, on the mine for their income. And the mine was owned by distant British financiers, and run by their loyal local agents.
You can read more about the history of Blackball at the museum