1904: Brunnerton Slip
June 11, 2025
By AHNZ
Terrible Calamity at about 2:30am, 25 May, 1904 at Brunnerton: Jones’s Terminus indeed! Sadly literal.
“The wind was howling and the rain coming down in torrents and lights could not be kept burning.”
“The place is situated just a little above the Brunner railway station and on the opposite side to the Presbyterian Church. “
It’s easy to picture the scene from the perspective of any West Coast winter because the weather is similar today and slip warnings abound. The shortest day was due to occur about 4 weeks later; Winter had come. And, not to play games.
The landslide destroyed this (image, left) hotel in Brunner, West Coast, killing the hotel’s proprietor Harry Jones. He was in the house of Mr and Mrs Walter Cosgrove next door who survived but that house was wiped out and the 7 Cosgrove children were killed by the slip. Parkinson’s chemist shop was also wiped out. Ref. ODT, Papers Past
Brunnerton is just a relic now but at this time it was a major industrial powerhouse of the West Coast, of New Zealand, and the of The Empire.
“The Brunner Borough Council covered five communities – Dobson, Taylorville, Wallsend, Stillwater, and Brunner. Silly really. Brunner, the settlement, was often called Brunnerton. The Railway Station was at the Brunner settlement as were the Brunner mines. It changed to fit the circumstances. It was a bit like having Nelson Province and Nelson City in it.” – Mary Moffitt, West Coast Recollect, Facebook (2020)
“I ran to the window and lifted it up and jumped out. I called out to my wife to come. I then went along the verandah about four yards. The house then swung round and threw me off my feet on to the track at the side of the house leading to the road. Before I got on to my feet the house was thrown down on to the road a distance of twelve feet. I then called out “Is anyone alive?” My wife replied “Watty, Watt, go and get help!” Before going for help, I found a large body of water accumulating where my wife and children were. I cleared a channel with my hands so that the water would not collect near. When I came back, the water was running clear of them. I have been living in this house about thirteen years.” – Inquest testimony of Walter Cosgrove, Grey River Argus. Kokshoorn (2011)
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Image Ref. Ring & Co; New Zealand Graphic. AHNZ enhanced (2025)
Ref. p367 The Golden Grey, Tony Kokshoorn (2011)
Ref. Another view. Landslip that demolished part of the Terminus Hotel in Brunner and killed 8 people.1904. westcoast.recollect.co.nz
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