The Department of Conservation (DOC) has mothballed Denniston's underground Banbury Mine, known as the 'Denniston Experience'.
The former mine last operated as a tourist attraction in 2017 when it became an unintentional casualty of new regulations following the 2010 Pike River disaster.
The regulations did not differentiate between a working coal mine and a tourist mine. WorkSafe deemed that an adequately qualified and experienced mine manager had to be on-site at all times.
"Since the last Denniston Experience concession was surrendered in 2017, the Banbury Mine, and an area of conservation land around it, has been in care and maintenance," DOC western South Island operations director Mark Davies said today.
"This requires regular site visits and inspections.
"As the site is no longer feasible as a tourism operation, DOC has decided it would be better to rehabilitate it and offer other opportunities for visitors to explore Denniston and learn about its history."
Davies said DOC had notified the West Coast Conservation Board of its decision. DOC was now looking at rehabilitation that could be done to offer the best experience for visitors.
"We're taking the opportunity to work on an overall heritage and visitor plan for Denniston as it's such an important historic place with so much to offer. We need to strike a balance between heritage values, visitor experience and safety and cost in this planning."
Davies said DOC believed there was an opportunity to create a new short walk with fantastic views, to show the link between the Brakehead and the mines at Coalbrookdale and Burnetts Face.
"Creating a short walk such as this would go some way to capitalising on the work already done at the site."
The Denniston Experience was conceived in 2007 as part of DOC's Denniston Enhancement project. DOC collaborated with the Denniston Heritage Trust, Buller District Council, Development West Coast (DWC), Solid Energy and Friends of The Hill to create the new visitor activity.
Denniston is a Tohu Whenua site and category 1 historic place with walking tracks maintained by DOC through which people can explore the history of the area. The announcement that the mine tours, which have not run since 2017, will not resume does not change the current access to Denniston.
DOC, DWC, the Buller District Council and corporate sponsors invested about $3.5 million in the tourism attraction. The Denniston Experience took tourists back to the 1880s by recreating the life and work of a miner on the mountain plateau.
DOC ran the experience for five months after it opened in March 2011, then it was run as a commercial operation until 2017 by two different concessionaires.
It operated for about six years, attracting about 3000 people a year before closing in February 2017.
"Over this time there were challenges such as lightning strikes, financial viability and maintenance and upkeep of assets," Davies said.
In 2016, new legislation required the operator to have a First Class Mine Manager's Certificate - the same requirement as for an operational underground coal mine. The concessionaire could not meet the condition, so surrendered the concession.
The Westport News reported in 2018 that Charleston company Geotech was seeking a concession from DOC to reopen the mine. At the time, DOC said it had renewed electrical wiring in the mine and was spending about $12,000 getting the tourist attraction ready to reopen.
Davies said today that the legislative, financial, and practical barriers had proved insurmountable.
Denniston, once home to 1500 people, is now a ghost town.
By Lee Scanlon
