Fernhill Mine, Saddle Hill, Dunedin City, Otago Region, South Island, New Zealand

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	45° 53' 28'' South , 170° 24' 27'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-45.89121,170.40755
Köppen climate type:	Cfb : Temperate oceanic climate

Coal.

The mine was opened by John Logan and Alves (surname), with James Gray later taking an active role in the mine as mine manager/owner. The mine started in 1879, as the Fernhill Coal Company, with £10,000 capital, and too many directors, amounting to twelve. The mine is described later in 1879 as having an aerial tramway, which was not efficient, and was replaced by a railway. The coal seam was up to 19 feet thick, with sand above 80 feet thick.

The mine was noted for a series of litigations, especially when it sold the railway it had built to the government, who then wanted to charge the colliery to use the railway. Gray argued over a five year period, that the government was not charging as high a price to other coal mines in the area, an argument he eventually won in court. Gray was also in a legal dispute with the Dunedin City Council, who had a leaky water race traversing over the property, flooding parts of the coal mine.

As an example, in 1903 the mine produced 11,587 tonnes of coal for the year. A visit that year stated the mine had an endless rope system, automatically pulling trucks of ore out of the mine, and dumping automatically into rail cars.

Daniel Knox died of gas poisoning in 1893, Thomas Reid (56) died from a fall of coal underground in 1896. William Gray (26), son of James Gray, was found at a tram stop having died of alcohol poisoning in 1919.

The mine appears to have closed in the 20th Century. The mine is located north of the Abbotsford railway station.

Co-ordinates are approximate.

Commodity List

This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded at this locality.

Mineral List

Rock Types Recorded

Regional Geology

This geological map and associated information on rock units at or nearby to the coordinates given for this locality is based on relatively small scale geological maps provided by various national Geological Surveys. This does not necessarily represent the complete geology at this locality but it gives a background for the region in which it is found.

Click on geological units on the map for more information. Click here to view full-screen map on Macrostrat.org

Eocene - Late Cretaceous 33.9 - 100.5 Ma ID: 1313193

Onekakara Group and Taratu Formation Age: Phanerozoic (33.9 - 100.5 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Haerenga Supergroup; Onekakara Group; Onekakara Group and Taratu Formation Description: Quartz conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone, mudstone and coal seams. Comments: Zealandia Megasequence Terrestrial and Shallow Marine Sedimentary Rocks (Paleogene to Cretaceous) Lithology: Conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone, mudstone, coal Reference: Edbrooke, S.W., Heron, D.W., Forsyth, P.J., Jongens, R. (compilers). Geology Map of New Zealand 1:1 000 000. GNS Science Geological Map 2. [12]

Priabonian - Campanian 33.9 - 83.6 Ma ID: 1327088

Taratu Formation (Onekakara Group) Age: Phanerozoic (33.9 - 83.6 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Onekakara Group; Taratu Formation Description: Non-marine quartz pebble conglomerate (locally silica-cemented) sandstone, siltstone, mudstone and coal. Comments: Late Cretaceous - Paleogene sedimentary rocks. Age based on palynology Lithology: Major:: {sandstone},Minor:: {mudstone, siltstone, conglomerate, coal} Reference: Heron, D.W. . Geology Map of New Zealand 1:250 000. GNS Science Geological Map 1. [13]

Data and map coding provided by Macrostrat.org, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

References