Pike River mirrors 1958 Mangarakau mining disaster
The mining disaster at the Pike River Coal Mine near Reefton mirrors a similar, if somewhat smaller, tragedy that occurred here nearly 53 years ago when a gas explosion killed four men in the Mangarakau Coal Mine.
The disaster struck on 17 January 1958, the first day back for the miners after a three-and-a-half week summer break. Coal gas that had built up in the shut mine over the holidays somehow ignited when the miners went down to start work, and Maxwell Barrett, Bernie Pitalls, George King and Max Anderson were killed. The settlement’s fifth miner, young Alan Hart, was badly gassed when he went down to help, but later recovered.
It was a bitter blow to the tiny community, which lost around a third of its men in one accident.
The mine, just beyond the town on the right-hand side of the road towards Paturau, was opened in 1940 by George Wynn and his son Aiden. Prouse and Saunders’ earlier coal mine had been on the Collingwood side of the settlement, but both had worked the same coal seam known as Prouse’s Seam, which ran along the hill. Coal was brought out of the Mangarakau Coal Mine on a tramline and sent down a chute to waiting wagons. Aiden Wynn ran the mine until 1953, when it was taken over by a co-operative of the miners who later lost their lives there. After the 1958 disaster it never reopened.
Today the old track to the mine is marked by a sign on the side of the road, but access beyond is difficult, due to a half century of regrowth.
Gerard Hindmarsh
