Dobson, New Zealand

Dobson is a small town on the banks of the Grey River in the South Island of New Zealand. It is 10 kilometres (6 mi) east from the river's mouth at Greymouth. The settlement of Taylorville is across the river from Dobson, but no bridge directly connects the two. State Highway 7 passes through Dobson.[1][2]

Dobson
State Highway 7 outside Dobson
Dobson
Coordinates: 42°27′10″S 171°18′18″E
CountryNew Zealand
RegionWest Coast
DistrictGrey District
Population
 (2013)
 • Total678
Local iwiNgāi Tahu

The population of Dobson and its surrounds, including Taylorville, was 678 in the 2013 census, an increase of 6 from 2006.[3]

History

The town is named for the surveyor George Dobson, the second son of Edward Dobson and brother of Arthur Dudley Dobson, who was murdered at this site in 1866. He was killed in a bungled robbery by a gang who had mistaken him for a gold buyer carrying gold from the nearby Arnold goldfield. A monument now stands where George Dobson was murdered.[4][5]

Dobson was the site of one of the West Coast's many coal mines. The Dobson mine was opened in 1919, and closed in 1968.[6] It was the site of one of the country's worst mining disasters. Nine men were killed in an explosion at the mine in 1926.[7]

A hydroelectric dam was proposed for the area by TrustPower in 1999 but it failed to secure access to public land that needed to be flooded for the scheme.[8] In 2003 Nick Smith, who was an Opposition MP at the time, attempted to remove the reserve status from the land needed for the dam reservoir in order to allow the scheme to go ahead.

Education

Paparoa Range School is a coeducational full primary (years 1–8) school with a decile rating of 3 and a roll of 121.[9] The school was established in 2005 when Blackball, Kaiata, Stillwater and Brunnerton Primary Schools were merged onto the Brunnerton Primary School site.[10]

References
  1. Peter Dowling (editor) (2004). Reed New Zealand Atlas. Reed Books. map 69. ISBN 0-7900-0952-8.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  2. Roger Smith, GeographX (2005). The Geographic Atlas of New Zealand. Robbie Burton. map 157. ISBN 1-877333-20-4.
  3. 2013 Census QuickStats about a place : Dobson
  4. "Dobson Brothers". Encyclopedia of New Zealand (1966).
  5. Hamilton, David (1993) [1948]. "The George Dobson Saga". In Peter Kerridge (ed.). Glimpses of Greymouth and District. pp. 30–32. ISBN 0-473-02367-9.
  6. "Industry history - Greymouth". Solid Energy.
  7. "Dobson Mine Disaster, West Coast". Christchurch City Libraries.
  8. TrustPower (2008-12-30). "Submission on proposed National Policy Statement for renewable electricity generation" (PDF). TrustPower. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-05-25. Retrieved 2009-01-02.
  9. "Te Kete Ipurangi - Paparoa Range School". Ministry of Education. Archived from the original on 2005-01-25.
  10. "School Mergers, Closures and New Schools" (XLS). Education Counts. 2005.
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