Denniston Incline’s global reputation as a masterpiece of 19th Century industrial engineering continues to awe mining historians today. Much less known is that beyond the south-eastern rim of the Denniston Plateau—once dominated by New Zealand’s biggest employer of labour and the birthplace of New Zealand’s coalmining unionism—another equally remarkable example of mining entrepreneurship and co-operation once existed. This is the story of the Cascade Westport Coal Company and its workforce, the Cascade Westport Co-operative Coal Party.

Founded on limited resources and iron will, the company was a courageous player in the volatile, post WW1 coal trade. Forming in 1925 it was confronted with extraordinarily challenging access and coal transportation decisions, woeful finances, a tempestuous climate and a plummeting global economy.

Amid predictions of failure, the Company oversaw the construction of New Zealand’s longest coal flume which survived 28 years loyal service—under trying circumstances. Conquering Cascade chronicles the troubles and triumphs of the coal company and the 30-year alliance with its contracted workforce, their association culminating in a powerful legal showdown.

Author Phil Walsh spent a decade researching, and interviewing descendants of the company, the Party’s miners, and flume builders. Referencing judiciously, he sourced considerable unpublished literature and rare photographic material, maps, and diagrams to document this truly epic saga in New Zealand’s industrial coal mining heritage.