BRUNNER, THOMAS (? 1822-74) was a son of William Brunner, barrister-at-law, Oxford. He came to New Zealand as an assistant on the survey staff of the New Zealand Company in the expeditionary ship Whitby to prepare the way for the second settlement (at Nelson). With Captain Wakefield and the pioneer staff she arrived in Oct 1841.

In 1843 the settlement was dismayed by the loss of its leaders at the Wairau. The demand of the settlers for land being thus disappointed, Brunner was sent by Tuckett (q.v.) to prospect for good grass lands somewhere within reach of Nelson which might serve the purpose, but he returned without success. Thereafter for some years he was engaged in arduous and dangerous explorations between Nelson and the West Coast of the South Island. On the first journey William Fox (q.v.), then agent for the Company at Nelson, Charles Heaphy and Brunner (who had now left the Company's service) left Nelson on 2 Feb 1846 with the intention of exploring the country adjacent to lakes Rotoiti and Rotoroa and the Tairaumea (or Marylea) river. They examined the headwaters of the river which they called the Buller and reached their farthest point at the Matukituki valley, where Fox, burdened with a heavy pack, was almost drowned in crossing the river. The party reached Nelson again on Mar 1. Thus aware of the excessively rugged character of the country to be crossed, Fox urged Brunner to make a new exploration along the sea coast to see whether there was any level land. Brunner and Heaphy started again on Mar 17 with the same native guides, intending to pass down the West Coast and then across the divide of the Southern Alps to the plains of Canterbury, where the only white settlers were the Deans brothers of Riccarton. Proceeding round Massacre Bay they crossed to West Wanganui, where the Ngati-Tama chief put obstacles in their way. They then coasted down to the mouth of the Grey (or Mawhera) river and examined the mouth of the Buller river, which Joseph Toms had entered in a 50-ton schooner in 1844. On the South Beach, between the Buller and Cape Foulwind, they discovered the remains of the old wool ship which had been cast away some years earlier. At the Mawhera the explorers stayed with the natives for some time and suffered considerable hardship and could not persuade the natives to cross the mountains. They therefore abandoned that object and returned from their farthest point at Arahura, reaching Nelson after a pilgrimage of 550 miles in 22 weeks.

In the following summer Brunner entered upon the most arduous of all his travels. With no white companions, and accompanied only by two Maori guides and their wives, he left Nelson (3 Dec 1846) with the intention of exploring the Buller from its source to the sea, and also, if possible, finding a way across to Canterbury. For the first five days of travel he had an extra man to carry loads. From the departure from Stafford's station on the 11th, he had the use of a mule as far as Lake Rotoiti, which he reached on the 13th. Leaving Lake Rotoroa on 31 Dec, Brunner reached his previous limit at the Matukituki valley on 16 Jan 1847. He was already very short of food and in the struggles of the next stage he was forced to eat his dog. Reaching at length the native settlement at Arahura, he remained there until the spring. By this time Brunner had learned how to overcome two of the greatest difficulties of the European traveller in the New Zealand bush, namely to walk barefooted and to subsist on fern root. Thus inured, he recommenced his journey in Oct 1847, his feet shod with flax sandals which had to be replaced every two days. Passing Okarito on the southern seacoast he turned back on 11 Dec at Parika or Titihara. Early in Mar he saw the plains of Canterbury, but could not persuade the natives to go there and he came to the conclusion that there was no access from coast to coast north of the Grey river nor any practicable route from the settlement at Nelson to Canterbury except along the coast and through the Wairau plain. Early in Jun 1848 Brunner was cheered by seeing the marks of many sheep in the Rotoiti region. On 15 Jun he reached Fraser's station, having been 560 days absent and given up for lost. The narrative of this amazing journey was delivered to the Royal Geographical Society, and Brunner was honoured with the award of the Society's medal. Besides exploring the Grey and the Buller from source to mouth and tracing the Inangahua down to its junction with the Buller, he discovered the existence of coal seams in the vicinity of which the town of Brunner afterwards grew up. Captain Richards, of H.M.S. Acheron, acknowledged his indebtedness to the detailed coastal survey of Brunner.

Brunner in Sep 1851 was appointed surveyor of crown lands in Nelson. He set out in 1854-55 the reserves required for native purposes in Croixelles, Pelorus and Kaituna, and was disappointed here again to find so little land suitable for cultivation. He was on the commission of the peace, a visiting justice, deputy-sheriff for the province (1866) and member of the board of health (1869). In the early seventies he retired from the government service.

He died on 22 Apr 1874. Brunner was a man of high integrity and unblemished character. His discoveries, though they did not disclose the existence of gold on the West Coast, were of the greatest value to the colony.

A. Mackay, ii; Broad; N.Z.C. papers; Buick, Marlborough; Nelson Evening Mail; N.Z. Journal, 1847, 1849; Wellington Spectator, Nov 1848; The Colonist, 18 Dec 1857.

Reference: Volume 1, page 70

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