Brunner was a mining settlement on the South Island of New Zealand. Brunner was founded in the 19th century as the mining settlement of Brunnerton after Thomas Brunner found a coal seam on the north bank of the Grey River/Māwheranui on January 26, 1848. Actual coal mining did not begin until the 1860s, when around 40 tons of coal were shipped to Nelson.
Brunner became internationally known through the great disaster of 1896, when 65 miners were killed in a firedamp explosion in the Brunner mine.
Brunner was monostructurally focused on hard coal mining and only existed because of the Brunner mine. The mine was closed in 1906, but coal was mined in other mines in the area until 1968.