ABT West Coast Wilderness Railway

Lake Burbury

Big Blow

Montazuma Falls

Lyell Street, Gormanston

Forty-five minutes inland from the Tasmanian west coast town of Strahan, one rounds a bend in the heavily timbered mountains for a first glimpse of Queenstown and the shock of what comes into view is like a nuclear landscape, its forest gone, the topsoil gone, the hillsides of its famous Mt. Lyell bare and carved into geometrical forms as a result of copper mining.

Where is it?: Tasmania: West Coast. Strahan is 44km from Queenstown and 298 km west of Hobart via Lyell Highway.

Things to see and do:

• ABT West Coast Wilderness Railway runs daily between Strahan and Queenstown
• Miner's Siding and tours of the Mt Lyell mine

Lookouts: when approached from the south via Lyell Highway, excellent views of Queenstown and the surrounding area are afford around 5km out of Queenstown.

Surrounding area:

Strahan and Macquarie Harbour lies 44km west of Queenstown on the coast.

Towns of Zeehan and Rosebery to the north.

Nelson Falls and Montazuma Falls are the most spectacular of the waterfalls in the area, the latter being Tasmania's highest.

On the way in from Hobart, you'll pass Lake Burbury, created in the early 1990s as part of Tasmania's Hydro Electric scheme. Lake Burbury is one of Tasmania's best trout fishing spots. The view of the lake from the top of Mt Owen is breathtaking.

There are some great walks of varying lengths that allow access to the surrounding countryside. The Donaghys Hill Walk has views to the Collingwood River, Franklin River Valley and Frenchman's Cap, which is one of the highest peaks in the area. The Bird River walk takes you deep into West Coast Wilderness rainforest, winding past streams and tree ferns. The walking track leads to the old port of Pillinger. The Franklin River walk begins 62km from Queenstown and provides access to the Franklin River via a level, well maintained path. See also West Coast Walks

High on the slopes of Mount Owen, above the town of Queenstown is the remnants of the mining town of Gormanston. It was built as a mining company town in 1881. Normanston was at its peak in 1901, when it had a population of 1,760 and had a local government authority based in its town. Today there are only a handful of families still living in this historic mining town.

About Queenstown

Since 1896 the Lyell mines have produced more than half a million tonnes of copper, 16 million ounces of silver and 600,000 ounces of gold. the Great Open Cut mine at West Lyell is nearly 12,000 metres long, 6,000 metres wide and 185 metres deep.
Originally the hills around Queenstown were covered by forest and dense undergrowth, but when smelters were installed towards the end of the 19th century to treat copper from the Mount Lyell mine, the big timber was cut for fuel and the sulphur fumes from the treatment plant completely denuded the slopes of their remaining vegetation.
It has been estimated that hundreds of men were employed by the mine as timber cutters and that over 3 million tonnes of timber were cut down between 1896 and 1923 fire the mine's eleven furnaces. At its peak the furnaces were consuming 2,040 tonnes of wood each week. The combination of timber felling, the sulphur fumes and the heavy rainfall in the area (which washed away the top soil) ensured that by 1900 the whole valley looked like a desert. Since 1923 when the concentration process was changed and the fumes eliminated, there has been a slow regeneration of plant cover.
Queenstown is now experiencing a revival, reflected in the popularity of its inaugural arts and heritage festival in 2010. The town is now home to a small but thriving arts community, and has inspired writers, painters, photographers and historians by both its unique beauty and history. The restored Abt railway along with renewed mining and exploration activity in the region has also contributed to the town's rejuvenation in recent years. Whilst many of the surrounding hills are still bare, the vegetation of the town itself is quite pretty with a friendly atmosphere with a certain kind of charm that, combined with its unique setting, makes it a refreshing stopping point for the traveller.

Brief history

The area was first explored by Charles Gould in the 1860s but its inhospitable environment deterred settlement and it wasn't until 1881, when Cornelius Lynch found gold in a creek near Queen River, that prospectors and miners began to move into the area. Many of the miners came from the Pieman River diggings to the north. They travelled down the coast to the port at Strahan and walked inland to the diggings.
Two years later three miners - Bill and Mick McDonough and Steve Karlson - discovered the rocky outcrop known as Iron Blow. The find was opened in 1883 and by 1888 the Mount Lyell Gold Mining Co. had been formed. It operated out of a town called Penghana. The area has been mined continuously over the past 110 years. There was little alluvial gold and consequently heavy equipment was required. An eight stamp battery was brought in in 1889 but the gold deposits had been exhausted by 1891. It was then that the mining company turned its attentions to copper. A new company, Mount Lyell Mining Co, was formed and the first smelters, created by an American metallurgist Robert Carl Sticht, were in operation by 1895. The following year Penghana was destroyed by fire and a new settlement at the present site of Queenstown was established.
The establishment of Queenstown in 1896 saw the construction of a hotel and a general store. Three years later the 41 km Abt railway to Strahan was completed and in 1901 the Empire Hotel, which still stands, was completed. It was a suitable symbol of the town's increased prosperity.
By 1903 the local mining companies (Mount Lyell and North Lyell) had combined and Queenstown had become the area's major mining centre. By 1914 a hydro-electric scheme had been completed at Lake Margaret and by 1928 a major refinery had been opened. The first road (prior to that all traffic had been by sea from Macquarie Harbour) to Hobart was opened in 1932.
Mount Lyell Mines continued to operate the mine until 1972 when they were taken over by the Renison Gold Company. In 1995 the mine became part of Copper Mines of Tasmania (CMT - Mt. Lyell). It still operates today but is always in danger of fluctuating prices in the world copper market.

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• Queenstown information website
• West Coast Walks
• Map of Queenstown showing places of interest