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Rail Transport In Tasmania
Rail transport in Tasmania consists of a network of narrow gauge track of reaching virtually all cities and major towns in the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Today, rail services are focused primarily on bulk freight, with no commercial passenger services being operated. The mainline railways of Tasmania are currently operated by TasRail, a Government of Tasmania-owned Corporation, who owns and maintains both rolling stock, locomotives, and track infrastructure. Traffic Tasmania has a small rail system by world standards. It currently carries no regular passenger services. Freight services are supported (in part) by state government funding. The main cargo carried is cement, which is carried from Railton to the port at Devonport. Other major commodities carried are coal, logs, containers and newsprint. History Routes A "Irish gauge" railway line was opened between Deloraine and Launceston on 10 February 1871''Australian Railway Routes 1854–2000'' Quinlan, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tasmanian Government
The Tasmanian Government is the democratic administrative authority of the state of Tasmania, Australia. The leader of the party or coalition with the confidence of the House of Assembly, the lower house of the Parliament of Tasmania, is invited by the governor of Tasmania to form government. The head of government is the premier of Tasmania. Since 8 April 2022, the premier of Tasmania has been Jeremy Rockliff, leader of the Liberal Party. The current ministry of Tasmania is the Rockliff ministry, formed on 8 April 2022 and comprising eight of the 13 Liberal members in the House of Assembly and one of the four in the Legislative Council. Constitutional framework Tasmania is governed according to the principles of the Westminster system, a form of parliamentary responsible government based on the model of the United Kingdom. Legislative power rests with the bicameral Parliament of Tasmania, which consists of the governor of Tasmania (the sovereign), and the two chambers: the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mole Creek, Tasmania
Mole Creek is a town in the upper Mersey River (Australia), Mersey Valley, in the central north of Tasmania, Australia. Mole Creek is well known for its honey and accounts for about 35 percent of Tasmania's honey production. The locality is in the Meander Valley Council area, but with about 3% in the Kentish Council LGA. History Aboriginal Tasmanians, Australian Aboriginals have lived on the island of Tasmania for thousands of years. The earliest archaeological evidence for Aboriginal habitation of Tasmania is from the valley of the Forth River, Australia, Forth River, 35000 years before the present. Prior to History of Tasmania#European arrival, European settlement, Mole Creek, along with much of the surrounding area, was part of the lands of the Pallittorre aboriginal tribe. Their range included Deloraine, Tasmania, Deloraine, the face of the Great Western Tiers, and the Gog range, Gog mountain range to the north of Mole Creek where they mined ochre in the Toolumbunner ochre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smithton, Tasmania
Smithton is a town on the far north-west coast of Tasmania, Australia. It lies on the Bass Highway, 85 km north-west of Burnie. At the , Smithton had a population of 3,934. Smithton is the administrative centre of the Circular Head Council. History ''Duck River'' Post Office opened on 1 November 1873 and was renamed ''Smithton'' in 1895. In 1905 Smithton was declared a town and the Mowbray swamp (now part of the locality of Mella) was drained for dairy pasture. It was here that, in 1920, the 45,000 year old skeleton of a Zygomaturus (marsupial hippopotamus) was discovered. In 1905, the Jetty at Smithton was 1200m long. The first regular rail service on the Marrawah Tramway started in 1913. In 1919 The Stanley–Trowutta railway commenced services and by 1921 the Smithton to Irishtown link was opened. By 1922 the railway link from Myalla to Wiltshire Junction was completed, thus joining the railways in the municipality to the State system. Smithton High School was opened ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanley, Tasmania
Stanley is a town on the north-west coast of Tasmania, Australia. It is the second-last major township on the north-west coast when travelling west, Smithton being the larger township in the Circular Head municipality. According to the , Stanley had a population of 595. History In 1825 the Van Diemen's Land Company was granted land in north-western Van Diemen's Land, including the Stanley area. Employees of the company from England settled in the area in October 1826. The site (originally called Circular Head) was named after Lord Stanley, the British Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in the 1830s and 1840s, who later had three terms of office as British Prime Minister. A port opened in 1827 and the first school opened in 1841. There was a short-lived bay whaling station in operation on the foreshore in the 1830s. Stanley officially became a town in 1842 and by 1843 more than 8,000 acres had been sold or leased to almost 70 people. The Post Office opened on 1 July 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wynyard, Tasmania
Wynyard ( /ˈwɪnjɚd/) ''wi-nyuhd'') is a rural town located on the North West coast of Tasmania, Australia. Wynyard is situated west of Burnie. As of the 2021 census, Wynyard has an estimated population of 6,296 The town is a regional hub servicing the surrounding rural areas, the adjacent Burnie Wynyard Airport provides commercial flights to Melbourne and other districts. The main council offices for the Waratah-Wynyard local government area are located in Wynyard. History Three ex-convict Alexander brothers established a settlement, Alexandria, on the west, or Table Cape, side of the Inglis River in the 1850s. They bought large areas of farmland on Table Cape and built several small ships for produce and timber trading. Shortly afterwards, Wynyard town, on the east side of the river, was laid out, but lagged well behind Alexandria which had a church and several shops including a blacksmith and general store. After the Inglis River was bridged in 1861, Alexandria began to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zeehan, Tasmania
Zeehan is a town on the west coast of Tasmania, Australia south-west of Burnie. It is part of the West Coast Council, along with the seaport Strahan, and neighbouring mining towns of Dundas, Rosebery and Queenstown. History The greater Zeehan area was inhabited by the indigenous Peerapper and Tommeginne clans of the North West group for over 10,000 years prior to the British colonisation of Tasmania. They were greatly coastal peoples, residing in small numbers on a diet consisting of muttonbirds, seals, swan eggs and cider gum, and constructed bark huts when strong westerly winds brought about rain and icy temperatures. European naming On 24 November 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European explorer to sight and document the Heemskirk and West Coast Ranges. Tasman sailed his ships close to the coastal area which today encompasses the Southwest Conservation Area, south of Macquarie Harbour, but was unable to send a landing party ashore due to poor weat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melba Line, Tasmania
The Melba Line is a narrow-gauge railway on the West Coast of Tasmania. The line was originally constructed as a private railway line named the Emu Bay Railway and was one of the longest-lasting and most successful private railway companies in Australia. While at present the line travels from Burnie to Melba Flats, it previously ran through to Zeehan carrying minerals and passengers as an essential service for the West Coast community. History In the 1870s, the Van Diemen's Land Company engaged John C. Climie to undertake a survey of a line from near Burnie to Mount Bischoff. On 1 February 1878, a , horse-drawn wooden tramway opened from Emu Bay (Burnie) to Rouse's Camp, near Waratah to serve the Mount Bischoff tin mines. In 1887, the line was taken over by the Emu Bay to Mount Bischoff Railway Company and relaid with steel rails as gauge railway line to allow steam locomotives to operate. In 1897, the Emu Bay Railway Company took over the line, extending it 60 kilometres t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burnie, Tasmania
Burnie is a port city on the north-west coast of Tasmania, Australia. When founded in 1827, it was named Emu Bay, being renamed after William Burnie, a director of the Van Diemen's Land Company, in the early 1840s. , Burnie had an urban population of 19,550. Burnie is governed by the City of Burnie local government area. Economy The key industries are heavy manufacturing, forestry and farming. The Burnie port along with the forestry industry provides the main source of revenue for the city. Burnie was the main port for the west coast mines after the opening of the Emu Bay Railway in 1897. Most industry in Burnie was based around the railway and the port that served it. After the handover of the Surrey Hills and Hampshire Hills lots, the agriculture industry was largely replaced by forestry. The influence of forestry had a major role on Burnie's development in the 1900s with the founding of the pulp and paper mill by Associated Pulp and Paper Mills in 1938 and the woodchip ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tasmanian Government Railways
The Tasmanian Government Railways (TGR) was the former operator of the mainline railways in Tasmania, Australia. Formed in 1872, the railway company was managed by the Government of Tasmania, and existed until absorption into the Australian National Railways Commission in 1978. History Precursor Launceston & Western Railway The early railways of Tasmania were constructed by a number of private companies, rather than owned by the Government. Proposals were considered by the Tasmanian Government for the construction of a railway from Hobart to Launceston as early as 1856, when the colony gained responsible government. In June 1857, railway committees were formed in Deloraine, Carrick, Longford, Perth and Westbury, to lobby for the construction of a railway between Launceston and Deloraine. Delegations from these committees were successful in lobbying the Mayor of Launceston to organise a meeting on the issue on 27 August, with discussions around the need for a railway to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Break-of-gauge
With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge (the distance between the rails, or between the wheels of trains designed to run on those rails) meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally cannot run through without some form of conversion between gauges, leading to passengers having to change trains and freight requiring transloading or transshipping; this can add delays, costs, and inconvenience to travel on such a route. History Break of gauge was a common issue in the early days of railways, as standards had not yet been set and different organizations each used their own favored gauge on the lines they controlled—sometimes for mechanical and engineering reasons (optimizing for geography or particular types of load and rolling stock), and sometimes for commercial and competitive reasons (interoperability and non-interoperability within and between companies and alliances were often key strategic moves). Various solutions o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evandale, Tasmania
Evandale is an historic town in northern Tasmania, Australia. It sits on the banks of the South Esk River, 18 km south of Launceston. Named after early colonial explorer and Surveyor-General George Evans, the town is famous for its late-Georgian and early-Victorian buildings with relatively untouched streetscape, a popular Sunday market and as a host to the annual World Penny Farthing bicycle Championships. At the 2016 census, Evandale had a population of 1,345. Evandale hosts a primary school, churches, parks, pubs, shops and a fire station. Nearby locations include Nile, Deddington and Perth. History Aboriginal inhabitants of the Evandale area The first inhabitants of the present site of Evandale were Tasmanian Aborigines ( Palawa). The site lies at the interface of country originally belonging to the Ben Lomond and North Midlands Nations (most likely the Panninher Clan). The ethnographic record in regards to Aboriginal populations in the North Midlands of Tasm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
