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Railways On The West Coast Of Tasmania
The history of the Railways on the West Coast of Tasmania has fascinated enthusiasts from around the world, because of the combination of the harsh terrain in which the railways were created, and the unique nature of most of the lines. Points of note include the Mount Lyell rack railway which has an Abt rack system, the presence of the world's first Garratt locomotive and a Hagans articulated locomotive on the North East Dundas Tramway, and the collection of narrow-gauge lines as the only links to the outside world for a number of the communities for over fifty years. The haulage railways at Mount Read, and the various ones in the area of the Mount Lyell mining lease, were also significant in their use in moving both people and metal ore. Also aerial ropeways were operating in the region well into the late twentieth century. A number of railway lines were proposed in the late nineteenth century, and early twentieth century – but they never appeared – not all proposed l ...
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Mount Lyell Mining And Railway Company
Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company was a Tasmanian mining company formed on 29 March 1893, most commonly referred to as ''Mount Lyell''. Mount Lyell was the dominant copper mining company of the West Coast from 1893 to 1994, and was based in Queenstown, Tasmania. Following consolidation of leases and company assets at the beginning of the twentieth century, Mount Lyell was the major company for the communities of Queenstown, Strahan and Gormanston. It remained dominant until its closure in 1994. The Mount Lyell mining operations produced more than a million tonnes of copper, 750 tonnes of silver and 45 tonnes of gold since mining commenced in the early 1890s – which is equivalent to over 4 billion dollars worth of metal in 1995 terms. History In the early stage of operations, Mount Lyell was surrounded by smaller competing leases and companies. Eventually they were all absorbed into Mount Lyell operations, or were closed down. In 1903 the North Mount Lyell Copper Co ...
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Lake Margaret Tram
The Lake Margaret Tram was located on the western side of Mount Sedgwick in the West Coast Range on the West Coast of Tasmania in service for the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company to the Lake Margaret community. Construction By 1903, the timber areas having been cut out around Queenstown itself, the wood cutters moved to Howard's Plains situated on the plateau north west of Queenstown. As access onto the plateau was steep, a self-acting narrow gauge dual haulage was built. From the top of the incline, a tramway was laid and was extended, over a period of time, some 4¼ miles towards Lake Margaret. Following the decision to build the Lake Margaret Power Station, the Howard's Plains Tram was extended from its then terminus at the 4¼ mile peg. Work commenced on the extension on 19 August 1912. The Howard's Plains tram was completely upgraded. The total distance from the haulage to the power station being 7 miles, including a zig zag along the line. Following the co ...
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Tasmanian Metals Extraction Company
) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_date = Colony of Tasmania , established_title2 = Federation , established_date2 = 1 January 1901 , named_for = Abel Tasman , demonym = , capital = Hobart , largest_city = capital , coordinates = , admin_center = 29 local government areas , admin_center_type = Administration , leader_title1 = Monarch , leader_name1 = Charles III , leader_title2 = Governor , leader_name2 ...
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Strahan–Zeehan Railway
The Strahan–Zeehan Railway, also known as the "Government Railway", was a railway from Strahan to Zeehan on the west coast of Tasmania. It linked two private railways: the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company railway line (now known as the West Coast Wilderness Railway) between Queenstown and Regatta Point, and the Emu Bay Railway between Zeehan and Burnie. Early photographs of the Strahan wharf and buildings adjacent taken from the north usually have the railway tracks in the lower section of the photograph, as the line followed the shore from Regatta Point around the bay before passing northward in what is considered to be West Strahan today. The line ran parallel to Ocean Beach before heading towards Zeehan. It was a critical link, due to the difficulties of shipping negotiating the entrance Macquarie Harbour and was essential during the 1912 North Mount Lyell disaster. The track gauge of the lines between Burnie was the same all the way to Queenstown. Flooding and ...
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North Mount Lyell Railway
The North Mount Lyell Railway was built to operate between the North Mount Lyell mine in West Coast, Tasmania, West Coast Tasmania and Pillinger, Tasmania, Pillinger in the Kelly Basin of Macquarie Harbour. History At the start of the Twentieth century it was constructed to take ore from Gormanston, Tasmania, Gormanston east of the West Coast Range to the Crotty, Tasmania, Crotty smelters. From there it was be shipped out at Kelly Basin. The North Mount Lyell Railway had exceptionally easy grades compared to its competitor the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company which ran its Abt rack system railway through very steep grades from Queenstown, Tasmania, Queenstown to Regatta Point, Tasmania, Regatta Point. Design challenge The railway route ran across a belt of karst terrain in the area near the current Darwin Dam – and the engineers of the 1890s were possibly the first in Australia to have designed for the possibility of sinkholes when planning the route. Operation The ...
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Wee Georgie Wood Railway
The Wee Georgie Wood Railway is a narrow gauge tourist tramway running from Tullah, on a http://www.weegeorgiewood.com.au/history.html (most other sources say 1.6km) short track by the edge of Lake Rosebery in the West Coast Municipality of Tasmania. Location The originally long narrow gauge railway connected the North Mount Farrell mine and its associated township at Tullah with the gauge Emu Bay Railway. It is close to the Pieman River hydro-electric scheme, Lake Rosebery, Lake Mackintosh, and Lake Murchison. Some sections of the old track have been flooded, after the hydro-electric dams had been built. East of the Murchison Highway, the remaining 600m of railway to the mines was repurposed into part of the Mackintosh Dam Road. Name The original name varied between being known as the North Mount Farrell Tramway, Farrell Tramway or Tullah Tram. Today's long tourist railway is named after its narrow gauge steam engine, which was due to its small size named after the ...
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Hercules Haulage
The Hercules Haulage, also known as the Mount Read Haulage, the ''Hercules Tram'' and the ''Williamsford Haulage Line'', was a self-acting narrow gauge tramway on the side of Mount Read in Western Tasmania, that connected the Hercules Mine with Williamsford and then to the North East Dundas Tramway The North East Dundas Tramway was a Narrow-gauge railway, narrow gauge tramway (industrial), tramway, that ran between Zeehan and Deep Lead (now Williamsford, Tasmania, Williamsford) on the West Coast, Tasmania, West Coast of Tasmania. Opening .... The Mine The Haulage was created to move ores from the Hercules Mine on Mount Read. The mine was operational between the 1890s and the 1980s, and closed in 2000; rehabilitation works commenced in 2005. The Haulage The haulage was "self acting", one mile (1.6 km) long and 1,642 feet (550m) high with a maximum gradient of 1 in 5. It was claimed to be the largest and steepest self-acting tramway of its kind. Later haula ...
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The Mercury (Hobart)
''The'' ''Mercury'' is a daily newspaper, published in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, by Davies Brothers Pty Ltd (DBL), a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of News Corp. The weekend issues of the paper are called ''Mercury on Saturday '' and ''Sunday Tasmanian''. The current editor of ''The'' ''Mercury'' is Craig Warhurst. History The newspaper was started on 5 July 1854 by George Auber Jones and John Davies. Two months subsequently (13 September 1854) John Davies became the sole owner. It was then published twice weekly and known as the ''Hobarton Mercury''. It rapidly expanded, absorbing its rivals, and became a daily newspaper in 1858 under the lengthy title ''The Hobart Town Daily Mercury''. In 1860 the masthead was reduced to ''The Mercury'' and in 2006 it was further shortened to simply ''Mercury''. With the imminent demise of the ( Launceston) ''Daily Telegraph'', ''The Mercury'', from March 1928, used the opportunity to increase their penetration th ...
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Philosophers Ridge
Philosophers Ridge is the long spur that connects Mount Lyell and Mount Owen in the West Coast Range of Western Tasmania. On it are significant sites of the Mount Lyell copper field. The original Iron Blow was on its midslopes, discovered on the ridge by Karlson and McDonough. The North Lyell Mine, scene of the 1912 North Mount Lyell Disaster, was at its northernmost end, on the slopes of Mount Lyell. Very close to the mine was the settlement of the same name; the North Lyell tram traversed the ridge, as did the ill-fated North Lyell aerial tram. These features no longer exist due to the mining of the area, but they all had significant roles to play in the history of the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company. The Gap, the point where the Queenstown to Gormanston road (originally known as the Queenstown to Gormanston Dray Road, now known as the Lyell Highway) passed over the ridge, is the southernmost named feature that remains. Down the western slope of the ridge, the ...
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The Age
''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and southern New South Wales. It is delivered both in print and digital formats. The newspaper shares some articles with its sister newspaper ''The Sydney Morning Herald''. ''The Age'' is considered a newspaper of record for Australia, and has variously been known for its investigative reporting, with its journalists having won dozens of Walkley Awards, Australia's most prestigious journalism prize. , ''The Age'' had a monthly readership of 5.321 million. History Foundation ''The Age'' was founded by three Melbourne businessmen: brothers John and Henry Cooke (who had arrived from New Zealand in the 1840s) and Walter Powell. The first edition appeared on 17 October 1854. ...
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The Peaks Of Lyell
''The Peaks of Lyell'' is a book by Geoffrey Blainey, based on his University of Melbourne MA thesis originally published in 1954. It contains the history of the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company, and through association, Queenstown and further the West Coast Tasmania. It is unique for this type of book in that it has gone to the sixth edition in 2000, and few company histories in Australia have achieved such continual publishing. Blainey was fortunate in being able to speak to older people about the history of the West Coast, some who had known Queenstown in its earliest years. The book gives an interesting overview from the materials and people Blainey was able to access in the early 1950s, and the omissions. Due to the nature of a company history, a number of items of Queenstown history did have alternative interpretations on events such as the 1912 North Mount Lyell Disaster, and there were residents of Queenstown living in the town as late as the 1970s who had sto ...
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Mount Dundas – Zeehan Railway
The Mount Dundas – Zeehan Railway (also known as the Maestris Tram) was a railway line running from Dundas to Zeehan on the West Coast of Tasmania. It operated from 1892 until 1932, and the rails were removed in 1940. Operation It was built by the Mount Dundas and Zeehan Railway Company and opened on 25 April 1892. Under an agreement signed on 4 February 1891, the Tasmanian Government Railways (TGR) operated the line. On 28 June 1899, the Emu Bay Railway (EBR) agreed to purchase the Dundas railway, however the TGR continued to operate it. The closure of the Silver Bell smelters in 1913 virtually ended mining in the Dundas district, leaving the railway with only a small amount of passenger and timber traffic. By 1921, Dundas had only 55 people. Between 1922 and 1924, the line carried no revenue passengers and only very small amounts of freight. By 1926, timetables merely listed stations on the line and noted that trains ran 'as required'. After a derailment in August, 193 ...
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