Kelly Basin is a bay on the south eastern side of

Macquarie Harbour Macquarie Harbour is a shallow fjord in the West Coast region of Tasmania, Australia. It is approximately , and has an average depth of , with deeper places up to . It is navigable by shallow-draft vessels. The main channel is kept clear by th ...

on the

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

. It was named after James Kelly an early explorer of the Tasmanian coastline. It was the location of the terminus of the

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 Twenti ...

, and the ghost town of Pillinger. In the late 1890s when John Watt Beattie was showing his photographs of the west coast country to

Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...

and Launceston audiences, it was designated as ''Kelly's Basin''. The North Mount Lyell Railway close in the 1920s, and the former railway formation - known as '

Kelly Basin Road Kelly Basin Road was a road built on the formation of the former North Lyell Railway in the King River Valley of Western Tasmania. It ran to the east of the West Coast Range, from the Linda Valley, to Kelly Basin. Following the cessation of ...

' was the land route to access the area. In the 1990s following the failure of the

Franklin Dam The Franklin Dam or Gordon-below-Franklin Dam project was a proposed dam on the Gordon River in Tasmania, Australia, that was never constructed. The movement that eventually led to the project's cancellation became one of the most significant e ...

project to proceed - parts of the Kelly Basin and Bird River area became part of reserves associated with the western boundary of the new South West World Heritage Wilderness area.(1993) ''Kelly Basin-Bird River area site plan'' Parks and Wildlife Service, Tasmania In the

Southwest National Park Southwest National Park is an Australian national park located in the south-west of Tasmania, bounded by the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park to the north and the Hartz Mountains National Park to the east. It is a part of a chain of ...

, and as part of the body of water known as

Port Davey Port Davey is an oceanic inlet located in the south west region of Tasmania, Australia. Port Davey was named in honour of Thomas Davey, a former Governor of Tasmania. Port Davey is contained within the Port Davey/Bathurst Harbour Marine Natu ...

, is a feature with a very similar name of James Kelly Basin

References

Further reading