Lottah is a rural locality in the local government area (LGA) of
Break O'Day in the
North-east
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
LGA region of
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
, Australia. The locality is about north-west of the town of
St Helens. The
2016 census recorded a population of 13 for the state suburb of Lottah.
[
It is a small town in Northeastern Tasmania. The closest settlement is ]Pyengana
Pyengana is a village in north-east Tasmania, Australia. At the , Pyengana had a population of 123.
It is part of the Break O'Day Council administrative region, with less than 1% in the Dorset
Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a ...
and the closest major town is St Helens.
History
Lottah was gazetted as a locality in 1969. It was historically known as Blue Tier Junction. A post office of that name was established in 1877 and renamed "Lottah" in 1895, supposedly an Aboriginal word for "gum tree".
Tin was discovered in Lottah in about 1875. The Anchor Mine became operational in 1880, and the town of Lottah grew up around the mine. At its peak, it had several hundred residents, and community facilities included a school, two hotels, two churches, a bakery, and a football club.[Lottah: Once-thriving mining town a virtual ghost town in Tasmania's north east]
ABC Radio Hobart, 16 March 2016. Retrieved 19 October 2017. Lottah supported a small Chinese community, and one of its more notable residents was Senator Thomas Bakhap
Thomas Jerome Kingston Bakhap (29 October 1866 – 18 August 1923) was an Australian politician. He was born in Ballarat, Victoria, the adoptive son of a Chinese immigrant, Bak Hap. He received no formal education but became a shopworker, and w ...
, who had a Chinese stepfather and worked as an interpreter. People born in Lottah during its heyday include architecture professor Brian Lewis and RAAF officer Alan Charlesworth
Air Vice Marshal Alan Moorehouse Charlesworth, CBE, AFC (17 September 1903 – 21 September 1978) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Born in Tasmania, he graduated from the Royal Military College, ...
. The Anchor Mine closed in 1950, at which point the town's population had been in decline for several decades.[
]
Geography
Almost all the boundaries are survey lines.
Road infrastructure
Route A3 (Tasman Highway
The Tasman Highway (or A3) is a highway in Tasmania, Australia. Like the Midland Highway, it connects the major cities of Hobart and Launceston – however it takes a different route, via the north-eastern and eastern coasts of the state. The ...
) passes to the south. From there, several roads provide access to the locality.
References
{{reflist
Further reading
* Richardson, Garry (2016), ''Lottah and the Anchor: the History of a Tin Mine and a Dependent Town'', Forty South Publishing
External links
Photograph of Lottah, 1914
Ghost towns in Tasmania
Mining towns in Tasmania
North East Tasmania
Populated places established in the 1880s
Localities of Break O'Day Council