West Coast Piners were groups of men who worked 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 ...
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Tasmania
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, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
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Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, logging
Huon pine
''Lagarostrobos franklinii'' is a species of conifer native to the wet southwestern corner of Tasmania, Australia. It is often known as the Huon pine or Macquarie pine, although it is actually a podocarp (Podocarpaceae), not a true pine (Pinaceae ...
.
In most cases they used
Strahan as their base, as it was the port from which the timber was shipped. The main eras of the Piners were the
Sarah Island convict era (1821–33, 1846–47) and the period from the 1890s to the 1940s.
Most of their activities were focused on the rivers (and their tributaries) that flow into
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 the ...
– the
King River and the
Gordon River
The Gordon River is a major perennial river located in the central highlands, south-west, and western regions of Tasmania, Australia.
Course and features
The Gordon River rises below Mount Hobhouse in the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National ...
The smaller rivers flowing into Macquarie Harbour on the eastern side are Pine Cove Creek, the Braddon River, the Clark River, and the Bird River. Also
Birch's Inlet was an area where pine was transported from.
They were celebrated by an annual event at Strahan, known as the Piners' Festival, which was conducted for a few years.
[http://pandora.nla.gov.au/parchive/2001/S2001-Apr-4/www.federation100.tas.gov.au/calendar.html March 2001 - as part of the Centenary of Federation festivities in Tasmania]
Notes
{{reflist
History of Tasmania
Western Tasmania
Huon Pine