Waratah is a locality and town in North

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

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

adjacent to

Savage River National Park Savage River National Park is located in north-west Tasmania, Australia. Established in April 1999, it is the largest undisturbed area of temperate rainforest in Australia since the era of the thylacine. Unlike other national parks of Tasmania ...

. The town was constructed to support a

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

Mount Bischoff Mount Bischoff is a mountain and former tin mine in the north-western region of Tasmania, Australia. The mountain is situated adjacent to Savage River National Park near the town of Waratah. Location and features Tin was discovered at Mount B ...

. It is built at the top of a waterfall, and water was diverted from the stream to provide water for mine

sluicing In syntax, sluicing is a type of ellipsis that occurs in both direct and indirect interrogative clauses. The ellipsis is introduced by a ''wh''-expression, whereby in most cases, everything except the ''wh''-expression is elided from the clause. S ...

and processing. At the , Waratah had a population of 249. It was also the first town in Australia to have electric street lights in 1886.

History

Tin was discovered at Mount Bischoff by James "Philosopher" Smith in 1871. The mine operated successfully at first. The easy ore was all extracted by 1893 when sluicing was discontinued. Mining continued opencut on the face of the mountain, and underground. The underground mine closed in 1914, but surface mining continued for some time before it also ceased after the price of tin slumped in 1929. The mine was reopened by the

Commonwealth Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government i ...

in 1942 to support the war effort, but it finally closed in 1947. It was the mine that produced power for 400 incandescent streetlights in 1886. ''Mount Bischoff'' Post Office opened on 1 September 1874 and was renamed ''Waratah'' in 1882. In the vicinity of the locality, a number of smaller mines worked at the same time as the Mount Bischoff workings.

Mount Magnet silver mine Mount Magnet silver mine, also known as the Magnet Silver Mining Company operated between 1902 and 1941. The former locality and mine site that supported the mine in the years of its operation lies about 20 km out of Waratah. In the 1890s the op ...

was connected by the Mount Magnet Tramway within 10 miles south west of the town.

Politics

At the

2007 Australian federal election The 2007 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 24 November 2007. All 150 seats in the House of Representatives and 40 of the seats in the 76-member Senate were up for election. The election featured a 39-day campaign, with 13.6& ...

, the polling place at Waratah Primary School registered a total of 148 votes. 72 votes (49.32%) were cast for the

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

candidate

Sid Sidebottom Peter Sid Sidebottom (born 23 April 1951) is an Australian former politician. Sidebottom was an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Division of Braddon in Tasmania between 1998 and 2004 and ...

, 54 votes (36.99%) were cast for the

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

candidate Mark Baker and 17 votes (11.64%) were cast for

Greens Greens may refer to: *Leaf vegetables such as collard greens, mustard greens, spring greens, winter greens, spinach, etc. Politics Supranational * Green politics * Green party, political parties adhering to Green politics * Global Greens * Europ ...

candidate Paul O'Halloran.

Climate

Waratah has an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ( ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

: Cfb), unusually cool by Australian standards. It is one of the wettest and coldest locations in Tasmania. The town has a high frequency of cloudy days and maximum temperatures often fail to get above 10 °C, even in summer. Winter snowfall is common, and heavy rainstorms can be experienced throughout the year. Extremes have ranged from 32.8 °C (91.0 °F) to -5.5 °C (22.1 °F). Waratah's wettest month on record was May 1923 with 644.8 mm (25.3 in) of rain recorded.

References

External links

Waratah-Wynyard council page
{{Western Tasmania , state=autocollapse Localities of Waratah–Wynyard Council Mining towns in Tasmania North West Tasmania Mount Bischoff

History

Politics

Climate

References

Further reading

External links