Moina is a town 45 km inland from Devonport on the north-west coast of

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. Moina was the site of a brief gold rush in the late nineteenth century and then one of the largest wolfram and

bismuth Bismuth is a chemical element; it has symbol Bi and atomic number 83. It is a post-transition metal and one of the pnictogens, with chemical properties resembling its lighter group 15 siblings arsenic and antimony. Elemental bismuth occurs nat ...

mines in Tasmania. It has been the centre of continued mineral exploration in the Middlesex district since the first discoveries of tin and tungsten ores on Dolcoath Hill in the 1890s. The name may be a derivation of a small crustacean of the same name found in Tasmanian waters.

Mining

James Smith, discoverer of

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 The mountain was named in t ...

tin mine, was the first European to traverse the

Forth Forth or FORTH may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''forth'' magazine, an Internet magazine * ''Forth'' (album), by The Verve, 2008 * ''Forth'', a 2011 album by Proto-Kaw * Radio Forth, a group of independent local radio stations in Scotl ...

& Wilmot Rivers. Along with J. Jones and J. Johnson, he prospected along the Forth River in around 1859. Malcolm Campbell discovered the Mount Bell gold mine, near Moina, in 1892, where 100 men were at work soon after. The Shepherd and Murphy, later referred to as the S & M or Moina Tungsten-Tin mine, contributed the greatest part of the total production of tin, tungsten and bismuth from the Moina and Round Mount districts. During periods of intermittent production between 1893 and 1957, an estimated 525t Sn, 255t W03 and 71t Bi have been recovered from the underground and surface workings at this mine. Moina Post Office opened on 1 January 1910 and closed in 1958.

Cradle Mountain

Moina is the last service town before

Cradle Mountain Cradle Mountain is a locality and mountain in the Central Highlands region of the Australian state of Tasmania. The mountain is situated in the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. At above sea level, it is the sixth-highest mount ...

which is approximately twenty minutes drive south.

Lake Gairdner

Lake Gairdner Lake Gairdner is a large endorheic salt lake in the Australian state of South Australia, to the north of the Eyre Peninsula. When in flood, the lake is considered the third largest salt lake in Australia. Description Lake Gairdner is located a ...

is located just north west of Moina, part of the Mersey-Forth Hydro electric Scheme. The lake supplies water to the Wilmot Power Station on the foreshore of Lake Cethana. The power station was commissioned in 1971 and houses a single Fuji Francis turbine coupled to a

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

generator.Wilmot Power Station, Mersey-Forth Catchment, Fact Sheet, Hydro Tasmania
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References

{{authority control Towns in Tasmania Ghost towns in Tasmania Mining towns in Tasmania Northern Tasmania