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 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 ...

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. Unlike other national parks of Tasmania, Savage River National Park re ...

. The town was constructed to support a

tin Tin is a chemical element; it has symbol Sn () and atomic number 50. A silvery-colored 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, a bar of tin makes a sound, the ...

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 M ...

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 ...

. 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. ...

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 or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the prime ...

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 Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives and 40 of the seats in the 76-member Australian Senate, Senate were up for electi ...

, 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 * Generally, a supporter of the political philosophy liberalism. Liberals may be politically left or right but tend to be centrist. * An adherent of a Liberal Party (See also Liberal parties by country ...

candidate Mark Baker and 17 votes (11.64%) were cast for Greens candidate Paul O'Halloran.

Climate

Waratah has a cold

Oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

: ''Cfb''), particularly cool by Australian standards and bordering on a

Subpolar oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring co ...

(''Cfc''). It is one of the coldest and wettest localities in Tasmania. The town has a high frequency of cloudy days and maximum temperatures often fail to get above , even in summer. Snow is common through the winter and spring, sometimes occurring in summer 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