Williamsford, Tasmania is the location of a former mining community, south of

Rosebery, Tasmania Rosebery is a town on the West Coast, Tasmania, west coast of Tasmania, Australia. It is at the northern end of the West Coast Range, in the shadow of Mount Black (Tasmania), Mount Black and adjacent to the Pieman River, now Lake Pieman. It lie ...

and on the western lower reaches of

Mount Read Mount Read is a mountain located in the West Coast region of Tasmania, Australia, and is at the north west edge of the West Coast Range. With an elevation of above sea level, Mount Read has had as colourful a history, similar to that of Mou ...

. It was formerly reached by the

North East Dundas Tramway The North East Dundas Tramway was a Narrow-gauge railway, narrow gauge tramway (industrial), tramway, that ran between Zeehan and Deep Lead (now Williamsford, Tasmania, Williamsford) on the West Coast, Tasmania, West Coast of Tasmania. Opening ...

a line which operated between 1896 and 1929. It was also the location of the

Hercules Haulage The Hercules Haulage, also known as the Mount Read Haulage, the ''Hercules Tram'' and the ''Williamsford Haulage Line'', was a self-acting narrow gauge tramway on the side of Mount Read in Western Tasmania, that connected the Hercules Mine wi ...

- a 2-foot gauge haulage line on the western slope of Mount Read, and the later Rosebery - Williamsford Aerial Ropeway. The town had an

Australian rules Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

team in the Rosebery Football Association until the competition disbanded in 1963. In 1924, Charles Whitham wrote:-

Williamsford is the township attached to Mount Read, and is right at the foot of the steepest and longest haulage line we have... 5 miles from Rosbery by road, and 18 miles from Zeehan by tramway, and if you like rugged and wild scenery you will find it a charming place

By the late twentieth century there were no longer inhabitants of this community. The townsite is to become the new site of a collection of conifers. These conifers have been collected over the last 15 years from a number of Southern Hemisphere countries where they are approaching extinction. The collected species of trees are considered extremely rare living examples of prehistoric conifers and to be "the best collection in the world".

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* * * * {{coord, 41, 50, S, 145, 39, E, display=title, region:AU_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Ghost towns in Tasmania Mining towns in Tasmania Localities of West Coast Council West Coast Range

See also

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