Queenstown, Tasmania
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| Municipality of West Coast Local government areas of Tasmania | |
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Queenstown is a town on the West coast of the island of Tasmania, Australia. It had a population of 2200 people as of 2003.
History
Historically it was a mining town. The area was first explored in 1862. It was long after that when alluvial gold was discovered at Mount Lyell, prompting the formation of the Mount Lyell Gold Mining Company in 1881. In 1892, the mine began searching for copper.
Myths
[1] The mountains surrounding Queenstown, once covered in plant life, are now bare and stained by sulphur fumes from the mining processes.
The Mount Lyell operation first started with a timber fired operation, and firewood cutters would use the line of least resistance - and move over the ground with the nearest timber. The removal of extensive stands of timber in the Queenstown area, combined with the rainfall and climatic conditions of the area - would have restricted regrowth of a whole range of possible vegetation varieties. The heavy rainfall after the timber removal would have also removed topsoil and worked back to the harder rock profile - this would have also contributed to the current state of the mountains. Also the mountains of the West Coast Range were not covered to their peaks with timber or vegetation as the myth presupposes. The average winter snowline on Mount Owen and Mount Lyellalso reinforces this Mount Owen - directly east of Queenstown, and Mount Lyell just north of the town, have also had bushfires as well as the decades of the smelter fumes affecting revegatation. Nevertheless, in the late twentieth century, a whole new succession of scrub began to re-colonise the mountains,.
Current Conditions
Today, the town and surrounds are becoming increasingly attractive to tourists. Queenstown is the home of the ABT Wilderness Railway, which travels through rainforest gullies to the nearby coastal village of Strahan.
For other places by the same name, see Queenstown.