King River (Tasmania)
Mouth of the King River in the Macquarie Harbour. Right you can see the route of the West Coast Wilderness Railway. (January 2003)
Template: Infobox River / Obsolete
The King River is a river in the west of the Australian state of Tasmania.
Geography
River
The river arises in the settlement Marble Bluff east of Mount Sedgwick from the Eldon River and the South Eldon River, which flows through the West Coast Range between Mount Huxley and Mount Jukes and flows Lowana, 5 km south of Strahan, in the Macquarie Harbour.
The headwaters of the King River is located in a valley that was once filled with a glacier. Even today you can see on the upper slopes of the mountains grinding marks of the glacier. On the north side of Mount Sedgwick, there are also a number of small glacial lakes, such as Lake Beatrice.
Tributaries with muzzle heights
The Queen River is the main tributary of the King River and transported over more than 100 years tailings from the mines in Queenstown in the lower reaches of the King River. Various measures of the mining company and the government, for example, the construction of reservoirs for the spoil, it was suppressed. The lower reaches of the King River, however, is as strong today filled with silt that trained a veritable Delta in Macquarie Harbour. At least one mining company has already proposed to dredge the silt and search for even more exploitable ores.
- Eldon River - 243 m
- South Eldon River - 243 m
- Lyell Comstock Creek - 230 m
- Princess River - 230 m
- Nelson River - 230 m
- Governor River - 230 m
- Tofft River - 230 m
- Newall Creek - 64 m
- Queen River - 64 m
- Thomas Currie Rivulet - 62 m
- Swift Creek - 21 m
Flowed through reservoirs
- Lake Burbury - 230 m
Rack railway
On the north shore ( between Teepookana and the Quarter Mile Bridge instead on the south shore ) of the lower reaches of the King River was the old rack railway ( Abt system ) to Queenstown.
1962 was the builder and operator, the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company, the route, and built it off. In early 2002 it was rebuilt as a place of interest for tourists again. The new range corresponds exactly to the old and now called West Coast Wilderness Railway.
Dam
The valley at the headwaters of the King River was first measured in 1917 by the Mount Lyell Company ( predecessor of the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company) for planning of a dam. But it was only in the 1980s, after the failure of the project Franklin Dam to Hydro Tasmania decided to build a dam there. At this dam the King River was dammed to Lake Burbury, which is after the first Australian-born Governor of Tasmania, Stanley Burbury, named.
The old settlement on the timber mill on the former route of the Lyell Highway was flooded, as well as an essential part of the old route of the North Mount Lyell Railway between settlements Linda and Pillinger. The small town Crotty with their furnaces disappeared in the waters of the reservoir.