Queenstown, Tasmania
Queenstown is a town in the west of the Australian state of Tasmania. It lies in a valley west of Mount Owen on the West Coast Range.
2009, the town had 5,119 inhabitants. At the last Australian census in 2006 there were only 2,117.
History
The history of Queenstown was long dominated by the mining industry. The mountainous area was first explored in 1862. Only much later was found alluvial gold at Mount Lyell, which led to the founding of the Mount Lyell Gold Mining Company in 1881. From 1892 onwards was mined in the mine even after copper. Finally, the mining company was renamed the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company.
In the early years of the 20th century Queenstown was the center of the mining district Mount Lyell and had many smelters, brickworks and sawmills. The area was then forested lush. In 1900, 5,051 residents lived in the city and 10,541 in the whole county.
In Queenstown, the authorities of the prefecture of the same name were located until it was merged in the 1990s with the other counties of the west coast. In its heyday there were a number of hotels, churches and schools in the city, but since the closure of the mining company has their number decreased significantly.
The city was also home to the Organisation for Tasmanian Development, which was founded in 1982.
The construction of several dams near by Hydro Tasmania led in the 1980s to a brief boom in Queenstown. The Darwin Dam and the Crotty Dam, by the Lake Burbury - a popular spot for fishing and other recreational activities - was, were built during this time. They were created by the deletion of the Franklin Dam project in 1983 after the campaign rühriger environmentalists.
Queenstown is now experiencing a revival, which was reflected in the popularity of their first time in 2010, held Arts and Heritage Festival. In the city there are now a small but prosperous society of artists, consisting of writers, painters, photographers and historians, have been inspired by the unique beauty and history of Queenstown.
The recently rebuilt rack railway ( Abt system ) and the new mining and research activities in the region have also contributed to the rejuvenation of the city in recent years.
Ecology
The mountains around Queenstown show unusual pink and gray colorations of the sedimentary rocks of the two mountains in the immediate vicinity - come - the Mount Lyell and the Mounr Owen. In winter, the mountain summits around Queenstown are often covered with snow. In the city itself it snows only a few days a year.
A combination of logging to fire the furnaces (about 40 years ) and heavy annual rainfall led to the erosion of the shallow layers of soil over many decades, so the harder rocks came to light.
Typical of the vegetation, which developed after the forest fires in western Tasmania on the affected areas along the streams on a slope, is the low bushes, which represents a first step on the long road of restoring the ecology of this region.
Some inhabitants of this area gave in the 1980s, pointed out that the low bushes could affect the appearance of a rigid " lunar surface ", which is typical of the southern slopes of Mount Lyell and the northern slopes of Mount Owen. Although there are large areas where, on which, due to their steepness and the lack of soil will not form a new growth, the mythology of the origin of these areas will prove by the degree of recovery of plant cover with time as partially untrue.
The Queen River had most of the time the existence of the Mount Lyell Company take their waste water from Queenstown, which were then forwarded to the King River and finally to the Macquarie Harbour.
The Mount Lyell Remediation and Research and Demonstration Program has ensured that the waste water from mining and the city will no longer be discharged directly into the receiving water.
Today's state
Today, the town and its surroundings attract tourists in large numbers who come either with organized tours or by car. Something has happened to attract well - either the mountains, the spoil heap, or the ashes of space for football ... In the local museum, there are many opportunities to catch a glimpse of the city's past, but also, if you just the Orr Street, the old Main street with its pubs closed and the dominant tower of the post office, descends, one can discover good stuff.
The mining industry in the old mine at Mount Lyell is continued. He was independent of 1995-1999 the Copper Mines of Tasmania, which was then integrated into an Indian business group so that the concentrates are now shipped to India for further processing.
In the region will continue to search for exploitable ore deposits. Due to the complex geology, there is always the possibility that new mines are being driven. The Henty Gold Mine opened in the 1990s is a good example of this.
Queenstown is the destination station of the West Coast Wilderness Railway, which runs south, the Queens River and then on the north bank of the King River along the harbor Strahan on Macquarie Harbour.