DESTINATION: Zeehan

Zeehan

This once booming mining town, named after one of Abel Tasman's ships, is 36km NW of Queenstown. After silver-lead deposits were discovered in 1882, Zeehan's population rose to around 10 000 in 1901. By 1909 it was almost deserted, but has recently revived with the reopening of the Renison Bell Tin Mine.


Main Attractions

Main St has many buildings from the boom years (1890-1908). The Gaiety Grand building contains the Grand Hotel and the Gaiety Theatre, which is much as it was in its heyday, when it seated 1000 and showcased such stars as Enrico Caruso and Nellie Melba. The Old School of Mines building (1894) now houses the West Coast Pioneers Memorial Museum, with perhaps the best mineral collection in the Southern Hemisphere, including the finest specimens of rare crocoite, which is Tasmania's mineral emblem. Excellent old steam engines and carriages used on the West Coast are displayed outside. From the museum a 7km round-trip drive heads out through a low mining tunnel to the old Spray Silver Mine. Frank Long Memorial Park marks the first silver-lead deposit. A pioneer cemetery lies off Zeehan-Strahan Rd.

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Nearby attractions

There are old mine workings at Dundas, 13km east. Tasmania's highest waterfall Montezuma Falls (110m) is 17km NE, accessible by walking track or 4WD. An unsealed scenic drive leads to the fishing village of Granville Harbour, 35km NW, once the port for Zeehan. Corinna, formerly a gold-mining town 48km NW, is now a base for gold panning, bushwalking and trout-fishing with a car ferry crossing the Pieman River. Fishing and boating are popular on Lake Pieman to the north. Trout fishermen head for the Henty River, 25km south.

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Copyright 2007, by the Contributing Authors. Cite/attribute Resource. cmsadmin. (2005, May 20). Zeehan. Retrieved December 03, 2008, from Plan Book Travel Australia Web site: http://www.planbooktravel.com.au/australia/tas/zeehan. This work is licensed under a Universal Publishers. Universal Publishers

Region: West Coast

Sarah Island Aerial
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In an island of unique experiences, the West Coast of Tasmania is a land apart. Through its craggy mountains and World Heritage Area wilderness, you’ll see thousands of millions of years captured in the ancient rocks, wrought in volcanic fire and scraped clean by ice. In West Coast towns and villages, you’ll feel the presence of tough men and bold women who carved a boom-and- bust living from the mountains, forests and seas. more

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West Coast Pioneers Museum, Main St, Ph: (03) 6471 6225

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