33-630: Captains Flat is a town in the Southern Tablelands of rural New South Wales , Australia, in Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council . It is south of Queanbeyan . Captains Flat township is bounded by the non-urban parts of the locality of Captains Flat in the north, east and west, and Captains Flat Road, the Molonglo River and Foxlow Street in the south. It is suggested the town took its name from
66-460: A hostel for single men and some of the population lived in tents. The company also built a theatre, hospital, tennis courts and a swimming pool, and paid for the medical staff, the provision of street lighting, electricity and water. In the 1930s and 1940s many of the old buildings were replaced including the hotel. The new hotel built in 1938 was said to have the longest bar in Australia at
99-478: A kilometre north of present-day Queenstown on the road to Strahan; James Robertson was appointed the first postmaster. The only other substantial building nearby was Robertson & Hunter's store. Queenstown Post Office opened on 21 November 1896 and the Penghana office closed; Miss Mylan was the first postmaster. The present-day Queenstown Post Office dates from 1902 and is heritage-listed. The name "Penghana"
132-420: A rapid decline until 1939, when rail access revived mining activity for another 23 years. Copper was found in the area in 1874 by J.E. Wright of Foxlow station. The Molonglo goldfield was declared in 1882 and mining for gold and silver commenced at two mines, Koh-i-noor and Commodore, which were operated by two mining companies. Two blast furnaces were built in 1885. The two companies merged in 1894 and formed
165-518: A white bullock named "Captain" who would slip away from Foxlow station, 12 km away, to graze grassy flatlands near the Molonglo River. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the area was inhabited by Ngarigo Aboriginal people. The town formed as a result of mining for gold , silver , lead , zinc , copper and iron pyrites in the hills surrounding the upper reaches of the Molonglo River . The town boomed from 1881 to 1899, but went into
198-699: A wider sense, the term "Southern Tablelands" is also sometimes used to describe a broader region that includes the Monaro , the Southern Highlands and Australia's capital Canberra. The Southern Tablelands Temperate Grassland is a prominent vegetation community in the region. 93.5 Eagle FM , a radio station based in Goulburn , broadcasts to the majority of the Southern Tablelands. This Southern Tablelands geography article
231-545: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Queenstown, Tasmania Queenstown is a town in the West Coast region of the island of Tasmania , Australia . It is in a valley on the western slopes of Mount Owen on the West Coast Range . At the 2021 census , Queenstown had a population of 1,808 people. Queenstown's history has long been tied to the mining industry. This mountainous area
264-534: The 2021 census , Queenstown had a population of 1,808 people (929 males and 878 females). The median age was 47. Children aged 0–14 years made up 15.3% of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 22.3% of the population. According to the 2021 census , the most common responses for religion in Queenstown were No Religion (40.5%), Catholic (22.0%), Anglican (16.7%), and Uniting Church (3.1%). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 6.7% of
297-503: The Captains Flat Community Preschool was made aware of these results the management committee and staff took immediate measures to ensure that the children could continue to attend in a safe manner. The Preschool was closed for one week while deep cleaning of the inside of the building and all toys in the sheds was performed. The outside playground was closed and a "shoes off inside" policy implemented when
330-768: The Great Dividing Range . The area is characterised by high, flat country which has generally been extensively cleared and used for grazing purposes. The area is easily accessible to the Australian federal capital city of Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory . The area is included with the Southern Highlands and parts of the South West Slopes in the district that is known as Capital Country . In
363-658: The King River to the port of Strahan in Macquarie Harbour . The Queenstown Heritage and Arts Festival was the first name of a biennial festival that celebrates Queenstown's history. One significant historical event it has celebrated was the centenary of the 1912 North Mount Lyell Disaster in the second festival in October 2012. In the third festival in October 2014, the Hydro Tasmania centenary
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#1732801795684396-545: The Macquarie Harbour . The Mount Lyell Remediation and Research and Demonstration Program scheme has since removed the direct flowing mining waste and local waste from the rivers. Today, the town and district attracts significant numbers of tourists , on either organised tours or the hire car 'circuit' around Tasmania. The grand Empire Hotel overlooks the revived steam train station where rides to neighbouring Strahan are available through dense rainforest. The recent addition of mountain bike trails and white water rafting add to
429-487: The Roaring Forties , although temperatures can occasionally rise above 30 °C, while winters are cool to cold and almost always cloudy; however, during rare clear spells overnight temperatures can drop well below freezing. Brief, light snow usually occurs several times each winter, with occasional heavier snow falling every few years. Queenstown is very cloudy, getting only 29.0 days of clear skies annually. At
462-559: The smelting has resulted in the area around the mines having a stark and somewhat alien landscape reminiscent of Queenstown in Tasmania . In 1939 and 1942 mine tailings and slime dams collapsed into the Molonglo River. The resulting pollution severely damaged the ecological communities of the Molonglo River downstream from the mine site, and eradicated all native fish populations. Despite Federal and NSW government funded remediation programs of $ 2.5m in 1976, toxic leachates still enter
495-514: The Lake George United Mining and Smelting Company. Up to that time the mines had produced mainly copper with some silver and a small amount of gold. Processing was made harder because of the presence of zinc. To convey ore to the bins at the smelter, the company built a 2 ft (610mm) tramway in 1897. Trains of small 4-wheel dump cars were hauled by a Krauss steam locomotive. The tramway appears to have closed about 1902. In
528-666: The West Coast region for further economic mineral deposits, and due to the complexity of the geology, there is always the possibility that new mines will open: the Henty Gold Mine is a good example as it commenced operation in the 1990s. Queenstown is the terminus of the West Coast Wilderness Railway , which travels southwards alongside the Queen River , and then along the northern slopes of
561-600: The area again, begun by Monaro Mining (later known as Australian-American Mining, then AusROC Metals Ltd) and taken over by Ironbark Gold. In February 2021 the NSW Environment Protection Authority carried out precautionary testing of surface soils in public and community spaces. They published a public report on their findings that showed the public areas that were found with high lead contamination. Areas with high levels included "Foxlow Parklet" and Captains Flat Community Preschool . When
594-512: The children returned. The Preschool is on NSW Crown Land and any remediation work to be done will be performed by that Department to their own schedule. Meanwhile the Preschool will continue to operate with restrictions to keep the children safe. The school had to be relocated to the oval near Captains Flat Public School. The Captains Flat Weather Radar is the main weather radar for the ACT and
627-529: The closure the Lake George Mines dismantled and sold the infrastructure including removing many of the cottages. The Captains Flat railway line from Bungendore opened in 1940 with tri-weekly service. This was reduced to once a week following the closure of the mine. The railway was booked out of use on 31 August 1968 but reopened for a few weeks in 1969 for the filming of the movie " Ned Kelly ". The impact of sulphur and acid rain produced by
660-437: The conglomerate rocks on the two most adjacent mountains - Mount Lyell and Mount Owen . The mountains surrounding Queenstown are often snowcapped through winter. Snow falls a few days out of the year. Owing to a combination of tree removal for use in the smelters and the smelter fumes (for about 40 years), and the heavy annual rainfall, the erosion of the shallow horizon topsoil back to the harder rock profile contributed to
693-447: The constant physical stress caused hazardous materials, threw down his miners bucket hat onto the floor in front of the visiting owner H.Wood causing a localised riot within the zinc mine. From 1939 to 1962 just over 4 million tonnes of ore was extracted containing 1.5 million tonnes of concentrates: 39% of which were zinc, 33% pyrites, 24% lead, 5% copper, and small amounts of gold (2850 tonnes) and silver (155 tonnes). Immediately after
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#1732801795684726-475: The early twentieth century the mine produced gold and copper. Mining activity ceased in 1920. The impact on European markets due to World War II meant mining operations were subsidised by the government through power and freight concessions as the foreign revenue was seen as important to the Australian economy. In 1940, 550 people were employed and the local population was 1700. The mining company, Lake George Mines, built 152 fibro cottages for married miners,
759-578: The river from the Captains Flat mine site. The remediation works covered the waste dumps with impermeable clay and vegetation designed to reduce the risk of catastrophic failure of the dumps. The owners of the mine were not held accountable for the pollution and did not contribute to the remediation of the environmental impact. A large stretch of the Molonglo is still devoid of native fish and awaits their re-establishment. Prospecting has commenced in
792-459: The southern coast and tablelands of NSW . It is a WSR-74S type radar operated by the Bureau of Meteorology , mounted on a 22.35m tower on Mt Cowangerong. [REDACTED] Media related to Captains Flat, New South Wales at Wikimedia Commons Southern Tablelands The Southern Tablelands is a geographic area of New South Wales , Australia , located south-west of Sydney and west of
825-480: The southern parts of Mount Lyell, and northern Mount Owen. Although there are still large areas incapable of sustaining regrowth due to the acute slopes and lack of soil formation, revegetation projects have been stymied. The Queen River was for most of the history of the Mount Lyell company the recipient of mining effluent and the Queenstown sewage - which then continued into the King River and consequently
858-489: The stark state of the mountains for many decades. Typical of the successions that occur in fire affected areas in Western Tasmania , the low shrubbery that has revegetated adjacent to hillside creeks is a very early stage of a long recovery for the ecology of the region. Some concern by local residents in the 1980s, and since, that the low-level succession of plants might affect the stark 'moonscape' appearance of
891-433: The time; it was 32 metres long. There were some significant labour strikes by the miners in the 1940s and 1950s. The strike of 1948/49 and the lockout of 1954/55 both lasted for seven months. The mine closed on 11 March 1962 due to the lack of viable ore. To that point men had worked in tunnels extending 840 metres (2,800 feet) below the ground. The first strike started by a local miner named T.B. Hutchinson who fed up with
924-742: The town's growth as a tourist destination. Some older features continue to fascinate tourists, either the mountains, the slag heap, and the gravel football ground. There are significant opportunities to catch glimpses of the town's past at the local museum, and simply by driving up Orr Street the old main street with the dominant Post Office tower. The mining operation at the original Mount Lyell mine continues, with Copper Mines of Tasmania operating between 1995 and 1999 independently, after which it became part of an Indian company group - and its concentrates are shipped to India for processing. In 2021, Indian mining company Vedanta Limited divested its copper mining activities in Queenstown. Exploration continues within
957-536: Was 5051; the district, 10,451. The town was the base of the Queenstown Council until its amalgamation with other west coast councils in the 1990s. The town, in its heyday, had a collection of hotels, theatres, churches and schools that have largely disappeared since the demise of the Mount Lyell company. The town was the base of the Organisation for Tasmanian Development started in 1982. There
990-591: Was a brief boom in prosperity in the 1980s, with the building of several nearby dams by the Hydro . The Darwin and Crotty dams that comprise Lake Burbury (a popular fishing and recreation venue) were built during this period. These followed the cancellation of the Gordon-below-Franklin Dam in 1983 after strong campaigning by environmentalists in the 'No Dams' campaign. The mountains surrounding Queenstown have unusual pink and grey hues that come from
1023-564: Was a major component. With key events taking place at The Paragon Theatre , the festival rebranded as the Unconformity Festival in 2016. Queenstown has a very wet oceanic climate ( Cfb ), and is one of the wettest locations in Tasmania with an annual average rainfall of 2408.2 mm (94.8 in), spread throughout the year but especially concentrated in winter. Summers are cool to mild and prone to cold fronts off
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1056-427: Was adopted for a substantial house nearby, from around 1925–1944 the residence of Mount Lyell mine manager R. M. Murray , and persists today as Penghana Road . A Queenstown South office opened in 1949 and closed in 1973. In the 1900s, Queenstown was the centre of the Mount Lyell mining district and had numerous smelting works, brick-works, and sawmills. The area at the time was heavily wooded. The population in 1900
1089-642: Was first explored in 1862. It was not 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 mining company began searching for copper. The final name of the Mount Lyell company was the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company . Early in 1895 a Post Office was opened at Penghana , at the Queen River fork and crossing, about
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