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29-608: The Wee Georgie Wood Railway is a 2 ft ( 610 mm ) narrow gauge tourist tramway running from Tullah , on a 1.9 km (1.2 miles) short track by the edge of Lake Rosebery in the West Coast Municipality of Tasmania . The originally 10 km (6.2 miles) long narrow gauge railway connected the North Mount Farrell mine and its associated township at Tullah with the 3 ft 6 in ( 1,067 mm ) gauge Emu Bay Railway . It

58-659: A Krauss engine named Puppy . Wee Mary was never restored and its chassis is currently in the Ida Bay/Lune River area. Prior to working in Tullah, Puppy worked in the Duck River region of the state and was eventually bought by the North Mt Farrell Co. The name "Puppy" was given due to its high pitched whistle, but it was originally Krauss number 2640 of 1892. The engine was eventually sold to Ida Bay in

87-761: A gang motor from the original line. From the centenary booklet of 2002: 2 ft and 600 mm gauge railways Most of these lines are tourist lines, which are often heritage railways or industrial lines, such as the Ffestiniog Railway in Wales and the Cripple Creek and Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad in Colorado . World War I trench railways produced the greatest concentration of 600 mm ( 1 ft  11 + 5 ⁄ 8  in ) gauge railways to date. In preparation for World War II ,

116-545: A passenger carriage, which had previously been used on the Lake Margaret Tramway. On 5 February 1987, The Hon. Premier of Tasmania Robin Gray officially opened Wee Georgie Wood Steam Railway Inc. to the public. In the centenary of the railway in 2002, celebrations and publications increased knowledge of the locomotives and their history. The railway originally had 3 locomotives , Wee Georgie Wood, Wee Mary and

145-789: Is close to the Pieman River hydro-electric scheme, Lake Rosebery , Lake Mackintosh , and Lake Murchison . Some sections of the old track have been flooded, after the hydro-electric dams had been built. East of the Murchison Highway , the remaining 600m of railway to the mines was repurposed into part of the Mackintosh Dam Road . The original name varied between being known as the North Mount Farrell Tramway , Farrell Tramway or Tullah Tram . Today's 1.9 km (1.2 miles) long tourist railway

174-475: Is heritage-listed. The name "Penghana" 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

203-527: Is named after its narrow gauge steam engine, which was due to its small size named after the British actor and comedian Wee Georgie Wood , who was only 4 ft 9 in (1.45 m) when fully grown. Galena , the most important lead ore mineral and a frequent source of silver, was discovered in the district of Tullah in 1892. Getting the ore to market was very difficult: The North Mount Farrell mine first shipped out ore by pack horse in 1899, because there

232-604: The 1 ft  11 + 3 ⁄ 4  in ( 603 mm ) gauge Brecon Mountain Railway . 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

261-534: 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

290-658: 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

319-545: 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

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348-487: 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

377-656: The South African Class NG15 2-8-2 locomotives started their career on the 600 mm ( 1 ft  11 + 5 ⁄ 8  in ) gauge. The Otavi Mining and Railway Company in South West Africa (now Namibia ) were transferred to the 2 ft gauge railways in South Africa and currently some surviving locomotives reside in Wales on the 1 ft  11 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 597 mm ) gauge Welsh Highland Railway and

406-558: The mining industry. This mountainous area 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

435-475: The 1930s where it still is today. The best known locomotive, Wee Georgie Wood, has been salvaged and returned to operation, but as of 2010, it has been stripped down due to restoration work while the diesel engine "Alpha Romeo" works the short track in its place. The Wee Georgie Wood railway currently has the remains of another Krauss locomotive that worked in the Queenstown area, a few electric locomotives and

464-761: The French Maginot Line and Alpine Line also used 600 mm ( 1 ft  11 + 5 ⁄ 8  in ) gauge railways for supply routes to the fixed border defenses. Australia has over 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi) of 2 ft ( 610 mm ) gauge sugar cane railway networks in the coastal areas of Queensland , which carry more than 30 million tonnes of sugar cane a year. Many 2 ft ( 610 mm ) gauge and 600 mm ( 1 ft  11 + 5 ⁄ 8  in ) gauge railways are used in amusement parks and theme parks worldwide. The interchange of rolling stock between these similar track gauges occasionally occurred; for example,

493-541: The Pieman River bridge. Therefore, complicated transhipment facilities needed to be erected. The mine closed in 1932 due to the raw metal price drop during the worldwide economic crisis, but it re-opened in 1934, when a new presence of galena was found not far away. Immediately after the Murchison Highway was officially opened in 1962 the tramline between Tullah and Farrell Siding was not used anymore, but

522-666: 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

551-437: 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

580-572: The mine increased, was unable to handle the traffic. A shorter route to the railway was surveyed, running on the north side of the Pieman River. The steel-railed steam tramway line was constructed by Dunkley Brothers, who were well known in Tasmania for their activities in the timber industry and was taken in service in 1909. It met the Emu Bay Railway at Farrell Siding, which was located on a continuous 1:40 grade as that railway dropped down to

609-420: 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

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638-489: 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

667-575: The steam locomotive Wee Georgie Wood was still used until late 1964 for the 0.5 miles (800 m) section between the mine and the flotation plant. In 1977 the Wee Georgie Wood Steam Railway Inc was formed with the objective of overhauling Wee Georgie to working condition and later to use it for hauling tourist trains. Volunteers and generous local and coastal businesses put Wee Georgie was back in steam, rebuilt 1.9 km (1.2 mi) of narrow gauge track and restored

696-588: The time was heavily wooded. The population in 1900 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

725-742: 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

754-591: 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

783-508: 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

812-416: Was no road or track to Tullah, until the Murchison Highway was opened in 1962. A tramway was proposed in northerly direction to Boco Siding on the Emu Bay Railway, over a distance of 8 miles (13 km). Originally planned to be laid with iron rails, it was eventually opened as a horse tram in 1902 with timber rails. The tramway could handle the transportation of the ore at reasonable cost, but as output from

841-568: Was opened at Penghana , at the Queen River fork and crossing, about 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

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