TASMANIA’S COPPER PRODUCING CENTRE

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3665, 29 October 1912, Page 6

TASMANIA’S COPPER PRODUCING CENTRE

SCENE OF THE MOUNT LYELL DISASTER. THE OLD AND THE NEW ORDER. [SPECIALLY WRITTEN FOR THE “GISBORNE TIMES"] (By Janies Perry.) The scene of a great and disasteroils calamity is the great North Mount Lyell, situated way back in an almost obscure corner of the west coast of Tasmania, Oho really requires to have been in the vicinity of Lyell to comprehend the magnitude of- the •workings surrounding this great cop-per-producing centre. Unquestionably Lvell and its adjacent sister workings'Queenstown and Gormanston, are the alpha of copper producing mines in the Southern Hemisphere. For the traveller wishing to proceed to* this great mining district lie must of necessity take passage in one of the Union {Steamship Company s small steamers bound for Strahan —the seaport for the West Coast of Tasmania, and after a run of nineteen hours, it it be fine weather, one finds oneself steaming through that bold and rugged entrance- —Hell's Gate, the entrance to Macquarie Harbor at the head of which Tasmania’s Western seaport is situated. Stralian, at its best and in its balmiest days, was a bleak, dreary little seaport town of possibly eight or ton thousand of a population and is the outlet for practically all minerals mined on the West Coast of' Tassy. Ores and bullion from Zeelian and its surrounding districts .as well as Queenstown and its dependencies are shipped at Strahan for transhipment at Melbourne or .Hobart. Strahan and Queenstown are situated about twenty-eight miles distant and are connected by a threefoot six inch guage railway which traverses some very beautifully picturesque and rugged country. The observant stranger can always tell when be is within distance of Queenstown by the desolate and bar-' reu appearance of the surrounding country, which is due to the sulphnc fumes arising from the ore smelting works permeating the _ atmosphere which, descending for miles upon the surrounding country, destroys all signs of vegetation and consequently gives the surroundings a very uninviting and friendless appearance to the 'average stranger. Queenstown stands situated on a high plateau, manv hundreds of feet above sealevel. She is entirely surrounded by mountainous country which forms a very rugged background for this little* mining town which is much m keeping with other mining towns of any note. The mountainous country at the back of Queenstown comprise the workings of-the great Mount Lyell. There will, I suppose, be somewhere in the neighborhood of twelve thousand of a moving population ia Queenstown. Alining populations ar r ‘ usually based on a moving population end Queenstown is no exception to the rule, hundreds of miners arriving and reporting annually. Lvell is divided into several workings, the North Mount Lyell, which is at present causing so much interest as a result of the recent palpable accident which has resulted so chsasterouslv is probably the largest working of that ilk, and _is one of the largest copper producing mines in Tasmania, supplying as it does alone many hundred of miners and surface hands. The Lyell bills are bleak ami rugged in appearance and their appearance do not belie their reputation. W inter falls here bleak and miserable in tlie extreme, snow and rain being the chief factors of a sordid winter. For the greater part .of the year ram falls almost' continuously for thirty days in a month and when the surrounding bills are mantled in then robes of snow Lyell is a very unenviable place. The pelting rain drenches one and the snow-cliarged wind cuts one to the quick. Such are the conditions existing at the scene of this great disaster in the height of ‘Winter. Summer does eventually drive dark and dreary_jwinter over the border, and then 'for a period of three or four months one is subjected to typical Australian summer. The sun often standing tlie thermometer at 90 and 100 degrees in tlie shade. Then Lyell is experiencing a time quite as unenviable as her winter. The smoke and fumes from the smelters bang lazily over the city and cause a very depressed and languid atmosphere.. It is many years since I paid a visit to the mining fields of tlie West Coast of Tasmania, but I warrant they are little changed. Certainly the good old days have been replaced by the present day bustle and bustle, but otthenvise the mines will be as of yore. Fifteen or-twenty years ago_ these mining centres were at the height of booming. Money flowed like water and no man need look for work, as tbs work was ever looking for him. The then national recreation was beer drinking and “stouch,” and generally speaking the West Coast was daubed a"hot shop” in those distant days. After years of quiet and peaceful working the whole community ; lias been plunged into grief and sorrow over a great calamity, which lias befallen to the far-famed North Lyell, but in tlie midst of this great mourning it is pleasing to note tlie heroism displayed by those to whom the work of rescue tell.