LET'S RAISE A GLASS - QUEENSTOWN - PART 4 (MORE OF TOWN AND SOME REFRESHMENTS) (14 - 21 JANUARY 2018)

With Orr Street done and dusted, we were off into a few of the side streets of the Queenstown CBD. We began by wandering south along Bowes Street until we came to the intersection with Cutten Street, which parallels Orr and is one block south.

From here, looking off towards Mount Owen, still cloud enshrouded, it was obvious that beyond this point the CBD proper came to an abrupt end and suburbia took over.

It was quite a different story in the opposite direction where a few interesting looking buildings demanded closer attention.

The first of these was this fine looking building which had all the appearances of being a church. 

Indeed the foundation stone, laid by none other than the mine's main man in late 1899, showed that this was once correct, but then we took a closer look.

The white sign between the church building and the quaint little wooden cottage next door, and the small badge on the wall between the two front doors told a different story. Both proclaimed this to now be the HQ of the Queenstown CWA. Where were the good country ladies....where were the ribbon sandwiches, the scones and the current cake? The doors were shut tight and there was not a soul about. We had obviously wandered by on the wrong day!

Refreshment was at hand however, but not quite yet. Further along Cutten Street stood another common country town institution, the Masonic Lodge, which here in Queenstown was clearly a 'work in progress'. 

By now we had strolled sufficiently south to have reached the intersection of Cutten and Stitch Streets, and here we turned off the road and rambled across the open and empty car park and into the Queenstown RSL.

Local law demanded that we sign in, and once that was done we made our way into the halls of the establishment to see what we could find.

It turned out to be one of the better RSLs we had visited. Many excellent displays 














decorated most walls,















the dining area could accommodate many at table,











and the bar was equally large and well equipped.
















What else could one do.......there was nothing for it, but please note....a pot not a pint!






So. after a pleasant interlude, a few frothies and a good chat to a most welcoming bar lady and a few of the locals, it was back to the prowl refreshed and raring to go.

The size of the Queenstown Court House was indicative of the fact that this town is the hub of the west coast, 












but we did think that a little more effort could have been taken on its upkeep. Hardly a good advertisement for a reasonable respect for the law and good public order!

Our continuing stroll along Cutten Street then took us past this very well maintained but somewhat innocuous looking cottage complex. Don't be fooled.

The accommodation provided here at the Mount Lyell Anchorage, for about $170 a night, receives rave reviews. 










Right turn into McNamara Street......we were heading back to the Empire Hotel, but we had another stop to make en route, at the Paragon Theatre.










Once again, the rather drab exterior, with its huge mountain mural on one side wall, does not do real justice to what this building offers.

I have to confess we had not done any prior reading about this old theatre and may well have cruised on past, but the large sign advertising tours did grab our attention. This must surely mean that there is something of real interest to be found here. There was. 










Let me invite you up these interestingly patterned entrance stairs and into the 'Paragon Story',








one which so convincingly demonstrates the spirit of recovery, refurbishment and revival which is alive and well in Queenstown. I have reproduced it here directly from the Paragon Theatre website.

"Built at a cost of over 5000 pounds by the Paragon Picture Co Pty Ltd as a "talkie theatre", the Paragon Theatre officially opened on October 28, 1933. A capacity house of 1150 were enthralled by Mae West in "She Done Him Wrong" and Edward G. Robinson in "Tiger Shark."

The theatre enjoyed capacity crowds for decades until the emergence of home video hire in the late 1970's. Patronage declined to the point where the theatre closed its doors in 1985. Soon after, the building was gutted of all ground floor seating and more than half of the dress circle was demolished to house an indoor cricket stadium. Within a few years, that also closed and the theatre was abandoned and left to its fate. 

In 2003 Dr Alex Stevenson took on the mammoth task of restoring the building to reopen it as a 60 seat luxury cinema. Alex, and later new wife Alice, spent 4 years on restoration, including hand painting the entire floor to resemble marble.

In 2012 they returned to their home country of Zimbabwe passing the mantle on to Francisco Navidad but with the decline in Queenstown's population "Cisco" took the tough decision to close the Paragon in 2014 and put the property back on the market. In July 2017 we begin our journey to return this gem of Queenstown's history into a thriving entertainment venue for locals and visitors to enjoy once again.

​

Joy Chappell & Anthony Coulson"

Did you note the bit about hand painting the floor?  

I was graciously give permission to wander inside and take a few shots (as opposed to embarking on an official tour....we were a little time poor at this point), and although the results were reasonable, I have resorted to reproducing a photo from the website because it does far more justice to the result of this labour of love than that which emerged from my low key camera.

Repainting this large floor was just the beginning. Again, from Joy and Anthony's wonderful website:

"Restoring old buildings always turns up problems you don't expect. We knew we had a problem with the floor but were shocked to find out what was causing it and how urgent the situation had become.

​

When we bought The Paragon in July 2017, there were some cracks in the concrete floor and we could see that it was sinking in places but as we couldn't access it we assumed that there was probably water getting in underneath and washing the soil away in places. What else could it be, right?

​

Over winter we noticed that it was getting worse and new, significant cracks had appeared.

We had to investigate so we engaged some engineers from Hobart to find out exactly what was happening. They came and drilled some holes in the slab and what they discovered was beyond belief.

​

The original floor, built in 1933 was timber. It was tiered down from the foyer to about 1/3 of the way down the hall. The rest of the floor was flat. In 1985, when the theatre closed, it was repurposed as an indoor cricket stadium and this is where the problem started. The tiered part of the timber floor was removed and the cavity filled with slag from the mine. The remaining timber floor was left in place. The whole lot was covered in plastic and the concrete slab poured on top. Thankfully, the concrete was reinforced.

​

Over the 33 years since then, the timber floor has slowly decayed until now it has almost completely collapsed, leaving 2/3 of our beautiful hand-painted floor virtually suspended in mid-air. The engineers have advised us to remove everything off that part of the floor and stay off it as much as possible. So now the race is on to get it fixed before it collapses and to enable us to re-open this season.

Fixing the floor involves drilling 80 holes, 162mm diameter, throughout the floor. Steel rods, rebar, will then be driven down to bedrock and a concrete base formed around that. The floor will then be jacked up to the original level and stumped into place. This will ensure that it stays strong forever."

The cost for all this?..........$68,000!!

This enterprising couple have noted that they have bought a 'money pit', but they remain undeterred. 

This is but one of the enterprising ventures being used to raise the necessary funds. We were particularly peeved when we read this.....we were standing here on a Sunday, our last day in Queenstown!





















Another fund raising scheme involves selling personalised circular huon pine caps to cover the holes which had to be drilled through the floor. And so on.









What a committed and creative couple.  The Paragon Theatre has been embedded firmly on our 'Tassie to do list' for our inevitable return visit.




And so, from one amazing Queenstown building to another. We were finally off to properly visit 'The Empire', seen this time looking down the side of the building along McNamara Street.









As we made our way up the steps in the imposing front entrance 











I turned to capture the view which took in the War Memorial, Miners' Siding and the old Evans Store at the far end of Driffield Street with Mount Lyell in the background. Queenstown incorporated!






As I have mentioned earlier, this hotel (one could hardy refer to this establishment as a 'pub'....indeed it is commonly referred to as 'The Grand Old Lady of the West'!) was built in 1901. A local lad from Zeehan did the job for the developers Parer and Higgins.

The main feature of this beautiful hotel is its staircase, made from Tasmanian blackwood, which in itself does not sound too surprising. But what I did find incredible, and a real reflection on the wealth of the town at the time, was the fact that the raw timber was shipped off to England, carved by British artisans, and sent back to Queenstown for installation. It came as no surprise to find it is listed on the National Trust. 

It is truly stunning.



















has two access points














and was as hard as hell to properly capture through my little lens.












But I have to say, having trawled the Internet, I remain pretty satisfied with the outcome of my endeavours, although I have included this photo (courtesy 'tripadvisor') taken from the top of the stairway. Given this area was boldly signed as being for 'Resident Guests Only' I did not feel inclined to sneak up for my own shot.



This marvellous staircase really sets the tone for the entire interior, one we just loved. 





There we little nooks and crannies everywhere (all difficult to photograph I might add). Magnificent carpets, leather chesterfields (and a sense of humour) abounded.














Cosy private dining areas were available for those wit a yen for that intimate group  dinner,











whilst for those happy in the herd, the main dining room presented a trip back in time.

















We were not the only travelling celebrities to have graced this grand gourmand gathering place. 

I've taken the trouble to blow up the menu as well as I could because to me it just said it all about the wealth of the town, the importance of the guest and the fine food of the era. Remember.....this was lunch!

It does deserve another explanatory editorial note. 

I suspect any from South Australia reading this closely would see the 'Fish' course was 'trumpeter' and recoil in horror. Let me put you at ease. The large Tasmanian 'stripey trumpeter' is absolutely delicious and a most prized catch. It could not be more unlike that which is hauled from SA waters where the small fish we know as trumpeter are widely and very rightly known as 'shitties'.....they are spectacularly horrid.





We did dine here later, and can happily confirm that the many posted positive critiques about the meals here were correct. Our plates were laden with fine fare provided at a reasonable price.

And what's a good dinner if not preceded by an aperitif or two.



























Here in this grand and charming hotel we could have been sitting in our own lounge room!

But wait, there's more before we leave 'The Empire'.

You may recall the names of the partners for whom this hotel was built were Parer and Higgins. They were, respectively, the forebears of that famous and madly brave WW2 battle field photographer Damien Parer (who did much to expose the horrors of the Kakoda Track and who was later killed filming the American invasion of Peleliu) and, in complete contrast, the present day Australian singer, Missy Higgins. 

So with that snippet, which could possibly be filed under the 'too much information' heading, but which I found the sort of fascinating tit bit which makes this travel lark such fun, we say farewell to the Queenie CBD.

The West Coast Wilderness Railway, the Gordon River cruise and a day trip north to Zeehan and the wild west coast at Trial Harbour are all waiting in the wings.

THE QUEEN OF THE WEST - QUEENSTOWN - PART 3 (SOME TOWN HISTORY AND THE CBD) (14 - 21 JANUARY 2018)

Let's begin on a high note, well a high spot at least. One of the best overviews of Queenstown possible is the reward for a struggle up the pathway and stairs of the hill known as Spion Kop, a name which commemorates a famous battle of the Boer War and which was bestowed on this prominent landmark by soldiers returning from that conflict.

Before I go further, let me present a quick overview of Queenstown from Google Earth with some of my very ineptly added arrows. As you can see from this, Queenie is an elongated township, squeezed along the Queen River valley between the two high ridges either side. Indeed in many of the photos I have and shall be presenting, the surrounding hills and peaks are ever present. The incredibly orange slash of the Queen River is obvious.

Now to the arrows, beginning at the top. The red dart points to the position of the current copper mine whilst the blue shows the peak of Spion Kop (below which you can see a white patch....the town oval...more later!).

The white arrow indicates the position of the railway station and lower part of the CBD and the yellow the location of our caravan park.






I guess there is no point in being surrounded by hills if advantage is not taken of them. This is certainly not the case in Queenstown where the lookout rises directly over the northern end of Driffield Street.









A car park half way up the hill provided a starting point, but from then on it was shank's pony to the top, initially up a cement pathway











which culminated in a flight of rather primitive stairs at the upper end.











It was a bit of a slog, but well worth the effort. From here we could see out past the small field gun top the hill over the western side of the CBD (the gleaming white roof mid shot is the hospital). 









and by panning just slightly to the right, we had this marvellous view of 'tourist' Queenstown, including the magnificent Empire Hotel and the Wilderness Railway station, both of which were clearly prominent.

As we swept our view yet further to the right, I was able to pick out the grand Queen Anne style 'house on the hill'. 'Pengahana' is now a very up-market B&B, but as you might expect there is story here, so let me briefly digress. 





In doing so, I've relied on the most informative Penghana website for the following text and photos:


"Penghana was built in 1898 for the General Manager of the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company, Mr Robert Sticht, after fire destroyed the “tent” styled settlement which had grown up in the shadow of the progressive smelters.

In the late 1890’s Queenstown’s development of buildings reflected the enormous wealth associated with the company’s desire for a corporate identity to project a successful and confident image and inspire investor confidence.

As Queenstown was a company town and the General Manager was the most powerful person in the town, the general manager’s residence was constructed and positioned to exemplify that."

Back to the present..........




.....and now we come to the town oval, a playing field unlike any other in Tasmania certainly, and as far as I am aware, nowhere else in the entire world is there a silica gravel playing field (no-on else would be silly enough??)








This is as good a time as any to bring you the story of this extraordinary field of sporting conflict. Information plaques at its entrance provided us with the history.








This same board went on to note what I thought was the 'bleeding' obvious!




By all accounts the contests here were fierce. At the end of one early match, decisions by the umpire had proved to be so unpopular with the local supporters that they set his horse free and it galloped out of town. The poor unfortunate official then had to walk home......to Gormanston!

Over the past 120 years the oval has been mainly used for Aussie Rules, but was also the venue for horse trotting during the early 1900's. Today 'The Gravel' is home to the Western Tassie Cricket Association and more latterly has been used for school athletic carnivals.

But no matter the sport or other activity, one rule prevails here......do not bloody well fall over or you will be well bloodied!

As I expected it might, 'Aussie Towns' had a delightfully pithy comment about this oddest of ovals which I've included as the last word on 'The Gravel':

"They play Australian Rules Football in western Tasmania and as a study in sheer, foolhardy "hard man" bravery, to play a game on Queenstown's gravel oval has got to be the height of stupidity or a crazy brave preparedness to come off grazed and bleeding. It is claimed the oval was created because a grass oval, given the area's huge rainfall, would have always been nothing more than mud. With mud you slip and slide, with gravel you just get flesh ripped off you. Not surprisingly it has terrified visiting teams for nearly a century."

Beyond the oval, our perch provided yet another view of the Mount Lyell mine, its surrounds and the harsh ridge of the ranges beyond.












In the opposite direction, on the hilltop leading up to Mount Owen, I spied this one lone tree which was quite evidently determined to surge well ahead of its fellows in the re-vegetation stakes.

















As I said before, this climb was worth the effort. Then of course, we had to get back down, but even this presented more typical Queenstown views where harsh denuded mountain peaks glower over the town.











Well, now that we were warm, it was time for our usual town stroll, and at this point I must confess that the photos are something of a composite collection pulled together over a couple of sorties.





In fact, I have decided to start back at our park and make our way pictorially into the CBD from there, a jaunt which took us initially along Urquhart Street where we passed several neat Queenstown cottages,

and others which may well have belonged to those who were 'just hanging around'.













Crossing the Queen River bridge 














brought us into the southern end of Driffield Street where a spot of exercise lay before us.













The Wilderness Railway line parallels the street along this stretch and our stroll north-west took us firstly past the railway works shed which arched over the lines












and a little further on we came to the first of two main parks on this street.

Here this quite evocative fountain statue, complete with miners' pick,















and this series of small individual monuments in the surrounding circular garden,












serve to remind all and sundry of that dreadful day in 1912.














On the opposite side of the road we found the first of the two operational pubs in the town of which we were aware.








The Railway Hotel was a far cry from the Empire (which we'll visit later), but from what we saw it nevertheless attracted a fair bunch of 'regulars'.








Only two pubs in town!  What a change this was from the days of yore. 

Following the discovery of gold in the area in 1881, many diggers landed at the Strahan Harbour. In an endeavour which stands as a testament to the power of the lure of gold, to reach the area these hardy hopefuls then made the extremely difficult trip up the King River, or even worse, slogged their way up and down the step hills and gullies covered by all but impenetrable scrub. 

Claims were pegged out and Queenstown had its genesis in the shanty town of Penghana in the Queen River Valley. After this was burnt down in 1896, those who stayed moved further along the Queen River to establish what was now renamed as Queenstown.

With the later development of copper mining, and the establishment of the rail link to Strahan, Queenstown boomed.

By 1901, the year the magnificent Empire Hotel was completed, this was Tasmania's third largest town. Its 5000 plus population occupied 1,300 houses, and were served by banks, schools, shops and, of course, several churches (this was Tassie after all).


And just look at the comparative grandeur and dominating position of 'Penghana' in the developing township.

It soon gained electric street lighting, provided by the Company's Lake Margaret power scheme and by now it boasted fourteen pubs......this mining lark is thirsty work!

As we have seen, tree-felling, sulphur and fire denuded the surrounding hills of trees, giving Queenstown its 'moonscape', but the mines brought prosperity and, as well, more militant workers than elsewhere in Tasmania, strong unions, and a close-knit community. Whilst other nearby mining towns established rail links to the north coast, Queenstown remained remote.

As Alison Alexander has noted in her excellent article for the Centre of Tasmanian Historical Studies, "the population rose and fell in succeeding years, as mining's fortunes varied and large machinery gradually displaced manual workers, but Queenstown continued to be a major town. A road linking it to Hobart, the Lyell Highway, was finally opened in 1932. 

From the 1970s the workforce declined, even more so in the 1990s when the Mount Lyell Company sold the mine, but tourism developed, with visitors drawn to the unearthly landscape."

The town did enjoy a brief boom in the 1980's, when the Crotty and Darwin dams were built and the Lake Burbury hydro scheme came into being.

Whilst it still remains the largest town on the island's west coast, with a current population of about 2,000, that is as much a comment on the size of the others (or lack of it) as anything else. But as we were to see, it does remain home to the area council, the regional hospital, the district police headquarters, and a large court house. Obviously tourism now plays a major role in the local economy.

And one of the focal points of that industry was now dominating our view, the long and very well maintained Western Wilderness Railway Station. I'll have more to say about this when I present the blog of our trip on this extraordinary railway.

Beyond the station building a short park 












connects it to another of the town's major attractions. These stone walls marked the entrance to the renowned Miners' Siding sculptures.







In this series of large and small works, the artist Stephen Walker has depicted significant and traditional events in the 100 year history of the Lyell District. This remarkable work and the re-opening of the railway between Queenstown and Strahan in 2003, have both contributed significantly in drawing tourists to this area.

 










This is the reverse view of the main sculpture looking back towards the railway station and the front of 'The Empire'.

Beyond this, the large raised shelter 

















houses a piece of mine machinery of the more modern era.

The two are connected by a long flowing water feature 














in which a series of small castings show various scenes of local life, such as this one which celebrates a picnic on the King River.

The opening up of the west coast to motor vehicles is depicted in this offering 

















whilst this notes the significance of off shore fishing out of Strahan Harbour.







This really is something to see, and has been very strategically sited at what is both the tourist heart of the town and the entrance to Orr Street, the main commercial thoroughfare of Queenie.





Just beyond Miners' Siding, at the far end of Driffield Street, we could see the last of the two major structures in this part of the town, the Galley Museum and the old Evans Store building. 






What is now the museum building (which we probably should have visited, but for some reason did not) has had an interesting and not atypical history. It began life as the Imperial Hotel in 1898 (wasn't the importance then of the ties to the Mother Country reflected in the names of that era....Imperial Hotel, Empire Hotel, Queenstown itself and so on). After the taps ran dry at the bar, this building was then converted to a hospital and later into miners' accommodation before being refurbished and re-opened in its present format.




Whilst no longer a general store as it was when it opened, this building has a real tie with Queenstown, not so much for its current function, but its name.








In another oddity we had been finding throughout Tasmania, here in Queenstown there were two supermarkets, both in Orr Street and both belonging to, and run by, the Evans family. If ever there was a vote of confidence lodged for the promise of the future of Queenstown, the Evans family have provided it is spades.......the current 'Evanses' are members of the fourth generation to maintain the services of a general store/supermarket in the town.





The town War Memorial stands in a small open space opposite Miners' Siding,




















within a stone's throw of one of one of Queenstown's most recognised buildings, the opulent looking Empire Hotel which dominates the junction of Driffield and Orr Streets. We were to return here later for a much better look at the incredible interior of this magnificent watering hole.





Under the ever present backdrop of the scarred and barren crest of Mount Owen, shrouded today as it often was in low cloud, Orr Street was also to provide us with one or two reminders of the heady days of the town with the 'richest copper mine in the world'.







As we ventured more or less east up the gentle incline of this main shopping precinct, this mural bounding one side of a small paved square was unavoidable, but annoyingly I was unable to discover exactly what this was all about, other than the obvious.










The large and almost incongruously 'outback' looking Mount Lyell Motel took up a fair chunk of the corner opposite the square.

We did not have to walk too far before another of the fourteen town pubs of the past featured large in the streetscape.

Unlike the Empire, and the old Imperial, now the town museum, the Hunters Hotel was in a state of obvious disrepair, but I believe from what I was later told, that steps were afoot to bring this grand old lady with her frilly lace balcony back to her former glory. Let's hope this was true.







A mere few paces further on, at the junction of Orr and Stitch Streets, the stunning facade of the Queenstown Post Office showed just what could be done to preserve the town's history beautifully.






Looking in a southerly direction along Stitch Street we could see the flag flying above the Queenstown Police Station with yet another reminder of just how hilly this town is beyond the narrow confines of the Queen River Valley floor. The homes on the hill were just typical of Queenie.



And speaking of homes beetling up a slope, here, looking in the opposite direction along Stitch Street we had another example of both hillside houses and the startling contrast between the old and the new which was also not an uncommon sight here. This suggested to us that there were many younger folk who were prepared to build here and make this town their home.

At about this point I could not resist turning around for another shot of the Post Office, a photo which also shows one of the two Evans stores I spoke of earlier.












And then we came to this oddity. For some reason the owners of this building had decided that the rather imposing facade would look all the better for having the columns decorated with a shiny copper coloured paint. I'll say no more.

I suppose at least the copper columns which were part of the original old front of house have been retained, unlike that of the Gaiety Hall opposite, where for some unknown reason it was decided to plonk this totally unsympathetic front entrance addition right across the original facade. Again, I'll make no further comment.

Another of the town's halls stands right across the road, this time the Lyell District Memorial Hall which was built in the early 30's as the second of Queenstown's acknowledgements of the sacrifices of those who went to war.







One thing which can be said for this town is that it does not want for tourist accommodation. Here, on the corner of Bowes Street the Queenstown Motor Lodge stood ready to welcome guests. 












And should any who do take up temporary residence here fall ill, help is not far away in the form of the modern looking West Coast District Hospital all but next door.






With one last snap of some of Orr Street's older but well preserved little shops














and a general shot back down the street from this end of town, it was time for an about turn and a wander into some of the streets running off this central commercial thoroughfare.





It was also time for a quiet libation in two completely different watering holes, and that's exactly what we did, but I'll make that the subject of my next offering.