FROM COPPER TO SILVER AND A TRICKY HARBOUR - QUEENSTOWN - PART 6 (TRIAL HARBOUR AND ZEEHAN) (20 JANUARY 2018)

With Queenstown now well and truly under our tourists' belts it was time to upgrade our ore. Remember this......the board we found overlooking Queenstown? 

There can be little doubt that western Tasmania was, and in some cases, remains, a minerals bonanza. 

The discoveries and subsequent exploitation of this underground wealth provide a raft of stories of determination bordering on stubbornness, endeavour, endurance, almost unbelievable hardship, greed, rivalry, inventiveness, and the inevitable boom/bust cycles which I have learnt are all part and parcel of the mining industry.

We had seen all of this in the Queenstown story. Now it was time to visit what was once 'The Queen's' major rival, the old silver town of Zeehan.  And, for me at least, with a much greater love of all things marine than my significant other, our planned visit to Trial Harbour, which was once Zeehan's port, was something of a bonus.

Today we decided to take the 'ring route', north-west out of Queenstown to Zeehan, thence on down what is on this Google Earth offering, the barely discernible track to Trial Harbour, 

and, after a return to and wander around Zeehan itself, south along the B27, past the huge Henty sandhills (the white patches) and back to Queenie via Strahan.

This promised to be a pretty big day, so let's get to it.




Once north of our first junction out of Queenstown, the Zeehan Highway, which was a surprisingly good road, took us through country which was heavily timbered, and over a couple of delightful creek crossings (which I've saved for later when we head off further north on our travels).

Drifting light cloud and mist did little to enhance our view of the peaks of the ranges through which we were travelling, but we had been here long enough to treat this slight disappointment philosophically. 

We scooted through the main street of Zeehan and out to to far end of town,

until, some little distance north of the 'city limits' we came to the sign we had been expecting.

  

Our pre-trip planning had led us to believe that this road was completely unsealed, so it was something of a bonus to discover that the initial few kilometres were good blacktop which meandered through low, thickly timbered hills,

and the odd quite impressive cutting.

Our hopes for clear skies had still not materialised

when the rather vague thought I was entertaining that the charts had been outdated and this road was sealed throughout was dashed. With little warning, and for no reason I could discern, we found ourselves on the narrow gravel track we had been expecting.

As we came closer to the coast, we left the tall trees and headed out into button grass plains on a road

which twisted and turned its way across mildly undulating countryside 

until we breasted this rise and caught our first sighting of the Southern Ocean just before passing the junction of one of the many trails and walking tracks for which this area is noted.

Ah, the sea! It had been a while. It was so good to be on a coast again (author's comment only!). Trial Harbour lay at the bottom of a quite substantial row of hills which meant that our approach to this now tiny seaside hamlet involved a cautions descent.

But of course, height usually brings the reward of views, and this was no exception.

As is oft the case on the Apple Isle, I was somewhat amused by this speed restriction

given it came just before this final elbow bend of our descent. Even unencumbered by our usual 'sea anchor' as we were today, prudence had demanded a reduction to a speed much lower than 40 kph.

This 'local' invocation made much more sense.

If the reliable 'Aussie Towns' was to be believed, this is what we were expecting to find here. 

"Originally the service port for the mining town of Zeehan, Trial Harbour, once a thriving town with shops, hotels and businesses is now home to just 46 houses that are mainly holiday shacks with just a few permanent residents. 

Just 30 minutes from Zeehan, Trial Harbour is a picturesque surprise after journeying the gravel road through rain forest and button grass plains. There are magnificent surf beaches, fantastic views and great fishing."

We knew that there was a camping ground of some repute here, and had been told it would be crawling at this time of year. It sits off the entrance road a touch north of the main settlement. We decided to check this out first and duly eased our way along the track to the camp car park.

Well, there was certainly a bush loo here, that's a start. But true to what we had been advised, that's it. Here at the Trial Harbour camp ground it is a requirement that visitors bring all they need.

To our great surprise, although there were

a couple of camps set up, the area was all but empty. OK, this was towards the end of the school holidays, but nevertheless, from all we had been told, this lack of activity was not at all what we had expected.

Mind you, neither was 'the beach' immediately below the camping ground. 

As you can see, the weather had not lifted yet, and we were just slightly peeved as we made our way back along the camp ground entrance track

and on into the 'built up area' (with a much more sensible official speed limit!). I invite you to take note of the brown shack just beyond the speed sign. I'll come back to this later. As this photo demonstrates, the dwellings here at Trial Harbour are a varied lot,

something which did not alter as we made our way further south into the town

to its far southern end, where a bridge was to take us across a small stream, but not before we had passed the two story home on the left,

where, judging by the back yard enhancements, the occupants clearly had too much time on their hands. 

As I was snapping away here, a chap appeared as if on cue on the upper balcony to enquire if I would like to wander around and take a closer look. Bored they may be, but certainly not unwelcoming! I did politely decline the offer (which I strongly suspected may well have led to a further conversational embrace which would have demanded rudeness to break) 

and quickly remounted the Cruiser to scuttle on to the beachfront car park on the other side of the bridge.

  

Here the local decorative enhancement came in the form of this old whale skull (or part thereof) and an assortment of other 'osteo' oddments, presumably from the same source. Why was I not surprised? 

From this vantage point we could see out over the beach immediately in front of us

and off to the right beyond the rock bed of the creek outfall. There was a great deal more sand south of this point. In fact one of the longest beaches in Tassie extends along this coast from Macquarie Harbour north to where we were standing as you can see on the Google Earth shot). 

The white sign at the right hand turnoff to the car park told us that the building above housed the local history museum and tempted as we were, we did have an eye for the time and our schedule.

This had already been put back a bit by dint of another of those extraordinary 'meetings on the road'. As we had paused on our way into town a couple enjoying coffee on their front porch had spotted our SA number plates......and launched. 

Yep, they were from Adelaide. They had visited Trial Harbour some years ago, fell in love with the place, promptly returned home, sold up and here they were. .....now very keen to have a chat to what I became sure they viewed as 'old neighbours' in the same way folk I had met in tiny little villages in Cyprus were sure that I would have known 'their cousin who lives in Melbourne'!

So, whilst we did not tarry at the Trial Harbour museum, that decision was tinged with some regret because this place has a fascinating history. From 'Aussie Towns' yet again (with a couple of photos from information boards near the car park):

"The township came into being in the 1880's as the port that served Zeehan..............[The name] Trial Harbour originates from a small vessel called 'Trial' that arrived, carrying the new manager of the nearby Montagu Mine. 

Overnight the Trial was blown up onto the beach during a gale and shortly after Mr George Davies of the Hobart Mercury newspaper arrived. He asked the name of the boat on the beach and raised his glass with the toast "Here's to the health of Trial Harbour" and thus the name came into being on March 10th 1881.

[This was not a good choice from the outset as was demonstrated by the fate of the 'Trial'. Facing directly out onto the Southern Ocean, where the prevailing 'Roaring Forties' regularly lashed the coast with huge seas, Trial Harbour was virtually unprotected]. 

In 1891 the total population was around 200 permanent people and there was a general store, a blacksmiths shop, an eatery, a couple of hotels and post and telegraph offices and quarters for police - or troopers as they were then known.  Include all the houses that had sprung up with the camps and tents all around and it was a pretty busy place. The South Heemskirk mining area was to the North East with Zeehan to the east just over 20 kms away. Transport was by  pack horse and the roads were rough.

[The two storey building is one of the original town pubs].

In February 1887  nearly every building was destroyed by a bushfire that swept through the area. Most of the buildings were rebuilt and the bustle of the town continued. However in 1892 the railway between Zeehan and Strahan opened and this diminished Trial Harbours usefulness to the point where it was no longer needed. 

A few years later the town was destroyed again by another bushfire and this time it was not rebuilt. Nearly everyone left and the area was not reoccupied until the next century had well and truly started.  

Nowadays the bustle and noise of a busy frontier town servicing the mining industry has been replaced with relaxed peacefulness, the sound of campfires, cameras clicking, children playing and people enjoying themselves, all overlaid with the sounds of the bush and the sea."

As I read about this history of this ill-fated port, with a harbour whipped by gales and a town twice destroyed by fire, I could not help but ponder on the name of the boat which brought the mine manager here. ......eerily prophetic!  I did wonder if she had a sister ship...'The Tribulation'? 

But as has been noted, even if today there were no children playing or campfires burning, this place was certainly relaxed. Homes ranged from humble cottages

of varying styles

to much larger abodes

of more recent construction.

And, as we drove out of town, we spotted the 'For Sale' sign on that little brown shack I spoke of at the outset of this visit. 

We hoped it came with a lot of land!

I mentioned at one stage that this was a town where we strongly suspected the permanents had time on their hands. This roadside rock we saw on our departure did nothing to alter that view!

And finally, as we made our return back towards the hazy ranges between the coast and Zeehan, 

let me bring our Trial Harbour visit to an end with this overview of the haphazard clutter of 

homes and shacks which make up this quiet and delightful little seaside town, one which had such a different beginning (thanks to 'The Great Australian Secret' for the shot).

I guess the phrase 'a very different beginning' could apply even more so to Zeehan. The Zeehan we visited today has been described thus by 'Aussie Towns':

"Zeehan is a classic "mining boom" town. Down the main street it has a run of no more than half a dozen buildings which hint at its bygone mining affluence. 

Sadly the former grandeur of the town's late 19th century, and early 20th century, prosperity has been been diluted with new houses, a modern library, a modern police station and the certain knowledge  that once you have wandered down the main street and explored the excellent local museum and the buildings adjoining it, you have seen everything of significance that Zeehan has to offer."

I have rarely read a town description with which I agree more. We left feeling as thought we had just visited a grand old dowager who's high society life had been reduced to sitting alone in an arm chair watching the sun set and waiting to die.

The degree of the demise of this town is highlighted by its past. A quick history.

Abel Tasman first sighted this region in 1642. He named Mount Zeehan after his ship. Eerily, whilst standing off this coast on 22 November, Tasman noted that his ship's compasses 'were not steady', and he concluded that the there must be 'loadstone' nearby.  How right he was, and this was two days before his lookout spotted Tasmania!

In 1802 Tasman's contribution to he the exploration  of this area was highlighted by Bass and Flinders who confirmed the name of the mountain Tasman had seen and added nearby Mount Heemskirk to the map, named after Tasman's second vessel. 

In 1879 tin was discovered at Mount Heemskirk just north of where Zeehan now stands. This was a fizzer. In the ensuing few years over fifty companies staked what turned out to be virtually worthless claims over a vast area of the bush.

This all changed in late 1882 when one Frank Long discovered silver and lead in the area. The assay results of his find were impressive and this led to the the largest mining boom on Tasmania's west coast. Appropriately, Frank did pretty well out of this. He was granted a Government pension of one pound per week for life, which in those days was not to be sneezed at.

One would have to say that this was the least he deserved. By 1891 there were 159 companies operating in the area on mining leases. The town was booming. Zeehan had its own Stock Exchange with sixty members and between 1890 and 1910 the mines were producing an average of 200,000 pounds worth of silver per year. 

Unsurprisingly, Zeehan became known as the 'Silver City of the West' and at the height of the area's prosperity it boasted a population of some 10,000. Only Hobart and Launceston were larger.

The main street of the town was over two miles long and was lined with banks, theatres and hotels (20 of them!), some of which were buildings of a grandeur and elegance which proclaimed the town's wealth. Competition with Queenstown to the south was alive and well.

But as we know, this did not last. By 1910 the ore was running out. With that and the effect of WW1, Zeehan's population dropped dramatically, to a mere 650 by the 1950's and the last local silver mine closed in 1960.

Today nearby nickel and zinc mines, and a tin miming operation at Renison Bell contribute significantly to the local economy, but the town still relies heavily on tourism for its continuing survival. Many of those who now live here are miners working at Renison Bell or even further afield at Savage River (more of that later). 

So let's have a brief look at what is left of all of this.  As this map shows, the main street of the town is anything but straight, and that of course makes for difficult imaging. 

In any event, all that is now left of the past glory of this thoroughfare is to be found along the short stretch of of the street on the bend I've circled.

We began our tour at the southern end of town. Turing off the Zeehan Highway onto Main Street brought us into this unremarkable end of town where we passed a supermarket and a service station

before coming to the red brick hotel building opposite the 'servo', the Cecil Hotel. All very 'non-historical' so far! The bend beyond the pub took us along a fairly open stretch of Main Street

until, on our right, we came to the first of what looked like the sort of building we had come here to see.

Parking a little further up the road, we walked back to photograph the Zeehan Municipal Chambers which once housed the local government authority for the town (now all moved to Queenstown as the West Coast Council).

From here we could see further north along Main Street to the next bend, and this is where the remaining cluster of old buildings are to be found,

beginning with (what we presumed to be an old bank building) and the adjoining bakery on the corner of Frederick Street.

The opposite side of the road is home to a large open area dedicated to one of the town's former luminaries. Howards Park houses all that would be expected in a public space such as this in a town attempting to attract tourists (toilets, BBQs, picnic tables),

a surprisingly good skate park behind these quaint little mosaic covered walls

and one of the oddest looking public memorials we had ever come across, the monument to the redoubtable Mr Howard.

Now we were into the nitty gritty of what remains of old Zeehan and this one of several well presented information boards at the park provided a photo of a section of Main Street in the early 1900's. 

This is another I gleaned from the web (thanks to 'The Advocate')

As I seem to be more and more often of late, I am indebted to 'Aussie Towns' for this composite shot of the main cluster of Zeehan buildings which were but some of the many which lined Main Street during the town's heyday, beginning at what is now the town museum and ending at the Gaiety Theatre.

We probably should have visited the West Coast Heritage Centre, housed as it now is in the old Zeehan School of Mines and Metallurgy building which rose in 1903,

but frankly folks, by now, after all we had been up to in Queenstown itself, on the Wilderness Railway, and beyond, we were 'historied out' for the time.

We did take a quick look at some of the outdoor exhibits 












including these old steam trains standing sedately under the large overhead roof

before moving on further down the street. Here the old Post Office 

dwarfed the original Court House which had found itself crammed in between the Post Office

and the extraordinary edifice on it other side, the Gaiety Theatre. In my humble opinion this building says more about Zeehan's wealth and status than any other.

Built in 1898 for Edward Mulcahy MHA after his previous hotel, The Royal Exchange, had been destroyed by fire, at the staggering cost of 7,075 pounds, the Gaiety Theatre which also incorporated the Grand Hotel, was then the largest concert hall and theatre in Australia.

With a seating capacity of over 1,000, this theatre attracted performances by the JC Williamson company which brought shows across from Melbourne on a regular basis. The All Male Welsh Choir which performed here was a particular favourite.....there was standing room only.

And such was the status and amenity of the attached Grand Hotel, that rooms here were charged at city rates with comparable service provided to guests. Zeehan was certainly 'on the map' in those days.

Beyond the theatre, a completely incongruous log cabin 

abutted another old Main Street building (original use unknown), and that was the end of it.

Beyond here, this end of Main Street lost all association with its past. There was nothing of historical note about the town hardware store,

or the derelict looking service station opposite.

As we wandered back from this end of the street we came across the rather non-descript town RSL where the lineage of the very healthy looking pine tree was, like so many others around the country,

attributed to the scene of this famous Gallipoli battlefield. We still have our doubts about many of these!

From here I took this shot across the vacant land to show the size of the rear of this building which fronted the main street

just beyond the premises of the town pharmacy and land agent.

The Central Hotel was on the market at the time of our visit, but up until quite recently, its  many rooms had apparently been used as backpacker accommodation and the beer taps had been dispensing welcoming beverages to any who breasted the bar. 



We believe that the upkeep has become to much for its current owner (we suspect that with the recent revival of this town, this pub could be a good investment).

As we concluded our quick tour of Zeehan the description provided by 'Aussie Towns' resonated. 

What a shame it is that more had not been done to retain, restore and maintain far more of old Zeehan, but that takes money and effort.  I guess this is one 'boom' town in which, when the 'the bust' came, it was so complete that we should probably be grateful that enough of its past glory survived to allow our imaginations to do the rest.