Zeehan is a town on the west coast of Tasmania, Australia. It lies 139 kilometres (86 mi) southwest of
Burnie. At the 2006 census,
Zeehan had a
population of 845. It is part of the Municipality of West Coast.
The town was named after the nearby Mount
Zeehan which had been named by George Bass and Matthew Flinders after Abel Tasman's brig Zeehaen.
Image Could Not Be Found
Image Could Not Be Found
The region has one of the oldest histories of any part of Tasmania, when Abel Tasman sighted this part of the state in 1642. An early port for
Zeehan was
Trial Harbour but it was very precarious in its location on
Ocean Beach and was overtaken by
Strahan.
Zeehan was established as a mining field, then as a town after the
Zeehan-
Dundas silver-lead deposits were found in 1882 by Frank Long. The peak period for mining was up to the First World War,though lead mining continued on up to 1963 at mines such as the Montana and Oceana. The
population of
Zeehan -
Dundas peaked at 10,000 about 1910, over ten times the current
population.
Image Could Not Be Found
Image Could Not Be Found
Image Could Not Be Found
It was clearly in competition with the town further south,
Queenstown, and while the silver boom lasted it was known as the Silver City. In the first decade of the twentieth century it was on a par with
Launceston and
Hobart for size. With a main street over two
miles long (3.2 km); it also claimed over 20 hotels. In the 1970s it saw increased activity due to operations at the nearby Renison Bell Tin
mine, and again in the 1990s.
Image Could Not Be Found
Zeehan was an important railway location — the end of the
Emu Bay Railway, and the beginning of the government-owned
Strahan-
Zeehan Railway service that connected to
Strahan and
Regatta Point, where the Mount Lyell Railway connected to
Queenstown. Also at early stages of the town's history, a series of timber trams spread out from
Zeehan towards the Pieman River as
well as a number of other locations.
Some of the smaller railway operations east of
Zeehan were unique. One had the honour of having the first Garratt steam engine designed and built for its operations.
After the Government rail connection between
Zeehan and
Strahan closed, the Mount Lyell Company trucked its copper ore to the
Emu Bay Railway terminus at Melba Flats, a few kilometres east of
Zeehan.
Image Could Not Be Found
.