Rosebery - West Coast, Tasmania.
Rosebery is a mining town nestled on the side of a hill in remote western Tasmania some 300 kilometers west of Hobart. Surrounded by largely inhospitable terrain and given to notoriously fickle weather it’s safe to say that Rosebery may never have developed had it not been for the vast amounts of gold and other precious metals found in the region.
In 1893 a prospector named Tom McDonald staked out his claim and found gold. The following year Zinc and Lead were found and in 1897 Copper was being mined at nearby Primrose.
Rosebery was named after McDonald’s company, the Rosebery Gold Mining Company which in turn had been named after Lord Rosebery, the British Prime Minister of the time.
Before long a wild & woolly frontier town had sprung up on the slopes of Mount Black and the hardy miners were extracting vast amounts of mineral wealth.
The arrival of the Emu Bay Railway from Burnie in 1899 provided much needed easy access for goods coming in to Rosebery and the export of gold, copper and zinc but the town’s future hung by a thread until 1920 when the Electrolytic Zinc Company moved in. Over the next twenty years the company invested heavily in infrastructure and housing for the mine workers, laying the foundation for an industry which still ensures the towns prosperity today.
The nearby Montezuma Falls are the highest in Tasmania, plummeting 133 meters and accessed via a 3 hour return walk through magnificent rainforest and, in part, atop an old timber-cutters tramway.
This Tassie Local snapshot was produced by Footloose Photographic & Media Solutions
Things to see around - Rosebery
Rosebery - West Coast, Tasmania
