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Increase Text SizeAU Discover Tasmania > Destinations > Launceston, Tamar and North > Beaconsfield
Beaconsfield
What’s special about Beaconsfield?
- The Beaconsfield Mine & Heritage Centre.
- The Holy Trinity Church.
At the Beaconsfield Mine and Heritage Centre, you can crawl through a pipe and look into the replica crushed cage that miners Todd Russell and Brant Webb were trapped in for 14 days. The Beaconsfield Mine and Heritage Centre has a new display dedicated to the harrowing rockfall on Anzac Day, 2006, which tragically killed workmate Larry Knight. See the miner’s torn overalls and images taken of the two men trapped one kilometre (3000 feet) below ground in a 1.5 metre (five feet) square wire cage.
The Centre is an ideal place to learn about Beaconsfield’s rich gold mining history, and you can watch working machinery, hunt for gold and learn from the interactive displays. The Holy Trinity Church is also of interest, a beautiful church constructed from timber in 1907. Notice the wooden gables and step inside to view the intricate detail of the internal woodwork. Less than 10 kilometres (6 miles) from Beaconsfield is the Holwell Gorge reserve, where you can find beautiful tall trees, waterfalls and a scenic walking track.
More things to do:
Narawntapu National Park
Batman Bridge
Nearby wineries
The story of Beaconsfield:
By 1881 Beaconsfield was regarded as the richest gold town in Tasmania. At its peak there were 53 companies working the goldmines. The last mine closed in 1914 when the mining technology of the day proved uneconomical. Mining started again in the early 1990s when the price of gold and advancement in technology made it more economically viable.
Like so many Australian regional towns it has been through a series of name changes. Originally, it was known as Cabbage Tree Hill, and when goldmining began in the 1870s it became known as Brandy Creek. Its present name was proclaimed in 1879 to honour the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Sir Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield.
Travel directions:
Beaconsfield is about 30-minutes’ drive (40 kilometres/24 miles) north-west of Launceston.