Queenstown

What’s special about Queenstown?

• Once the world’s richest mining town.
• A living history of railways, mining and determination in a lunar landscape of denuded hills.
• A resilient community where industry meets art, as painters, film-lovers and entrepreneurs find reasons to call it home.

You can explore the region's natural beauty on the West Coast Wilderness Railway to the port of Strahan - one of Australia's great historic train journeys. Visit Miners Siding and the Galley Museum, or venture underground on a tour that reveals Queenstown's rich mining history.

In a dramatic contrast to the scarred hills, wilderness walks in nearby areas take you through dense, wildlife-inhabited forest to disused tramlines and mineshafts, lookouts and waterfalls, including Tasmania's highest, Montezuma Falls.

More things to do:
West Coast Wilderness Railway
Douggies Underground Mine Tour
Eric Thomas Gallery Museum
Paragon Theatre

The story of Queenstown:
Throughout the town's 110-year mining history, diminishing gold resources resulted in a shift to copper mining. Large copper smelters, fuelled by surrounding timber, polluted the area and left the landscape sparse. Vegetation is now slowing regrowing.

Travel Directions:
Queenstown is a two-hour drive from Burnie, or four hours along the Lyell Highway (A 10) from Hobart. Be prepared for wet weather and strong winds anywhere on the west coast.