Situated 115.18 km (71.57 miles) from Devonport and north of Strahan, and Queenstown, explore historic streetscapes, lakes, dunes and lush rainforests.
The town of Zeehan was named after the nearby Mount Zeehan, which had been named by George Bass and Matthew Flinders after Abel Tasman's Fluyt (ship) Zeehaen.
Mainland Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania were part of the same landmass through much of the Pleistocene era (Sahul).
The food sources of Tasmanian Aboriginal people came from hunting, gathering and fishing. Kangaroo and wallaby, possum and wombat, muttonbird and penguins were hunted, mostly by men. While edible wild plants, roots, flora fruits, eggs and sap were collected in season, by women.
The end of the Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago, caused rising sea levels. About 6000 BC, Tasmanian Aboriginal people (Palawa) became isolated from the rest of humanity for 8,000 years, until European arrival.
The food sources of Tasmanian Aboriginal people came from hunting, gathering and fishing. Kangaroo and wallaby, possum and wombat, muttonbird and penguins were hunted, mostly by men. While edible wild plants, roots, flora fruits, eggs and sap were collected in season, by women.
There are similarities between prehistoric Australian megafauna and some mythical creatures from the Aboriginal Dreamtime. However, Aboriginal people, along with climate change, caused a "perfect extinction storm" and rapidly eliminated the megafauna of Tasmania about 41,000 years ago. (Megafauna were large vertebrates up to almost three tonnes) (1.)
Members of a clan were united by kinship ties and common territory.
British arrival was also the meeting of the most different people on Earth. Divergent concepts of land ownership, beliefs and laws created tensions leading to warfare and great losses for Aboriginal people.
George Augustus Robinson was brought in as a "conciliator" between settlers and Aboriginal people. Assisted by Aboriginal woman, Truganini, an agreement with the greatly feared Big River and Oyster Bay peoples was made. By the end of 1835 most Aboriginal people had been relocated to a new settlement.
Group of Natives of Tasmania (1859) by Robert Hawker Dowling (1827 – 8 July 1886) |
1640s
1798
Georges Bass and Lieut. Matthew Flinders became the first people to circumnavigate Tasmania on a voyage of exploration aboard HMS Norfolk. They named the nearby Mount Zeehan after Abel Tasman's vessel Zeehaen.
The Bass and Flinders Maritime Museum is home to a full-size working replica of the sloop Norfolk. Located George Town Tasmania. Here |
1870s
1880s
Supplies and equipment were brought in by pack~horse from Trial Harbour.Mining grew slowly at Zeehan until 1887 when G. Bell discovered galena (mineral form of lead) nearby. This would become the Silver Queen mine.
A post office opened in 1888.
In 1891 there were 159 companies and syndicates in the area.
Important mines at Zeehan were the Silver Queen. Western and Oceana.
The Emu Bay Railway that linked Zeehan to the North West Coast opened in 1891. The line started in Zeehan's Main Street, about 750 metres from the railway station. The line ascended a steep grade to the summit. When it reached there, the horses were detached and the car under the control of a very powerful brake, moved downwards, with its own momentum to the mine.
The Wesleyan Church opened in Main-street in 1897.
polish, but not sincerity. There was
much money, much gambling, and many
sporting and pastime institutions. There
were some five skittle alleys where big
stakes were placed for, and a man
could be accommodated -with a wager
far or against anything."
News (Hobart, Tas. : 1924 - 1925), Saturday 24 October 1925
"Broken Hill mining interests sent geologists to Zeehan in 1946. After a systematic survey of the fields, the Oceana mine, nestling in a wide valley under Mt. Zeehan about three miles from the town, was selected as the first attempt to bring the Zeehan fields back into production." (2.)
Eileen Joyce (1908-1991), a concert pianist, was born on 1 January 1908 at Zeehan. She became famous and performed on screen and in soundtracks. The height of her fame was during WII.
1980s
West Coast Heritage Centre
The Zeehan-Trial Harbour road was completed in 1889.
Population was about 130 in 1889.
Mineral prices crashed in the 1890s. The Bank of Van Diemens Land, who invested heavily in silver mining ventures, crashed on August 3 1891. The next day 27 mines closed.
1890s
The Stock Exchange, Zeehan, TAS, Illustrated Sydney News (NSW : 1881 - 1894), Saturday 20 June 1891 |
Messrs. Wilson and Pontifex's Premises, Zeehan, Tasmania. Illustrated Sydney News (NSW : 1881 - 1894), Saturday 20 June 1891 |
The tunnel of the Central Balstrup Silver Mining Company, Zeehan, TAS, Illustrated Sydney News (NSW : 1881 - 1894), Saturday 18 July 1891 |
Mr J Stubbings' premises at Zeehan, TAS, Illustrated Sydney News (NSW : 1881 - 1894), Saturday 18 July 1891 |
Charles Sedery unloading goods on Zeehan Williamsford Railway, Tasmania - circa 1890s. Charles Sedery marked with X. He was a guard on the North East Dundas railway. Kaye |
In 1892 the Zeehan-Strahan railway opened and the increased accessibility led to many hopeful miners rushing to the area.
The Emu Bay Railway that linked Zeehan to the North West Coast opened in 1891. The line started in Zeehan's Main Street, about 750 metres from the railway station. The line ascended a steep grade to the summit. When it reached there, the horses were detached and the car under the control of a very powerful brake, moved downwards, with its own momentum to the mine.
Charlie Murphy, a boxer from Zeehan made his debut in 1892.
The Zeehan School of Mines and Metallurgy committee was formed in January 1892. A school with instructors was operating by 1896. In February 1903 the school building was completed.
The Zeehan and Dundas Herald was published by William Lawrence Calder and Joseph Bowden from 1890 to 1922.
Main Street, Zeehan, TAS, 1891-2 |
The Mount Dundas – Zeehan Railway (also known as the Maestris Tram) was a railway line running 7 miles (11 km) from Dundas to Zeehan. It operated from 1892 until 1932, but the rails were removed in 1940.
In 1900, Zeehan was the third largest town in Tasmania after Hobart and Launceston, with a population of 10,000 people.
There was a strike at the Hercules mine from 1905 to 1907.
The main street of Zeehan in its heyday was over three kilometres long with twenty hotels, shops, banks and theatres.
The Zeehan mines were starting to run out of shallow ore and there were insufficient resources for further exploration.
First printing plant arrived at Trial Harbour in September 1893.
Construction of the smelters at Zeehan in 1898, by the Tasmanian Smelting Company. (closed 1960)
According to a newspaper article of 1898, most people lived in the West End, where the main mines were: The Silver Queen, Western, Montana, Oonah and many others. Along the main road there paling shanties, but also palatial hotels. Close to the railway station stood the hospital. But typhoid was lurking about the town. (1.)
The Mount Dundas – Zeehan Railway was a railway line running 7 miles (11 km) from Dundas to Zeehan on the West Coast of Tasmania. Leader (Melbourne, Vic. : 1862 - 1918, 1935), Saturday 9 April 1898 |
The Concentrating Works, Machinery, Ore Shed, and No. 1 Main Shop, Zeehan, TAS, Melbourne Punch (Vic. : 1855 - 1900), Thursday 3 August 1899 |
Cutting on the Colonel North Railway, Zeehan, TAS, Melbourne Punch (Vic. : 1855 - 1900), Thursday 3 August 1899 |
The Colonel North Main Shaft No, 2, Zeehan, TAS, Melbourne Punch (Vic. : 1855 - 1900), Thursday 3 August 1899, |
An early overview of Zeehan station looking south showing the 3ft 6in Government and Emu Bay lines in the centre with an EBR train arriving and the 2ft gauge North East Dundas yards to the right. TGR photo 4S26. Ted Lidster collection, Trainiac |
1900s
Zeehan Station, circa 1900. Ex Tasmanian Main Line Railway carriages, Trainiac |
The census of 1901 showed the population of Zeehan was 5014.
Zeehan station staff, Zeehan, TAS, 1906, Trainiac |
The marriage of George Alexander Fulton and Alice Elizabeth Gardner at Zeehan, Tasmania in 1906. maypm |
ARRIVAL OF LINOTYPES AT ZEEHAN IN OCTOBER, 1907. Zeehan and Dundas Herald (Tas. : 1890 - 1922), Saturday 21 December 1907 |
LINOTYPES Room, The Herald, ZEEHAN. TAS, Zeehan and Dundas Herald (Tas. : 1890 - 1922), Saturday 21 December 1907 |
Messrs Dunkley Bros moving 10 ton engine with 20 horses through main street of Zeehan, TAS, to Heemskirk Tin Syndicate's mine at Tasman River. TAHO Weekly Courier 1912 |
WWI
First volunteers from Zeehan departing on the EBR mixed train to Burnie. O S White photo, 1914. 08. 27. Trainiac |
Rosa Elizabeth Kate Quarterman (1872–1940). In 1904, she was appointed matron of the hospital in Zeehan, south west Tasmania. Zeehan was a thriving town of around 6000 people, enjoying a boom from silver mining. Matron Quarterman and her nurses received the Maltese Cross medals for their handling of a typhoid epidemic. War Service: Sailed from Melbourne on the "Kyarra" and arrived in Egypt on 20 January 1915. 1AGH was set up in the Heliopolis Palace Hotel, a four story luxury facility in the Cairo suburb of Abbassia, on 28 November 1914 with 160 other nurses and medical officers (e.g. Mercury [Hobart], 9.1.1907, 15.4.1907).Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954) Read more |
Some silver-lead ore was being produced at Zeehan but the field had greatly declined.
1920s
During the Depression years, Zeehan almost became a ghost town.
polish, but not sincerity. There was
much money, much gambling, and many
sporting and pastime institutions. There
were some five skittle alleys where big
stakes were placed for, and a man
could be accommodated -with a wager
far or against anything."
News (Hobart, Tas. : 1924 - 1925), Saturday 24 October 1925
Advocate (Burnie, Tas. : 1890 - 1954), Thursday 7 February 1929 |
1930s
Advocate (Burnie, Tas. : 1890 - 1954), Wednesday 1 July 1931 |
Zeehan Tram going past Cecil Hotel towards Zeehan station. It is turning off Main St. and into Wilson St., no date, Trainiac |
1940s and WWII
THE UP-TO-DATE Diesel car recently imported by thc Emu Bay Railway Co. was put into service on the Burnie=Zeehan run yesterday. Advocate (Burnie, Tas. : 1890 - 1954), Tuesday 14 May 1940 |
Advocate (Burnie, Tas. : 1890 - 1954), Saturday 27 October 1945 |
Advocate (Burnie, Tas. : 1890 - 1954), Tuesday 30 October 1945 |
Notable
Harold Gatty, Tasmania |
Eileen Joyce (1908-1991), a concert pianist, was born on 1 January 1908 at Zeehan, TAS, Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Monday 24 May 1948 |
Matron Cicely O'Brien, of the Zeehan Hospital, and formerly of Tuntnack, who recently was awarded the M.B.E.Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Wednesday 21 July 1948 |
1950s
1. A view of the Montana mine. 2. The Oceana mine buildings, with Mt. Zeehan in the background.Advocate (Burnie, Tas. : 1890 - 1954), Saturday 15 December 1951 |
Saturday Evening Express (Launceston, Tas. : 1924 - 1954), Saturday 5 May 1951 |
1960s
A bushfire destroyed 40 homes over several days in Zeehan in February 1981.
Around Zeehan
Gaiety Theatre, Zeehan, TAS, built opened in the 1898, now part of the West Coast Heritage Centre |
Mount Zeehan Post Office, TAS. opened on 1 August 1888 and was renamed Zeehan in 1890 |
Masonic Lodge display at West Coast Heritage Centre at Zeehan, TAS |
St Fursaeus' Catholic Church, Zeehan, TAS, The cornerstone of the church was laid in April 1891, and the first Mass was celebrated in November 1891. |
Mining remains near Spray tunnel Zeehan, TAS |
Zeehan School of Mines and Metallurgy built in 1903, Zeehan, TAS |
Shorty’s Museum at Zeehan, TAS |
Zeehan, TAS |
Zeehan, TAS |
Hotel Cecil, Zeehan, TAS, built 1900 |
West Coast Pioneers' Museum, Zeehan, TAS. Attractions include photo galleries, locomotives, mining machinery and blacksmith shop |
Things To Do and Place To Go