Tasmanian Bush Heritage
In a previous blog, ‘Digging up Mrs Williams, or the phantom of the Heemskirk tin boom’, I pondered Con Curtain’s story of a woman who died at the Orient Tin Mine on Tasmania’s West Coast in 1882.1 Who was she? Where was she buried? Did she even exist? No one besides Curtain ever mentioned Mrs … Read moreDigging up Mrs Williams 2: a skeleton in the closet or just in an unmarked grave?
On 28 May 1882 a woman died on Tasmania’s West Coast and was laid to rest nearby. No doctor attended her, no police constable, magistrate or registrar was notified.1 No priest officiated at her funeral. None of these positions existed on the Heemskirk Tin Field. There was nothing but a scattered population of mostly Cornish … Read moreDigging up Mrs Williams, or the phantom of the Heemskirk tin boom
The story so far It has been a few months since we posted about the Colebrook mine. We have told its story from the promise of a brilliant future to its reality as a sad memory.1 The Fiasco For years, the Colebrook Prospecting Association (the Association) had proclaimed that the mine was big, full of … Read moreThe Colebrook Fiasco Part 4 – Who caused the fiasco and the failure?
The Story So Far In 1897, three respected mining entrepreneurs announced that mine on Colebrook Hill would be greater than Mount Lyell.1 William Knox, William Orr and Herman Schlapp had helped create the massive Mount Lyell copper mine and had made their reputations in the early days of Broken Hill’s silver boom.2 They bought a … Read moreThe Colebrook Fiasco – Part 2 – The dream of smelting in the forest
The wash in the creeks may carry gold, and lodes in the ridges be, But the pyritic ore of the copper belt it pleases most to see; Through the nameless scrub in the sun or rain we follow the luring quest. And cut our way with our tomahawks where the badger makes his nest. (Paul … Read moreThe Colebrook Fiasco – part 1, the long and careful years