(see photo left)
QUEENSTOWN
We are still in the mining district of Tasmania, the Western Tiers, and we could see huge mine complexes on the hillsides. So we visited the Galley Museum to learn about the mining community. This many-roomed museum was plastered with old photos of the different mining communities in the region.We stayed to watch a fascinating documentary on the rise and fall of the copper mining industry here and the rivalry between the different mine operators.
Queenstown was much like Zeehan, but much bigger. It also had the look of a failing town after a glorious past, and was hoping for tourism to save it. They certainly knew how to make statement buildings in the past.
Queenstown is the destination for the West Coast Wilderness Railway from Strahan, and has a lovely old station. Apparently, the opening of the railway and the hooting of its engine at 5 am increased the birthrate in Queenstown!
The town of Queenstown is dominated by the mountains….
We drove up these hills for some lovely views.
LAKE ST. CLAIR
Once over the mountains and down the other side, we reached the Lake St. Clair National Park. We started out on a bush walk in the glorious afternoon sunshine.
Plant life here never boring, but I think this one below is an alien!
We were in search of a platypus who should have been playing in the rivers here, but we never found one.
We found a little echidna who rapidly put its head inside a dead tree branch.
And, we saw the tail end of a black snake disappear into the undergrowth. There are only three species of snake in Tasmania and they are all venomous, but not necessarily deadly.
It was at this stage that we questioned whether we were on the right track as this was more muddy, remote, and difficult to walk through than we’d expected. It turned out that we had taken a wrong turn so a 1.5 hour walk took us three hours instead. Still, the view down by the lake at this time was lovely.
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