After leaving Lake St Clair we headed to the historic destination of Strahan via Queenstown. Again we were blown away by the quality of the landscapes we encountered en route - and especially the mining landscapes around Queenstown.
En route to Queenstown we navigated some lovely mountain scenery endowed with thick forest cover.
But as we approached Queenstown the landscape was increasingly denuded of vegetation and we encountered piles of mining debris and saw large holes in the ground - relic mining quarries where the ores were exhausted or no longer viable to mine. I pointed out to Max that he 'owned' some of this territory since, like both Dot and I, he's invested in Australia's premier mining, BHP.
On the right you can see the village of Gormanston which is now almost derelict. Queenstown had a population of c. 5000 in 1900, but now has less than 2000. The reason simple. Gold mining has long gone and the copper mines are on care and maintenance pending future price rises. Queenstown can be seen in the following photo.
It's a shadow of its former self and we quickly navigated the twisting highway to the coastal port of Strahan, itself steeped in history. Judging by the bill-board this is an angler's paradise!
But, as we will see in the next two posts, it was for us the base for two great trips. One was on a steam railway and the other on a catamaran across Macquarie Harbour.
AS
En route to Queenstown we navigated some lovely mountain scenery endowed with thick forest cover.
But as we approached Queenstown the landscape was increasingly denuded of vegetation and we encountered piles of mining debris and saw large holes in the ground - relic mining quarries where the ores were exhausted or no longer viable to mine. I pointed out to Max that he 'owned' some of this territory since, like both Dot and I, he's invested in Australia's premier mining, BHP.
On the right you can see the village of Gormanston which is now almost derelict. Queenstown had a population of c. 5000 in 1900, but now has less than 2000. The reason simple. Gold mining has long gone and the copper mines are on care and maintenance pending future price rises. Queenstown can be seen in the following photo.
It's a shadow of its former self and we quickly navigated the twisting highway to the coastal port of Strahan, itself steeped in history. Judging by the bill-board this is an angler's paradise!
But, as we will see in the next two posts, it was for us the base for two great trips. One was on a steam railway and the other on a catamaran across Macquarie Harbour.
AS
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