Zeehan
Understand
Zeehan was the town of the West Coast in the years before the first world war. Then the silver lodes ran out, and it has struggled since. It still carried on from its legacy of the early 1900s. The buildings, the stories, the ruins, and the struggling hinterland. There never has been the rush or the volume of people that were around in the early days.
The passenger railway service to Burnie was closed by the 1970s, and when Mount Lyell needed to export copper it trucked from Queenstown, and went to Melba Flats, east of Zeehan, to be delivered to the port of Burnie.
There were reprieves for Zeehan in various stages, in the 1970s the rise of the Renison Tin company saw increased usage of the town and its facilities. Most nearby mining ventures tend to be much smaller operations requiring fewer employees, and no new major mines have started, despite a range of deposits of minerals being uncovered every decade in the area.
More recently, the emphasis upon tourism on the West Coast has seen considerable expense in maintaining historic surviving buildings and streetscapes.
Get in
From the North
- Murchison highway - from Burnie, through Tullah and Rosebery
From the South
- Zeehan Strahan road - from Strahan
From the South East
- From Queenstown
Get around
Walking
By car
See
- Spray Tunnel, Fowler Street.
- West Coast Heritage Centre, 114 Main Street, ☎ +61 3 6471 6225.
Do
- Fossicking. Rummage about or prospect for gold, precious stones, fossils, etc.
Buy
Eat
- The Pit Stop, 134 Main Street. 7AM-9PM.
Drink
Sleep
- Heemskirk Motor Hotel, 1-25 Main Street.
- Zeehan Caravan Park, Hurst Street, e-mail: enquiries@zeehancaravanpark.com. Cabins, caravans and powered sites. Close to the town centre.
Connect
Go next
- north - Rosebery
- south east - Queenstown
- south - Strahan