Pillinger, Tasmania is an abandoned port and townsite in Kelly Basin

Kelly Basin, Tasmania

Kelly Basin is a bay on the south eastern side of Macquarie Harbour on the West Coast of Tasmania, Australia.It was the location of the terminus of the North Mount Lyell Railway, and the ghost town of Pillinger....

, on the south eastern side of Macquarie Harbour

Macquarie Harbour

Macquarie Harbour is a large, shallow, but navigable by shallow draft vessels inlet on the West Coast of Tasmania, Australia.-History:James Kelly wrote in his narrative "First Discovery of Port Davey and Macquarie Harbour" how he sailed from Hobart in a small open five-oared whaleboat to discover...

 on the West Coast

West Coast, Tasmania

The West Coast of Tasmania is the part of the state that is strongly associated with wilderness, mining and tourism, rough country and isolation...

 of Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

.

It was constructed for James Crotty

James Crotty

James Crotty is a Post-Keynesian macroeconomist whose research in theory and policy attempts to integrate the complementary analytical strengths of the Marxian and Keynesian traditions...

's North Mount Lyell

North Mount Lyell

North Mount Lyell was the name of a mine, mining company, locality and former railway near Gormanston on the West Coast of Tasmania...

 mining company to ship ore from the North Mount Lyell mine, utilising the North Mount Lyell Railway

North Mount Lyell Railway

The North Mount Lyell Railway was built to service the North Mount Lyell mine in West Coast Tasmania at the start of the Twentieth century to take ore from Gormanston east of the West Coast Range to the Crotty smelters, and then on to Pillinger in the Kelly Basin of Macquarie Harbour, from where...

 that took the ore to the smelters at Crotty

Crotty, Tasmania

Crotty was a gazetted townsite in Western Tasmania, which had a smelter and railway connection with the North Mount Lyell mine in the very early twentieth century. The North Mount Lyell smelters failed, and the company was absorbed by the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company...

 and on to Pillinger. East Pillinger was a company town, and West Pillinger was the neighbouring government town. East Pillinger had 3 wharves, a sawmill, brickworks and ore crusher. West Pillinger had stores, hotels and a police station.

Pillinger was the name of an old Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

n family, some of whom were politicians.

When the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company

Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company

Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company was a Tasmanian mining company formed on the 29 March 1893, most commonly referred to as Mount Lyell. Mount Lyell was the dominant copper mining company of the West Coast from 1893 to 1994, and was based in Queenstown, Tasmania.Following consolidation of...

took over the North Mount Lyell operations, most of the town and port facilities were either removed and utilised elsewhere, or left to rot.

The Tasmanian government have graded the town and its vicinity as a historical area.