Tullah, Tasmania
Encyclopedia
Tullah is a town in the northern part of the West Coast Range, on the west coast
of Tasmania
, about 111 km south of Burnie
. The town has a population of roughly 270 people. At the 2006 census
, Tullah had a population of 195.
The town is roughly divided into two "suburbs", an older northern and a younger, more planned out southern. the northern half was originally a mining town called Mount Farrell, established in year 1900 after silver lead ore was discovered in the area. It was later extended southwards by the HEC
and used as a hydroelectric power scheme
construction town during the making of the Pieman Scheme in the 1970s to early 1990s when its population reached 2500, but is now mainly a community at the edge of Lake Rosebery
and a fishing location. Prior to adequate roads being built in the area, it was serviced by the Wee Georgie Wood Railway
under its earlier name of the North Farrell Tramway.
The railway originally had 3 locomotive
s, Wee Georgie Wood, Wee Mary Wood and a Krauss engine named "Puppy". Wee Mary Wood was never restored and its chassis is currently in the Ida Bay/Lune River area. Prior to working in Tullah, Puppy worked in the Duck River region of the state and was eventually bought by the North Mt Farrell Co. The name "Puppy" was given due to its high pitched whistle, but it was originally Krauss number 2640 of 1892. The engine was eventually sold to Ida Bay in the 1930's where it still is today. The most well known locomotive
, Wee Georgie Wood, has been salvaged and returned to operation, but as of 1010, it has been stripped down due to restoration work while the diesel engine "Alpha Romeo" works the short track in its place. Today the majority of the original track is now under the waters of Lake Rosebery but a short length of track close to the Murchison Highway
is still in use (known as the Wee Georgie Wood Railway), along with some rolling stock. The track is a two-foot (610 mm) gauge, standard at the time. The Wee Georgie Wood railway currently has the remains of another Krauss locomotive that worked in the Queenstown
area, a few electric locomotives (2 more of the same make are rotting at the western end of Gleadow Street in Launceston) and a gang motor from the original line. Beyond the highway, the remaining 600m of railway to the mines was repurposed into part of the Mackintosh Dam Road
. A small timber line, approximately 7 km long, also ran south from the town.
Tullah features in the novel "The Sound of One Hand Clapping" by Richard Flanagan
, published in 1997.
Mobile telephone service is erratic, more reliable in the northern part of town, and in the hills above town. Television reception is also erratic, and many houses have a satellite TV dish. Internet connectivity is dialup or VSAT
satellite link.
The town is located on the shore of Lake Rosebery
. Small boats can, with care, be launched into the lake from the boat ramp off the main street, Farrell Street.
s, possum
s, wallabies
, the occasional tiger quoll
and (rarely) a Tasmanian Devil
.
Towns near Tullah include Rosebery
, Zeehan
, Queenstown
, Strahan
and Waratah
. It is also near Cradle Mountain
and (via Rosebery) the Montezuma Falls
.
Local lakes include the Mackintosh, Pieman, Murchison, Plimsoll and Herbert. Local rivers include the Mackintosh
, Sophia
(south end of Lake Mackintosh), Murchison
, Pieman
, Que and Fossey and various tributaries and creeks, such as Animal Creek.
Nearby are Murchison Dam
, and the Sophia Adit, a mine-style tunnel leading to the main Sophia Tunnel which links Murchison Dam with Lake Mackintosh. An alternative is the Mackintosh Dam
and Tullabardine Dam. There are boat ramps into Lake Mackintosh.
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...
, about 111 km south of Burnie
Burnie, Tasmania
- Sport :Australian rules football is popular in Burnie. The city's team is the Burnie Dockers Football Club in the Tasmanian State League.Rugby union is also played in Burnie. The local club is the Burnie Rugby Union Club. They are the current Tasmanian Rugby Union Statewide Division Two Premiers...
. The town has a population of roughly 270 people. At the 2006 census
Census in Australia
The Australian census is administered once every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 9 August 2011; the next will be conducted in 2016. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they had also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933,...
, Tullah had a population of 195.
The town is roughly divided into two "suburbs", an older northern and a younger, more planned out southern. the northern half was originally a mining town called Mount Farrell, established in year 1900 after silver lead ore was discovered in the area. It was later extended southwards by the HEC
Hydro Tasmania
Hydro Tasmania, known for most of its history as The HEC, is the government owned enterprise which is the predominant electricity generator in the state of Tasmania, Australia...
and used as a hydroelectric power scheme
Hydropower
Hydropower, hydraulic power, hydrokinetic power or water power is power that is derived from the force or energy of falling water, which may be harnessed for useful purposes. Since ancient times, hydropower has been used for irrigation and the operation of various mechanical devices, such as...
construction town during the making of the Pieman Scheme in the 1970s to early 1990s when its population reached 2500, but is now mainly a community at the edge of Lake Rosebery
Lake Rosebery (Tasmania)
Lake Rosebery is a lake created by the damming of the Pieman River West Coast, Tasmania.It has the former Hydro Tasmania construction village at Tullah, Tasmania on its shores, and it also has the diverted Emu Bay Railway line adjacent as well....
and a fishing location. Prior to adequate roads being built in the area, it was serviced by the Wee Georgie Wood Railway
Wee Georgie Wood Railway
The Wee Georgie Wood Railway is a narrow gauge tourist tramway that runs from Tullah to near the Melba Line on the West Coast of Tasmania. It is named after its narrow gauge steam engine, which was named the Wee Georgie Wood due to its diminutive size...
under its earlier name of the North Farrell Tramway.
The railway originally had 3 locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
s, Wee Georgie Wood, Wee Mary Wood and a Krauss engine named "Puppy". Wee Mary Wood was never restored and its chassis is currently in the Ida Bay/Lune River area. Prior to working in Tullah, Puppy worked in the Duck River region of the state and was eventually bought by the North Mt Farrell Co. The name "Puppy" was given due to its high pitched whistle, but it was originally Krauss number 2640 of 1892. The engine was eventually sold to Ida Bay in the 1930's where it still is today. The most well known locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
, Wee Georgie Wood, has been salvaged and returned to operation, but as of 1010, it has been stripped down due to restoration work while the diesel engine "Alpha Romeo" works the short track in its place. Today the majority of the original track is now under the waters of Lake Rosebery but a short length of track close to the Murchison Highway
Murchison Highway
The Murchison Highway runs from the West Coast of Tasmania to Burnie, and was opened on 13 December 1963. The part of the Highway from Waratah to Burnie was known as the Waratah Highway until 1973 at the latest....
is still in use (known as the Wee Georgie Wood Railway), along with some rolling stock. The track is a two-foot (610 mm) gauge, standard at the time. The Wee Georgie Wood railway currently has the remains of another Krauss locomotive that worked in the Queenstown
Queenstown, Tasmania
Queenstown is a town in the West Coast region of the island of Tasmania. It is located in a valley on western slopes of Mount Owen on the West Coast Range.It had a population of 5,119 people . At the 2006 census, Queenstown had a population of 2,117....
area, a few electric locomotives (2 more of the same make are rotting at the western end of Gleadow Street in Launceston) and a gang motor from the original line. Beyond the highway, the remaining 600m of railway to the mines was repurposed into part of the Mackintosh Dam Road
Lake Mackintosh
Lake Mackintosh is a long lake running north-south past Mount Farrell, adjacent to the town of Tullah. It dams the Mackintosh River and Sophia River, then feeds Mackintosh Power Station through into Lake Rosebery. The lake was created in the 1980s and the main basin of the lake was originally a...
. A small timber line, approximately 7 km long, also ran south from the town.
Tullah features in the novel "The Sound of One Hand Clapping" by Richard Flanagan
Richard Flanagan
Richard Flanagan is a novelist from Tasmania, Australia.-Early life:Flanagan was born in Longford, Tasmania, in 1961, the fifth of six children. He is descended from Irish convicts transported to Van Diemen's Land in the 1840s. His father is a survivor of the Burma Death Railway. One of his three...
, published in 1997.
Local amenities
Tullah has a shop, a post office (no deliveries, reception and sending only), a service station, chalets and the Tullah Lakeside Lodge (which both offer accommodation), a teddy bear shop, a woodwork shop, a football oval, a cricket club, and a growing number of modern amenities, including an online access centre.http://www.tco.asn.au/oac/home.cgi?oacID=15Mobile telephone service is erratic, more reliable in the northern part of town, and in the hills above town. Television reception is also erratic, and many houses have a satellite TV dish. Internet connectivity is dialup or VSAT
Very small aperture terminal
A very-small-aperture terminal , is a two-way satellite ground station or a stabilized maritime Vsat antenna with a dish antenna that is smaller than 3 meters. The majority of VSAT antennas range from 75 cm to 1.2 m. Data rates typically range from 56 kbps up to 4 Mbps...
satellite link.
The town is located on the shore of Lake Rosebery
Lake Rosebery (Tasmania)
Lake Rosebery is a lake created by the damming of the Pieman River West Coast, Tasmania.It has the former Hydro Tasmania construction village at Tullah, Tasmania on its shores, and it also has the diverted Emu Bay Railway line adjacent as well....
. Small boats can, with care, be launched into the lake from the boat ramp off the main street, Farrell Street.
Local attractions
Animals which can be seen in the area include: wombatWombat
Wombats are Australian marsupials; they are short-legged, muscular quadrupeds, approximately in length with a short, stubby tail. They are adaptable in their habitat tolerances, and are found in forested, mountainous, and heathland areas of south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania, as well as...
s, possum
Possum
A possum is any of about 70 small to medium-sized arboreal marsupial species native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi .Possums are quadrupedal diprotodont marsupials with long tails...
s, wallabies
Pademelon
Pademelons are small marsupials of the genus Thylogale. They are usually found in forests. Pademelons are the smallest of the macropods...
, the occasional tiger quoll
Tiger Quoll
The tiger quoll , also known as the spotted-tail quoll, the spotted quoll, the spotted-tailed dasyure or the tiger cat, is a carnivorous marsupial of the quoll genus Dasyurus native to Australia...
and (rarely) a Tasmanian Devil
Tasmanian Devil
The Tasmanian devil is a carnivorous marsupial of the family Dasyuridae, now found in the wild only on the Australian island state of Tasmania. The size of a small dog, it became the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world following the extinction of the thylacine in 1936...
.
Towns near Tullah include Rosebery
Rosebery, Tasmania
Rosebery is a town on the west coast of Tasmania, Australia. It is situated at the northern end of the West Coast Range, in the shadow of Mount Black and adjacent to the Pieman River now Lake Pieman....
, Zeehan
Zeehan, Tasmania
Zeehan is a town on the west coast of Tasmania, Australia. It lies southwest of Burnie. At the 2006 census, Zeehan had a population of 845. It is part of the Municipality of West Coast....
, Queenstown
Queenstown, Tasmania
Queenstown is a town in the West Coast region of the island of Tasmania. It is located in a valley on western slopes of Mount Owen on the West Coast Range.It had a population of 5,119 people . At the 2006 census, Queenstown had a population of 2,117....
, Strahan
Strahan, Tasmania
-See also:* Convicts on the West Coast of Tasmania* Macquarie Harbour* Railways on the West Coast of Tasmania* West Coast Piners-Further reading:* *...
and Waratah
Waratah, Tasmania
Waratah is a town in western Tasmania. It was constructed to support a tin mine at Mount Bischoff. The town is built at the top of a waterfall, and water was diverted from the stream to provide water for mine sluicing and processing. At the 2006 census, Waratah had a population of 227.Tin was...
. It is also near Cradle Mountain
Cradle Mountain
Cradle Mountain is a mountain in the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, Tasmania, Australia. Rising to 1,545 metres above sea level it is one of the principal tourist sites in Tasmania, owing to its natural beauty...
and (via Rosebery) the Montezuma Falls
Montezuma Falls
Montezuma Falls are located on a minor tributary to Lake Pieman, north-east of Zeehan, on West Coast Tasmania, Australia.In historical context - on the route of the former North East Dundas Tramway not far from the old mining town of Williamsford at the foot of Mount Read. With a fall of 104...
.
Local lakes include the Mackintosh, Pieman, Murchison, Plimsoll and Herbert. Local rivers include the Mackintosh
Mackintosh River
The Mackintosh River is on the West Coast of Tasmania and flows into the Pieman River. It is north of Tullah.Lake Mackintosh is one of the more substantial hydro man-made lakes on the West Coast....
, Sophia
Sophia River
Sophia River is a minor feeder into Lake Mackintosh and the supply for the Mackintosh Power Station on the West Coast of the Australian State of Tasmania....
(south end of Lake Mackintosh), Murchison
Murchison River (Tasmania)
Murchison River, TasmaniaA river on the West Coast of Tasmania that flows into the Pieman River.It is in the northern section of the West Coast Range.It was dammed by the HEC in its development of the Pieman power development scheme....
, Pieman
Pieman River
The Pieman River is a river on the West Coast of Tasmania, Australia. It was dammed with the 122m high Reece Dam in 1986 - creating Lake Pieman.-Name:...
, Que and Fossey and various tributaries and creeks, such as Animal Creek.
Nearby are Murchison Dam
Murchison River (Tasmania)
Murchison River, TasmaniaA river on the West Coast of Tasmania that flows into the Pieman River.It is in the northern section of the West Coast Range.It was dammed by the HEC in its development of the Pieman power development scheme....
, and the Sophia Adit, a mine-style tunnel leading to the main Sophia Tunnel which links Murchison Dam with Lake Mackintosh. An alternative is the Mackintosh Dam
Mackintosh River
The Mackintosh River is on the West Coast of Tasmania and flows into the Pieman River. It is north of Tullah.Lake Mackintosh is one of the more substantial hydro man-made lakes on the West Coast....
and Tullabardine Dam. There are boat ramps into Lake Mackintosh.
Further reading
- Whitham, CharlesCharles WhithamCharles Whitham was the author of the oft reprinted Western Tasmania: A land of Riches and Beauty - which was a comprehensive study of the geographical features of West Coast, Tasmania and the conditions of the region in the 1920s...
. Western Tasmania: A Land of Riches and Beauty.
- 2003 edition - Queenstown: Municipality of Queenstown.
- 1949 edition - Hobart: Davies Brothers. ; ASINAsínAsín is a municipality located in the Cinco Villas comarca of the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, located a few kilometers west of Orés. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 106 inhabitants....
B000FMPZ80 - 1924 edition - Queenstown: Mount Lyell Tourist Association. ; ASINAsínAsín is a municipality located in the Cinco Villas comarca of the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, located a few kilometers west of Orés. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 106 inhabitants....
B0008BM4XC
External links
- http://www.tullahchalet.com.au/ - Tullah Lakeside Chalet - resort on the shores of Lake Rosebery