West Coast Wilderness Railway

 

Finally the day has finally come to experience the West Coast Wildernss Railway tourist train. I had been hyping up this activity for quite some time so there was a bit of aprehension should it not live up to expectation. I need not have been worried.

The day started with a windy half hour drive up to Queenstown as we had booked ourselves onto the half day excursion which leaves from the historic mining town. It is also the main hub for the train operations on the railway with Regatta point being the satelite.

We watched the train being shunted and prepared for the journey. The locomotives and rail carriages are in immaculate condition. Our loco was the first one bought over from Switerland to service the Lyell Mining Company railway in 1897. It is a credit to the team that maintain these very old pieces of machinery.

Sadley, the Queenstown Station isn't a great grand historic building, but it certainly does the job.

Eventually we were away with all the noise & smells you normally associated with a steam engine.

Initially, the track follows the Queen River which flows past the, now decommisioned, Mount Lyell Mine & through Queenstown. Unfortuantly, poor environmental controls during the mine's life has resulted in the Queen River being poluted by the run off from the mine. The mine is responsible for the orange silt in the river. They are only recently, taking measures to clean up the mine polution.

As we progressed, the forest became increasingly rugged and dense. By the time we reached Rinadeena Station (above), it was proper virgin rainforest. Rinadeena is a station, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, but when the mine was in full swing, it was a buzzing trade hub. Now the station is used as a whiskey & wine tasting Cellar. 

Rinadeena is also the drop off point for white water rafters.

Rinadeena is where the terrain really starts to get rugged and the track steepens up. The Swiss rack & pinnion system allows the trains to climb much steeper gradients than most normal trains.

As we followed the King River Gorge (below), we could hear the different sound the engine made as the rack an pinion was engaged and could feel how hard it was working.

Dubbil Barril Station was the terminus for our train. The track continues all the way down the valley to Regatta Point but we were going back to Quenstown. There is a bit of a trick to achieiving the going back part. First, we had to wait for the inbound train from Regatta Point (above) to pass by enroute to Queenstown.

Next. Our loco was detached from the carriages and backed along the side track that the other train had just been on....

All the way back to what looks like a bridge to nowhere.

Except it is not a bridge, rather a turntable. Then the driver & fireman, push the turntable around...

...and around...

Until the loco is facing the opposite direction. (see video below).

There is a short loop track that meanders through the wild rainforest and under the actual rail bridge.

With our loco returned to the head of the train, we were off back down the hill to Queenstown. Understand that the scenery was quite spectacular thought the journey. The gorge is incredibly steep and the rainforest is very dense. I can't imagine how the rail contruction crews managed to build this unique railway. Sadly, it was near imposible to photograph so we just sat back and enjoyed the journey.

We stopped at Rinadeena on the way back so that the loco cold be topped up with water before we could continue.

The last stop was at Lyncford Station which is almost back in Queenstown. Everyone disembarked and were given the chance to pan for gold out the back of the station.

We were each given a bag of dirt and a pan so it was time to roll up the sleeves and get to it.

No luck for any of the adults, but strangely most of the kids found little specs of gold.

Harry was pretty proud to have some gold to go with his ironstone.

Back in Queenstown, the station was buzzing. Both trains were in, and there was a lot going on to turn them around and send them out again. Out train was doing another run to Dubbil Barril and the other train was returning to Regatta Point.

This wonderful half day (or so) adventure has definetly been one of the top highlights of the entire Tasmanian adventure.

Strahan

Hogarth Falls

We've booked 2 nights in Strahan but were a bit early to check into our accomodation so we decided to walk the short trail to Hogarth Falls essentially just on the outskirts of town.

We were a bit over sitting in the car so it was nice to go for a walk and stretch the legs.

The trail follows the creek through reasonable thick forest, and is lined with tree ferns. and at the end is a nice little waterfall. I was pleasantly surprised there was such a feature so close to the main town.

Regatta Point

We were staying at the Regatta Point Villas across the water from the main part of Strahan. We checked in and took a break in the air conditioning, but not until we had 'flattened' the march flies that had followed us in when we were unpacking the car.

Late in the afternoon, we heard the loud whistle from the incoming Wilderness Railway train.

The train pulled into the station which right across the road from where we were staying (our room was the 2nd to end one to the left of the picture above). The passengers filed out and most of them loaded onto a waiting coach to be taken to their hotels. Tomorrow we get to experience the train for ourselves.

Meanwhile, the loco detached and backed & filled into its overnight maintenance workshop.

As the light faded, I wandered the point with my trusty camera in hand trying to snap some sunset pictures. I had some success but it did flag a concern that the fires that had been following us around the island were now closer than we would like. It did make for some nice golden light in the photos.

Transit to Strahan

Hellyer Gorge

We didn't have to travel too far south and away from the northern coastline before we found ourselves surrounded by forest. Nobody likes sitting in a car for very long, so about an hour down the road at Hellyer Gorge, we stopped to stretch our legs. The gorge is surrounded by subtropical rainforest and has a sizable waterway running through it.

It was just a nice place to have a wander along the creek and take in the fresh air for half an hour.

And build a cairn....

Waratah Falls

Around 25 kilometres further along the road from Hellyer Gorge, we took a short diversion to the little town of Waratah. I had done my waterfall research and had established that the diversion was worth it.

Waratah sits beside a small lake that spills off a cliff forming Waratah Falls. There is a lookout above the falls across the road from the Bischoff Hotel Waratah (below) that overlooks the falls (above).

Access to the foot of the falls is via a short walk down a dirt road from a car park near the top of the falls. Waterfalls are usually more spectacular from the bottom and this one is no exception.

With the photos taken, we were back in the car tracking south once again. Before long, we could see Mount Murchison rearing up in front of us (below).

Historic Zeehan

It took us a little over an hour to navigate from Waratah to Zeehan along a scenic and often windy road. We spotted a few small mining operations within the last 20kms of the drive. This was a little surprising because my preconceived impression of the west coast was of lush sub-tropical rain forest, not industrial scale mining.

By the time we reached the township it was lunch time, so we stopped at the local playground & shared our picnic with the enevitable march flies.😡 Harry stretched his legs by turning the playground into an obstacle course.

The Zeehan museum (above) was straight across the road from the playground where we could see two steam locomotives (below). They weren't particularly interesting considering our experience at the Don River Railway (Devonport). We chose not to go into the museum.

After lunch we wandered up and down the street checking out the historic buildings. Zeehan has been a mining hub (mainly silver & tin) for a well over a century. For example, the post office (above) was opened in 1888.

We stopped in at the Zeehan Rock Shop which had an astounding array of gems, chrystals and fossils. It was a bit of a shock to see such a large collection in such an obsure little town. Many of the items were discovered locally.

Harry was so impressed that he bought himself a tiger eye polished gemstone. Tiger Eyes are a layered metamorphic rock made up of red jasper & hematite.

Strahan was only another 30 minutes drive fron Zeehan but we'd made good time so we stopped at the Ocean Beach/Henty Dunes lookout about half way there. It was a bit haisy and not the most spectacular view.