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Waratah

Towns & Destinations

Waratah - Wynyard Council TAS, PO Box 168, Waratah, TAS 7321
03 6443 8333

Description

Waratah is a locality and town in North Western Tasmania adjacent to Savage River National Park.

Waratah is a locality and town in North Western Tasmania adjacent to Savage River National Park. The town was constructed to support a tin mine at Mount Bischoff. It 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. It was also the first town in Australia to have electric street lights in 1886.

History

Tin was discovered at Mount Bischoff by James "Philosopher" Smith in 1871. The mine operated successfully at first. The easy ore was all extracted by 1893 when sluicing was discontinued. Mining continued opencut on the face of the mountain, and underground. The underground mine closed in 1914, but surface mining continued for some time before it also ceased after the price of tin slumped in 1929. The mine was reopened by the Commonwealth Government in 1942 to support the war effort, but it finally closed in 1947.

It was the mine that produced power for 400 incandescent streetlights in 1886.Mount Bischoff Post Office opened on 1 September 1874 and was renamed Waratah in 1882.In the vicinity of the locality, a number of smaller mines worked at the same time as the Mount Bischoff workings.Mount Magnet silver mine was connected by the Mount Magnet Tramway within 10 miles south west of the town.

Weather

Waratah has an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfb), unusually cool by Australian standards. It is one of the wettest and coldest locations in Tasmania. The town has a high frequency of cloudy days and maximum temperatures often fail to get above 10 °C, even in summer. Winter snowfall is common, and heavy rainstorms can be experienced throughout the year. Extremes have ranged from 32.8 °C (91.0 °F) to -5.5 °C (22.1 °F). Waratah's wettest month on record was May 1923 with 644.8 mm (25.3 in) of rain recorded.

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Details

Type: Towns

Population: 101 - 1,000

Time zone: UTC +11:00

Area: 120.343 km2

Elevation: 501 to 1000 metres

Town elevation: 606 m

Population number: 245

Local Government Area: Waratah - Wynyard Council

Location

Waratah - Wynyard Council TAS, PO Box 168, Waratah, TAS 7321

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Attribution

This article contains content imported from the English Wikipedia article on Waratah, Tasmania