Macquarie Harbour Totally Explained

Everything about Macquarie Harbour totally explained

Macquarie Harbour is a large, shallow, inlet on the West Coast of Tasmania, Australia.

History

James Kelly entered on the 28th December 1815, however Charles Whitham (see below, p.110) discovered variations on this date. Surveyor-General Oxley of New South Wales in March 1820 battled with the seas around the heads and Hells Gates. Surveyor-General Evans travelled in the area in 1821-22. The harbour was established as a prison which was a place of "extreme physical and mental torture" (Flannery, 1994, ch28). It was built for British convicts but many Irish patriots and Tasmanian Aborigines were also detained there. Flannery (1994) explains how inmates would occasionally murder each other which inevitably led to their execution and subsequent removal from the prison.

Rivers

The King River which cuts through the West Coast Range and the Gordon River empty into Macquarie Harbour. The narrow entrance to Macquarie Harbour has hazardous tidal currents and is called Hell's Gates. Outside of the Harbour the entrance area is known as Macquarie Heads, and the most western point is Cape Sorell. The sheer volume of fresh water that pours into the Harbour through the rivers, combined with the narrow exit result in barometric tides. When there's rain in the mountains surrounding the Harbour, the tide rises, and it falls when the atmospheric pressure reverses and results in less rain.
The Queen River - King River and Macquarie Harbour were all polluted by mine waste from the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company until its closing in 1994. It is estimated that 100 million tonnes of tailings were disposed of into the Queen River. Mount Lyell Remediation and Research and Demonstration Program which was carried out by the office of Supervising Scientist and the Tasmanian Department of Environment and Land Management over the following two years. The result of the program is there are much reduced wastes that might enter the rivers or harbour any more.

Settlements

The first settlement at Macquarie Harbour was on Sarah Island, a small island in the harbour. This island was used as a prison for recalcitrant prisoners from other settlements in Tasmania, due to its extreme isolation and extreme climate.
Later the small port of Strahan was developed on the shores of Macquarie Harbour to support the nearby mining settlements, mainly Queenstown. Another port was developed on the south east section of the harbour in Kelly Basin which had the townsite of Pillinger, the settlement and port were short lived as was the company that developed the facilities - North Mount Lyell.

Named Features

ť Birch's Inlet - at south west end of harbour

    Bird River - mouth in Kelly Basin ť Bonnet Island - in Kelly Channel at entrance to harbour (42° 13ˡ S, 145° 14ˡ E}

    Braddon River - mouth on mid-eastern shore ť Entrance Island - at entrance to harbour (42° 12ˡ S, 145° 14ˡ E)

    Farm Cove - at south east side ť Gould Point - adjacent to Farm Cove

    Gordon River - mouth on south eastern end of harbour ť Hell's Gates - mouth at north west end of harbour

    Kelly Basin - port/town at southern end of harbour - also named Pillinger ť Kelly Channel - at entrance to harbour

    King River - mouth at north east of harbour ť Lettes Bay - between Regatta Point and King River mouth

    Liberty Point - on mid western shore ť Long Bay - south of Regatta Point

    Philips Island - adjacent to mouth of Braddon River on east shore ť Pine Cove - just south of the King River Mouth

    Regatta Point - eastern side of Risby Cove ť Risby Cove - water between Strahan Harbour and Regatta Point

    Rum Point - on western shore south of Sarah Island ť Sarah Island - in southern part of Harbour

    Sophia Point - on mid-eastern shore ť Strahan Harbour - from Strahan Point parallel to 'The Esplanade'

    Swan Basin - near Hell's Gates

Tourism

Today Strahan is the base for tourism on the west coast. The West Coast Wilderness Railway takes part of the north eastern shore of the Harbour, before turning inland at the mouth of the King River.
Boats take tourists to Hell's Gates and Macquarie Heads, Sarah Island and up the lower reaches of the Gordon River. Also charter flights utilise Strahan Airport for helicopter and fixed wing flights. Image:Macquarie Harbour NW.jpg|False colour Landsat image centred on Macquarie Harbour, looking northwestt, draped over digital elevation model with x2 vertical exaduration; screen capture from the NASA World Wind Image:Macquarie Harbour SE.jpg|False colour Landsat image centred on Macquarie Harbour, looking southeast, draped over digital elevation model with x2 vertical exaduration; screen capture from the NASA World Wind Further Information

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