Iron Blow
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Iron Blow
Was the site of the earliest major mining venture at Mount Lyell on the west coast of Tasmania in 1883. It was above the location where Steve Karlson, Michael McDonough, and William McDonough were camped.
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[edit] Original form
Geoffrey Blainey describes the appearance prior to its being mined:
They (Those mentioned above) examined the strange formation. It jutted twenty or thirty feet above the surface and was split by deep cracks and crevices as if a great explosion had fractured the rock and flung slabs far down the hill...(they)... had seen no similar outcrop in their brief mining experience. What lay beneath the ironstone crust?
[edit] Mining
The first shot on the site was in January 1884 - and most local prospectors were camped in the Linda Valley to the east of the Mount Owen - Munt Lyell ridge as the townsite of Penghana the present site of Queenstown - to the west was still thick rainforest.
Following the establishment of the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company in 1893, the Iron Blow orebody was mined until 1929 [2]
[edit] End of the era
The cessation of the Iron Blow mining was also linked in with the demise of the Mount Lyell pyritic smelting - the cessation of Robert Carl Sticht's smelters and methods, [3]
The development of the West Lyell Open cut, and the later development of the Prince lyell orebodies removed all vesitages of the original workings
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Blainey, Geoffrey (2000). The Peaks of Lyell, 6th ed., Hobart: St. David's Park Publishing. ISBN 0-7246-2265-9.
- Whitham, Charles. Western Tasmania - A land of riches and beauty, Reprint 2003, Queenstown: Municipality of Queenstown.
- 2003 edition - Queenstown: Municipality of Queenstown.
- 1949 edition - Hobart: Davies Brothers. OCLC 48825404; ASIN B000FMPZ80
- 1924 edition - Queenstown: Mount Lyell Tourist Association. OCLC 35070001; ASIN B0008BM4XC
