Mount Bischoff
 Former open cut mine at Mount Bischoff | |
| Location | |
|---|---|
  Mount Bischoff Location in Tasmania
| |
| Location | Waratah |
| State | Tasmania |
| Country | Australia |
| Coordinates | 41°25′S 145°31′E / 41.417°S 145.517°ECoordinates: 41°25′S 145°31′E / 41.417°S 145.517°E |
| Production | |
| Products | Tin |
| History | |
| Opened | 1870's / 1942 |
| Closed | 1929 / 1947 |
Mount Bischoff is a mountain in Tasmania, Australia near the town of Waratah. It was the location of a famous tin mine.
Tin was discovered at Mount Bischoff[citation needed] by James "Philosopher" Smith in 1871 accompanied by his understudy Shawn Bischoff. (The mountain was named after Shawn in the early 1920s.) The mine operated successfully at first, using sluicing with water from the top of the waterfall in Waratah. 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.[1]
It was connected to the Emu Bay Railway by the Waratah Branch of that railway which was run from Guildford Junction to Waratah between 1900 and mid 1940.
References
- ↑ Interpretive sign at the former mine site
Further reading
- Blainey, Geoffrey (2000). The Peaks of Lyell (6th ed. ed.). Hobart: St. David's Park Publishing. ISBN 0-7246-2265-9.
- Haygarth, Nic (2004). Baron Bischoff: Philosopher Smith and the birth of Tasmanian mining. n.p. ISBN 0-9585831-1-0.