Stacks Bluff

Stacks Bluff
Elevation 1,527 m (5,010 ft)AHD [1]
Location
Location Tasmania, Australia
Range Ben Lomond (Tasmania)
Coordinates 41°37′34.03″S 147°41′18.31″E / 41.6261194°S 147.6884194°ECoordinates: 41°37′34.03″S 147°41′18.31″E / 41.6261194°S 147.6884194°E

Stacks Bluff is a peak on the Ben Lomond plateau in Tasmania, Australia. Stacks Bluff is a feature visible throughout the Tasmanian Midlands - prominent due to its extensive promontory cliff-line and exposed dolerite columns.

It is the sixth highest mountain in Tasmania.

The mountain was originally owned by Tasmanian Aboriginal people of the Plangermaireener, or Ben Lomond, Nation, who habituated the plateau in summer and left evidence of campsites and artifacts at Lake Youl (Meenemata) 2 km north of the summit block of Stacks Bluff.[2][2][3] The Plangermaireener regularly traversed the river valleys and marshes below Stacks Bluff, naming the area Troune or Loonder, and both the ethnographic record and archeological evidence describes their habitation and visitation of the country surrounding the peak.[2][4]

The first European likely to have visited the area was John Batman, who crossed the plateau from his farm below the south western aspect of the mountain in the 1820s. The artist John Glover ascended the plateau in January 1833 and sketched the northern aspect of Stacks Bluff, as well as the prominent features around the peak.[5] Stacks Bluff was originally named 'the Buttes' by European settlers and then 'the Stacks', on account of the rock formations on the southern aspect of the bluff. In 1841 the plateau was surveyed by the Polish Explorer Strzelecki who incorrectly calculated barometrically the summit of the plateau as being Stacks Bluff- at 5002 feet.[6] After a further survey by James Sprent, the peak had a trigonometric survey point and an elaborate summit cairn constructed by convict workers in 1852. The trig station was '89 feet high' and constructed from timber carried up by manual labour from the valley below.[7]

Stacks Bluff was a popular destination for walkers from at least the 1830s with the original track leading from Avoca via the Ben Lomond Marshes and the headwaters of the Ben Lomond Rivulet.[6] A full survey of Ben Lomond was conducted from September 1905 to 1912 by Colonel W.V. Legge. Stacks Bluff was found to be the second highest feature on the plateau at this time.[6]

Mining became established in the foothills of Stacks Bluff from the late 1800s to the 1950s. Tin and tungsten were the principal minerals to be obtained here and the townships of Rossarden and Storys Creek arose to support this commercial activity. Coal was found at Buffalo Brook, about half way between Stacks Bluff and Avoca, whereupon the Stanhope Mine was established. Walking excursions to the plateau, and mining activity, became popular enough in the late 1880s for a landowner to build a two-storey hotel with a store, bakehouse and stables at the northern end of the Ben Lomond Marshes - under the western face of Stacks Bluff.[8] This was the 'Ben Lomond Hotel', built by J.F. Rigney of "Bona Vista", near Fingal - but by 1908 the hotel had been abandoned and fallen into disrepair.[6][9][10]

Stacks Bluff is a major feature of the national park, and is a popular venue with bushwalkers and mountain climbers.[11] A walking track exists from Storys Creek to the summit and the peak may also be accessed from the ski-fields across the trackless, although open, plateau.[12][13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "LISTmap (Stacks Bluff)". Tasmanian Government Department of Primary Industries and Water. Retrieved 2008-03-25.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Kee, Sue (1991). Aboriginal archaeological sites in North East Tasmania. Hobart: Occasional paper / Dept. of Parks, Wildlife and Heritage 0156-2797 ; no. 28. ISBN 0724617620.
  3. ↑ Ryan, Lyndall (2012). Tasmanian Aborigines : a history since 1803 (1 ed.). Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9781742370682.
  4. ↑ Hansen, David (2003). John Glover The Van Diemen's land sketchbook. Hobart: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. ISBN 09750545-3-8.
  5. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Plomley, Brian (1988). "1988 ELDERSHAW MEMORIAL LECTURE BEN LOMOND: HISTORY AND SCIENCE".
  6. ↑ "Perigrinations: Notes of a Trip to Ben Lomond". Tasmanian News. 15 Mar 1886. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  7. ↑ "The Mercury 7 Jun 1888". trove - National library of Australia. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  8. ↑ 'WANDERING WILLIE' (18 Oct 1909). "BEN LOMOND: A MICHAELMAS TRIP". Daily Telegraph (Launceston). Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  9. ↑ Daily Telegraph (Launceston, Tasmania). 18 October 1909. p. 3. Missing or empty |title= (help);
  10. ↑ "Ben lomond Southern Escarpment". Thesarvo. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  11. ↑ Wilkinson, Bill (1994). The Abels : a comprehensive guide to Tasmania's mountains over 1100m high. Launceston: Tasmanian Outdoors Collection,. ISBN 0646 216910.
  12. ↑ Ben, Lomond (1988). Ben Lomond plateau ski and walk map. Hobart: Tasmap - Tasmanian Government.

External links