Queenstown

Queenstown sits in the rugged western half of Tasmania on Mimegin country, about 260 kilometres west of Hobart by the slow but spectacular Lyell Highway. The town was founded in 1881 after the Mount Lyell copper deposit was discovered, and grew rapidly into one of the wealthiest mining towns in the southern hemisphere. The Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company operated continuously from 1893 until the mine was finally placed on care and maintenance in 2014.

The most striking thing about Queenstown is the landscape around it. Decades of copper smelting in the early 20th century released sulphur dioxide into the air, which combined with rainfall to create acid rain. The acid rain killed all the surrounding vegetation, and the bare slopes were then heavily eroded by the high west-coast rainfall. The result is a landscape of completely bare rocky hills in shades of pink, orange, grey and brown that look like nothing else in Tasmania, and earned the area its frequent description as a 'lunar landscape'. Vegetation is slowly returning since the smelters closed but the bare hills remain visible for kilometres around the town.

The West Coast Wilderness Railway is the standout visitor attraction. The 35 kilometre line was originally built between 1896 and 1899 by the mining company to haul copper concentrate from Queenstown down to the port at Strahan, through some of the most rugged rainforest country in Tasmania. It uses a unique Abt rack-and-pinion system to climb the steep grades. The railway closed with the mine in the 1960s but was rebuilt and reopened as a heritage tourism operation in 2002. Standard tours include the half-day Queenstown to Dubbil Barril return.

The town itself has a number of preserved early-20th-century buildings, including the Empire Hotel (with its famous Tasmanian blackwood staircase), the Paragon Theatre and the Eric Thomas Galley Museum. The annual Queenstown Heritage and Arts Festival in October celebrates the town's mining and west coast cultural identity.

Queenstown sits at the gateway to some of Tasmania's wildest country. Lake St Clair (the southern end of the Overland Track) is 90 minutes east, and the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area surrounds the town on three sides. The west coast weather is famously wet, so pack accordingly even in summer.