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Rosebery has the honour of being the town with the last postcode in Australia - 7470.
The town is situated on the Central West Coast of Tasmania about 120 km (78 miles or one and a half hours) from Burnie on the Northwest Coast of Tasmania and 58 km from Queenstown our nearest regional centre to the south. Rosebery is about 305 km north west from Hobart. (or about four and a half hours by car)
Rosebery nestles in a temperate rainforested valley between three mountains, Mt Murchison, to the east, Mt Black to the north and Mt Read to the south.
The average rainfall for Rosebery (Mount Read) is 3.5 metres (120 inches) per year, it enjoys long cold wet winters, with some highland snow, all very necessary for the survival of the beautiful rainforests.
Rosebery was founded when Tom McDonald found gold in the area in 1893, and soon after a village was built on the slopes of Mt Black, the town is best known for its mining. There are two main mining companies involved in mining in the Rosebery valley, OZ Minerals Rosebery Mine which is a zinc, copper and lead base metal mine and the Bluestone Mine (Renison Bell) which produces tin ore and is the largest underground tin mine in Australia if not the world.
Rosebery has been built around the OZ Minerals mine site, with the Bluestone mine being a few kilometres further to the south of the town at a place called Renison Bell which is now a ghost town and no longer houses the workers from that mine.
Rosebery Mining History
Mining activities in this rugged, mountainous area go back as far as the 1880's with the discovery of zinc, silver, lead, copper and gold in the area. Conditions for the prospectors were far from ideal and the long, cold, wet winters made work very difficult.
Concliffe and Will were working through unexplored country to the north of Zeehan and discovered, at the foot of Mt Read, traces of gold. Working their way up the mountain, they found a gold bearing gossan which overlayed the lead and zinc sulphide ore. So, in 1900, the Hercules Mining Company was formed to extract these ores and operated perched on the slopes of Mt Hamilton and Mt Read.
Another prospector, Thomas MacDonald, was also looking for gold in the area. In 1893 he discovered alluvial gold along with boulders of lead/zinc sulphide in a creek on the southern slopes of Mt Black. Futher prospecting by MacDonald, now working for the Rosebery Prospecting Association, revealed a lead/zinc sulphide ore body.
Lord Rosebery was the Prime Minister of England at this time, so it was after him that MacDonald named the town in 1896. The Rosebery mine has been operated by a succession of mining companies, with the current owner being OZ Minerals, who took over in July 2008.
The town of Rosebery is now a thriving town of 1032 people (Census 2006), servicing the many mines in the area.
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Comments:
Mining History Page updated.
Thanks for the reminder that we do indeed have to update our web page!
Zinifex is now the proud owner and operator of the mine.
As to Renison Bell over the last 2 years it has changed hands so many times I am waiting to see who has their name on the board next and is open for business, and yes we will update it them!
ALL COMMENTS AND NEEDED CHANGES WELCOME!
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zinc and tramways
I am calling from BC and looking for info on the mining aerial tramways of OZ. Can you give any?
if so please email me martin_J_wells@yahoo.com
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Zinifex now operates Rosebery Mine!
This article could do with some minor updates including references to Pasminco currently operating the Rosebery Mine i.e. should be Zinifex. Also, the Renison Bell mine - is it currently operating?
Nevertheless - this is a great snapshot of Rosebery's history!!
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Updating
Yet another update of the history is needed as the mine has once again changed hands.... or prehaps it would be worth waiting a few more weeks.
(Moderators remarks:) We understand that yes the Rosebery Mine has again changed hands, although no-one as yet from the mine has made us aware of the name change or the business that has purchased it. As soon as we have the official word on this, we will of course change the names.
Thanks for the comments.
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Rosebery
Rosebery was the Prime Minister of Britain, not just England!
His family estate, at Dalmeny, near Edinburgh, gave its name to one of Rosebery's"suburbs".
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