Crotty, Tasmania
Template:Short description Template:Use Australian English Template:Use dmy dates Script error: No such module "infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Crotty is the site of a former gazetted town in Western Tasmania, Australia. The town was on the southern bank of the King River, on the eastern lower slopes of Mount Jukes, below the West Coast Range. The locality was formerly named King River[1]
Townsite
The town reserve was gazetted on 5 June 1900. The town survey was completed in November 1900. By 1902 there had been development of over 150 dwellings, and 700 people living in the town. The last residents to move away left in 1928.[2]
In photographs found in Geoffrey Blainey's The Peaks of Lyell, the foreground shows a bridge, the Baxter River bridge. This was a crucial connection for people travelling between the railway stopping places.[3]
Smelters failure
At the turn of the twentieth century, the township had had a smelter and railway connection with the North Mount Lyell mine.
The North Mount Lyell smelters failed, despite attempts in 1901 and 1902 to correct issues.[4] Initially, reverberatory furnaces were used, then water jacket furnaces were tried.[5]
The company was absorbed by the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company in 1903.[6]
The townsite soon lost population after the failure of smelter operations.[7] The North Mount Lyell Railway which serviced Crotty's connections with Gormanston, Linda and Pillinger (Kelly Basin) remained in service for a couple of decades before closing.[8]
Most historical photos of Crotty show the smelters, the hotels, and the very small houses/huts. The most iconic photograph is that found in Geoffrey Blainey's The Peaks of Lyell, dated 1902, which was taken from the embankment just east of the railway line, looking west, up the main street with the smoke from the smelter in the air, and Mount Jukes in the background.[9]
Hydro dam era
During the late 1970s and at an early stage in the "No Dams" campaign to stop the establishment of a dam on the Franklin River, a small group of musicians in Queenstown formed a group called the 'Crotty Ditty Band'.[10]
During the building of the King power development in the 1980s, the Hydro Crotty Camp was home to several hundred dam construction workers[11][12]
In the 1990s the townsite was inundated by Lake Burbury after Crotty Dam was installed as a part of the King River Power development scheme.[13] Despite this, the Tasmanian [[scale (map)|1:Template:Gaps]] Owen map still identifies the Proclaimed Town of Crotty. During 2016, Lake Burbury receded to a historically low level and remains of the town became visible.
On the eastern shores of Lake Burbury, the land south of the Lyell Highway, and adjacent to the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, is known as the Crotty Conservation Area. This has an area of Script error: No such module "convert". and was established on 27 December 2000.
See also
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References
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- ↑ Crotty (Late King River) in 1905 edition of Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ https://www.tps.org.au/references-2/croty-postal-history/ Originally written by John Campton (Originally published in The Courier Dec 2016 Edition 60 - https://www.tps.org.au/courier/tps-journal-courier/) Crotty : Its History, Post Office, Postmasters and Postmarks
- ↑ From a complication of materials titled Crotty by the Galley Museum in Queenstown, no date and no pages, circa 2000. See also Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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- ↑ p. 411 and p. 463 – photo with caption The Crotty Camp eventually housed well over 300 people. It was in use from 1983 until 25 May 1989 when everyone was transferred to the Lynchford Camp -Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Built in 1982... housing 140 men... in HEC (1983) King River Power Development HEC Public Relations, December 1983
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Further reading
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