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Centenary of Lyell DistrictPrint Page Print this page

01-March-2012 (Sandra Brown)
01-March-2012 (Sandra Brown)

Photographs supplied by Diane Watson / Sandra Brown / Peter F Williams

The "Miners Sunday" sculpture commemorates the pioneers and the centenary of the District.

The area was first explored by Charles Gould in the 1860s but its inhospitable environment deterred settlement and it wasn't until 1881, when Cornelius Lynch found gold in a creek near Queen River, that prospectors and miners began to move into the area. Many of the miners came from the Pieman River diggings to the north. They travelled down the coast to the port at Strahan and walked inland to the diggings.

Two years later three miners - Bill and Mick McDonough and Steve Karlson - discovered the rocky outcrop known as Iron Blow. The find was opened in 1883 and by 1888 the Mount Lyell Gold Mining Co. had been formed. It operated out of a town called Penghana.

Location

Address:Driffield Street, Queenstown, 7467
State:TAS
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -42.078512
Long: 145.555725
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

Monument Type:Sculpture
Monument Theme:Landscape
Sub-Theme:Settlement
Approx. Event Start Date:1883
Approx. Event End Date:1983
Artist:Stephen Walker A. M. (Hobart, TAS)

Dedication

Actual Monument Dedication Date:Saturday 15th October, 1983
Front Inscription

Miners Sunday

This transition from a prospectors camp to a settled community.

Commissioned by the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Co. Ltd. to commemorate the Lyell District Centenary,

15th. October 1983

Cast in Queenstown

Sculptor  
Stephen Walker

Source: MA
Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au