West Coast Council

The West Coast Council is a Local Government Area of Tasmania. It covers much of the west of Tasmania. It is the largest Local Government Area of Tasmania by area, and the second least densely populated, after the Central Highlands. It takes in the West Coast Range as well as portions of World Heritage areas. It has a very colourful mining and railway history. It also has a significant history of convict settlement.It has weather conditions that are usually on the extreme list for Tasmania - notably Lake Margaret for rainfall (competing with Tully in Queensland) and Mount Read usually for low temperatures. In Autumn 2006 heavy rainfall recorded at Mount Read was on a par with Lake Margaret records of the past.

Historical Geography

It is an amalgamation of the earlier local government bodies that included Gormanston, Queenstown, and Zeehan.

The West Coast region has a natural eastern barrier of the West Coast Range and has the Lyell Highway which passes through it to connect with Hobart.

Historically the region was more oriented towards the North - due to the main transport being by either rail to Burnie up until the 1950s and 1960s, or by ship out of Strahan until the mid twentieth century. There are no land based transport routes to the south. Consequently many residents who could afford shopping trips would go to Melbourne in Victoria, rather than Hobart in Tasmania.

Some of the small population is located in the small cluster of towns near Macquarie Harbour - Strahan and......
Read More