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......
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