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A few telegraph posts are all
that are left of a street at Renison Bell
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Renison Bell
Tin mining ghost town on the western coast of Tasmania
Located 15 km from Zeehan and 294 km from Hobart,
Renison Bell is now nothing more than a few derelict buildings, an
interesting historic walk and the fans which provide air to the
underground mine which operates a few kilometres away towards Rosebery.
It was a tin mining centre and was named after George Renison Bell, an
early prospector and settler who explored the Tasmanian west coast and
discovered a number of mineral deposits. Tin was discovered in the area
around 1890 and there was a small flurry of activity with alluvial tin
being mined. Mechanical processes began around 1905 but the deposits
were exhausted by 1922.
By the 1940s Renison Bell was nearly a ghost town. Graeme
Hetherington, in his book The West Coast: A Personal Recollection
wrote: 'If Rosebery was the end of the line for the drifters of the
workforce, Renison Bell was the next stop after. In a town with a
population of no more than fifty, ten or so were pensioned off derelict
men. Tom Pepper, Bravo Wallace, Jack Grubb, Des Finn and various others
lived by themselves in indescribably rundown-looking shacks and got on
with the task of drinking themselves to death in so far as their
pensions made this possible.'
The mine was expanded in the 1950s when a new
underground mine and concentrating plant were developed. It has
subsequently grown into the world's largest underground tin mine and by
the late 1980s it was producing 46 per cent of Australia's total demand
for tin. Today no one lives in the town and Renison Bell is the name of
the mine.
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All that is left of the
Renison Bell Hotel
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Things to see:
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Visiting the Renison Bell Mine
It is not possible to inspect the mine and there are no
tours available.
Battery Mill Walk
Very poorly signposted this 45 minute walk starts at the
parking space near where the old Renison Bell Hotel once stood. It is a
pleasant and interesting walk to the battery mill which passes many
reminders of the once thriving township.
Accommodation and Eating
See Zeehan and Rosebery for Accommodation and Eating
