Citation

A History of Corinna & the Pieman River: Peter MacFie (D. P. W. & H.) (130 pp),  1992

Outline

A history of the west coast mining around Corinna and the Pieman River, focussing on the people and the world they lived in, and what they did when the booms ended.

Contents

Aboriginal contact and the convict era

Exploration, surveying and prospecting

Tin mining from the Pieman

Pining on the Pieman

The Pieman Heads and Corinna – Gold around the Pieman River

On the Donalson – the Alluvial Diggings

The Village of Corinna – Stage One 1878-1885

Corinna Phase Two 1885-1892

Corinna Booms Again – the Wild Town of the West

The Mining Companies – Optimism & Failure

Corinna: the Abandoned Village

Whyte River Gold – the Last Boom

Drovers and Ferrymen: Pieman Heads

The West Coast Cattle Trail

Hunters & Tourists: the Rebirth of Corinna

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Corinna & the Pieman river.pdf

Excerpt

Tin Mining from the Pieman

The main feature of the first rush was the concentration on areas south of the Pieman in the vicinity of Mt Heemskirk. As a result, the base of exploration parties was the Pieman Heads, while mining further inland on the Pieman River were a result of the later gold rushes. Sprent’s survey sparked interest of two initial prospecting parties. Owing to the interest aroused by “Philosopher” Smith’s discoveries of the Mt Bischoff tin fields in 1871, speculators were hoping for more of the same.

Using members of early exploration parties as part of their syndicates, from the 1870s a number of tin mining companies were established to explore the area. These included the Hobart -based Great Western Co. , the Burnie -based Emu Bay and Pieman River Prospecting Co., the latter working the Mt Heemskirk find., and the Corinna Co. from New Norfolk.

In 1876 the Meredith brothers Owen and George, trekked overland from Burnie and Waratah on behalf of the Emu Bay and Pieman River Prospecting Company. Meanwhile a second team led by Charles Donnelly was leaving Hobart on behalf of the Great Western Prospecting Association. They were followed by a third syndicate from the Derwent Valley, later called the Corinna Company. Led by the intrepid T. B. Moore, the party walked overland from Lake St Clair, prospecting along the way. Included in his party were Jack (John) Foster, Gamaliel Webster, Harry Middleton and Mark Ireland who had formed the Corinna Co.

Delayed by bad weather, the Meredith’s did not arrive until January 1876. Using a flat-bottomed punt, the Black Maria, they worked their way up the Pieman and established a hut where the Owen Meredith River joins the main river. They then attempted to follow Sprent’s track toward Mt Heemskirk, prospecting in the Heemskirk River. An apparently rich lode of tin was found on the side of the mountain where a claim was pegged. The next summer a party of 12 men returned to work the claim, building a hut on the site.[1] This hut became a staging post for miners en-route from the Pieman to South Heemskirk.

Donnelly’s party arrived in late 1876. Using a whale- boat and punt, they established a camp up-river from the Meredith hut at Donnelly’s Crossing. Here they constructed a bark-roofed log-cabin.

In the new year, the Meredith’s returned plus a number of others.

In 1878, Reid from the New Norfolk syndicate left Woolnorth (near Port Sorell), with another to walk to the Pieman with two pack-horses. James Powell, leader of the Tamar Prospecting Company also headed for the Pieman.[2] A small fleet of craft sailed to the Pieman from various Tasmanian ports, chiefly those on the north west coast, particularly Latrobe and Launceston. These craft included the Pauline, Foam, SS Pioneer, Welcome Home, SS Amy and the 30 ton ketch Dagmar.

By the second season of 1877-8 the (tin) rush was on. The three initial syndicates were followed by at least a dozen others.[3] Most concentrated on the Mt Heemskirk-Tasman River area. In April 1879, Middleton prospected for tin further inland and discovered gold in the creek which bears his name, and the first gold-rush to the west of the Pieman River began.

Pieman River Heads: Structures

Until the discovery of Trial Harbour to the south, access for supplies going to the Mt Heemskirk fields was through a series of stores established by the various companies at the Pieman Heads. The demand for supplies induced Matthews and Allright to build a hotel at the Heads. They were followed by Middleton and William Sutton.

Stores:

According to Julen, ‘Two stores in the vicinity of the diggings were a great boon to the miners and prospectors, but unfortunately the stores could not always deliver the goods.”[4] Matthews and Allwright established a store at the mouth of the Pieman as tin-mining companies had erected buildings there to store goods landed by sailing ships and small steamers.

The stores included

1. i) T. B. Moore’s “framed hut from Launceston (was) the chief of their stores.”[5]
2. ii) “G. Meredith’s stores are also in a hut.”[6]

Huts on the Pieman -Heemskirk Fields

• The Meredith and Donnelly parties appear to have built temporary bark huts on the Meredith’s track to Donnelly’s camp, “about half-way through is Donnelly’s old camp – a log hut.”[7]
• Meredith’s Hut.(1876) At the junction with the Owen Meredith River.
• Donnelly’s Crossing/ Donnelly’s Landing. Hut. (Jan 1877) Log cabin with bark roof.[8] “A fine log hut”[9] a couple of miles upstream from the Meredith’s. Lefroy’s 1882 survey identifies the point as “Donnelly’s Depot”.[10]
• Donnelly’s Huts. This party built a series of temporary huts as supply depots along the Pieman and the track to Heemskirk.[11] One appears to have been below their Landing (ie below the rapids).
• Bells/Webb’s Hut. In mid 1878 Ireland reported “a new building erected along side ours, not a bark shanty but composed of weather-boards and palings…..the new house… was brought in sections to bolt together. It was the best equipped party that had come to the coast up to that date….”[12]  The new party failed to find tin on the north of the Pieman.
• McCaveside’s (or McCavestons) Camp. ‘The track from Mt Bischoff, 39 miles long, ended at McCaveside’s Camp far up Middleton’s Creek which consisted of four log huts.’[13] These were “on a rise at the junction of two creeks.”[14]
• Donaldson’s Landing: Later Matthew and Allright erected a small store about twelve miles up the Pieman at Donaldson’s Landing Hotel: Bill Sutton, owner of the accommodation house at the Heads, built another at Donaldson’s Landing, which was immediately sold to Job Savage and was known as ‘Donaldson’s Inn’.[15] Savage hired the SS North Star to bring in provisions. The “township was a “mile from the landing place”.

At this stage (1880) the population of the goldfields was about 50.

End of Excerpt.

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Footnotes from the Excerpt

[1] Binks, P.12.

[2] Tasmanian Mail 20/5/78, P16.

[3] Binks, P17

[4] Julen P.3.

[5] Tasmanian Mail 16/3/78 , P.10 TSA.

[6] op cit.

[7] Tasmanian Mail 16/3/78/TSA.

[8] Binks P13

[9] Tasmanian Mail, 16/3/1878 P10, TSA.

[10] Field Book 16, old series, DEP

[11] See Ireland, Pp 11-15.

[12] Ireland , P16

[13] ibid P.3

[14] Mercury 14/4/1880

[15] Ireland, ibid P.3