Strahan - TAS

Strahan (pronounced "straw-n"), is a small town on the West Coast of Tasmania, Australia. It is located on Long Bay at the northern end of Macquarie Harbour. Strahan Harbour and Risby Cove are in the north east end of Long Bay.

Originally developed as a port of access for the mining settlements in the area, Strahan was a vital location for the timber industry that existed around Macquarie Harbour. For a substantial part of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century it also was port for regular shipping of passengers and cargo. The Strahan Marine Board was an important authority dealing with the issues of the port and Macquarie Harbour up until the end of the twentieth century when it was absorbed into the Hobart Marine Board.

In more recent times Strahan has become an attractive destination for tourists, drawn in the main by the availability of cruises on Macquarie Harbour. Two modern catamaran cruise boats ferry tourists in great comfort to visit the harbour entrance known as Hells Gate, the historic convict ship building site at Sarah Island and to cruise the calm waters of the Gordon River, providing a view of and information about the several ocean trout and salmon farms on the way.

Strahan probably first became a tourist destination when in 1899 the railway, initially built to carry export ore from Queenstown to a shipping site on the Gordon River, finally reached Strahan. The railway carried ore, general freight and passengers, providing access to the harbour to residents of Queenstown. The railway ceased operation in 1963 for economic reasons due to rising maintenance costs and the completion of a road link to Hobart.

In 2002 the railway, with permanent way and bridges largely rebuilt and passenger carriages renovated, the West Coast Wilderness Railway was commissioned. It now provides tourist journeys from both Queenstown and Strahan for all or part of its length. The railway is of particular interest to railway buffs because of the rack system used to maintain traction on sections of the track that are too steep for the friction of iron wheels on iron rails to maintain, or I guess break, forward motion.