North Mount Lyell

North Mount Lyell was the name of a mine, mining company, locality (sometimes as North Lyell) and former railway near Gormanston on the West Coast of Tasmania. It was absorbed into the workings of the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company following the failure of the smelters at Crotty.

The stage of building the infrastructure of the mines, the smelters, and port at Kelly Basin was photographed by John Watt Beattie.

The company was founded by James Crotty, and was for a few years a fierce competitor with Mount Lyell. Geoffrey Blainey gives a description of the rivalry and final amalgamation in 'The Peaks of Lyell'. As Blainey points out, the North Mount Lyell workings eventually proved vital for the Mount Lyell Company.^[1]

The 1912 North Mount Lyell Disaster is also found in Blainey's work, but for decades later there were divergent and popular accounts from the official reports that followed.

The North Lyell locality (at which some of the workers killed in the disaster had addresses) was eventually overtaken by the Mount Lyell mine workings and ceased to exist. A rare photo of the locality is in Blaineys book.

Notes

1. ^ * Blainey, Geoffrey (2000). The Peaks of Lyell (6th ed. ed.). Hobart: St. David's Park Publishing. ISBN 0-7246-2265-9.  - Chapter 12 'The Feud of the Irishmen' - for the Bowes Kelly and James Crotty rivalry - North Mount Lyell vs Mount Lyell

References

• Blainey, Geoffrey (2000). The Peaks of Lyell (6th ed. ed.). Hobart: St. David's Park Publishing. ISBN 0-7246-2265-9. 
• Whitham, Charles. Western Tasmania: A Land of Riches and Beauty.

2003 edition - Queenstown: Municipality of Queenstown.

1949 edition - Hobart: Davies Brothers. OCLC 48825404; ASIN B000FMPZ80

1924 edition - Queenstown: Mount Lyell Tourist Association. OCLC 35070001; ASIN B0008BM4XC

See also

• Railways on the West Coast of Tasmania
• West Coast Tasmania Mines