Old Town New Prospects

After casting off its industrial past, Queenstown, Tasmania, is emerging as a destination for nature lovers and artists.

- Elspeth Callender

QUEENSTOWN WAS A redneck, hick, burn-it, bash-it, bury-it mining town,” says third-generation local Anthony Coulson. This former miner now runs wildlife-spotting adventures and abandoned mine tours in the nearby Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, one of the planet’s last true wilderness regions. He is part of the revolution taking place in Tassie’s most misunderstood town, but feels privileged to have been around for Queenie’s legendary bar fights, lock-ins and advancing lunar landscape.

Not so long ago Queenstown evoked a polarising effect. In fact, its mention still triggers some Hobartians to recount nightmarish experiences. These include running the risk of being punched at questionable drinking establishments; being subjected to the finger while walking through town wearing a backpack, after the protests against the dam that would have tamed the famously wild Franklin River; or witnessing the in-your-face environmental damage locals once seemed so proud of.

For decades, residents of the state’s capital have pointedly bypassed Queenstown and headed to Strahan, a further 40km to the south-west, for weekend and holiday breaks. West Coast Tasmanians and people who’ve made ‘Queenie’ home don’t sugar-coat the brutal landscape, tragic history and rough-edged locals, but they do understand change and the need for it.