Pillinger, Tasmania facts for kids

Pillinger is an old, abandoned port and town in Tasmania, Australia. It's located on the south-eastern side of Macquarie Harbour, which is on Tasmania's West Coast. Imagine a town that was once busy but is now mostly ruins!

What Was Pillinger?

Pillinger was built a long time ago for a mining company called North Mount Lyell. This company needed a way to ship out the ore (rock with valuable minerals) from their mine. They built the North Mount Lyell Railway to carry the ore from the mine to a place called Crotty for processing. From Crotty, the ore continued by train to Pillinger, ready to be shipped away.

Life in Pillinger

Pillinger was actually split into two parts. East Pillinger was the company town. This meant the mining company owned and ran most of it. It had three wharves (places where ships could dock), a sawmill (for cutting wood), a brickworks (for making bricks), and an ore crusher (to break down the ore).

West Pillinger was the government town next door. This part of Pillinger had stores, hotels, and even a police station. It was more like a regular town for people to live and work in.

The Post Office in the area first opened on 15 July 1898, and it was called Kelly's Basin. It was renamed Pillinger in 1899 and stayed open until 1924.

The town was named after an old Tasmanian family called Pillinger. Some members of this family were politicians, which means they were involved in making laws and running the government.

What Happened to Pillinger?

Over time, another big mining company, the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company, took over the North Mount Lyell operations. When this happened, many of the buildings and port facilities in Pillinger were either moved to other places to be used again, or they were just left behind to slowly fall apart.

Today, you can still find many ruins and old items at the Pillinger site. These include parts of two brick kilns, three old boiler engines, and even a piece of a train carriage. You can also see the remains of the old train tracks, which stretch out into Macquarie Harbour for hundreds of metres.

Because of its history, the Tasmanian government has officially marked Pillinger and the area around it as a special historical site.