Tas That Was – Magnet

During the early 19th century, while the Van Diemen’s Land Company was surveying Tasmania’s north-west wilderness, an explorer named Henry Hellyer noticed that his compass was behaving strangely due to magnetic interference. As a result, the area he was in became known as Magnet. It wasn’t until 1881 that a huge silver-lead deposit was discovered there, however.

Early prospectors learned that the ore was rich in galena, but they lacked the money and infrastructure needed for large-scale extraction.

Commercial mining in Magnet began in 1890 under the name of ‘Mount Magnet Silver-Lead Mine’, but operations were hampered by the rugged terrain, the region’s isolation, the extreme weather conditions of north-western Tasmania, and transport problems. Despite this, a settlement emerged near the mine, and its population grew as miners, engineers, railway workers, and their families moved in.

To address the transport problems, a tramway was built between the Magnet mine and nearby Waratah between 1901 and 1902. The line stretched for roughly 10 miles across mountainous countryside.

The year 1902 also marked the beginning of the mine’s major industrial phase. The settlement’s population grew to approximately 500 people, and around 200 men worked in the mine. By the 1920s, the Magnet mine was ranked among Tasmania’s most successful mines and had become one of the state’s most significant producers of silver-lead ore. The settlement itself came to include a hotel, a school, a couple of churches, and some stores.

Nothing lasts forever, though. In 1932, the company in charge of the Magnet mine went into liquidation because of the Great Depression. The mine’s profitability also suffered due to falling metal prices.

The local population declined as the 1930s wore on, and mining finally ceased in 1941. The tramway was dismantled, and the entire site was abandoned.

In the 1990s, the former mine area was opened up for regulated fossicking through Mineral Resources Tasmania. Today, it is visited by mineral collectors, historians, and off-road tourists.

References & Bibliography

• Magnet, Tasmania (Our Tasmania)
• Magnet Methodist Church (Churches of Tasmania)
• Magnet Mine fossicking area (Mineral Resources Tasmania)
• Magnet Mine (Mindat.org®)
• Magnet – St Patrick’s Catholic Church (Churches of Tasmania)
• Mining (Mineral Resources Tasmania)
• Silver-Lead Mining in Tasmania

Tas That Was is a column that includes:

• anecdotes of life in Tasmania in the past;
• historical photographs of locations in Tasmania; and/or
• documentaries about locations in Tasmania.

If you have an anecdote or photograph you’d like to share with us, please send it to submit@tasmaniantimes.com.

Callum J. Jones is passionate about telling stories. He studied English, History, and Journalism at the University of Tasmania and lived in Western Sydney from 2022 to 2024 while working as a journalist for Professional Planner, a leading online publication for financial planners. Callum has written for Tasmanian Times since 2018 and has also been published in a range of other outlets, including Quadrant and the BAD Western Sydney anthologies.