The tunnel was built in 1901 by the British Zeehan Silver Mining Company to allow steam boilers to pass through the mountain. These boilers were rather huge, so the tunnel is oddly "keyhole" shaped. Much of the vegetation around the area was removed for the mining efforts, but now the vegetation is back and regrown, a testament to how resilient it is! Until recently, tourists were allowed to drive their cars through the tunnel, but it was a very tight fit and many of the cars actually lost paint as they went through (this starts an interesting conversation on archaeology and how tourists should be able to interact with artifacts). Today, tourists can bike and hike through the tunnel, but not drive. For a biogeography plug--it sounds like you can sometimes see glowworms on the walls and ceiling of the tunnel, especially at night--how eerie!
-Brittany Hallawell
Wow Brittany, reminds me of Stanford. it would be amazing to see some of the tunnels when we visit. Are there any earthquake fault lines around the island? If so, it would be interesting to see if seismic activity has affected these tunnels!
ReplyDelete-Daimen Sagastume
Building off of Daimen's comment, this also remind me of Stanford! (Hoover Tower tunnels... *cough cough*
ReplyDeleteWhile I'd prerfer to stick with the natural exploration, this looks amazing! I also had no idea that there was mining in Tasmania. Precious metals, coal..? I wonder...
-Alicia