Crotty, Tasmania
| Company type | Townsite |
|---|---|
| Industry | Mining, smelting |
| Founded | 1900 |
| Defunct | 1928 |
| Fate | Submerged by Lake Burbury after dam construction |
| Headquarters | Western Tasmania , Australia |
Area served | King River area, Western Tasmania |
Crotty was an officially recognized township situated in Western Tasmania, Australia, positioned on the southern edge of the King River and resting on the eastern lower inclines of Mount Jukes beneath the West Coast Range. Previously, this area was known as King River.
Townsite
The official town reserve was declared on 5 June 1900, with the land survey finalized by November of the same year. By 1902, Crotty had expanded to include over 150 residences and supported a community of around 700 individuals. The final residents left the town in 1928.
Images featured in Geoffrey Blainey's The Peaks of Lyell depict the Baxter River bridge, which served as a crucial link for transit between railway stations.
Smelters failure
At the dawn of the 20th century, Crotty hosted a smelter and maintained rail connections to the North Mount Lyell mine.
Despite efforts in 1901 and 1902 to address operational challenges, the North Mount Lyell smelting facilities were unsuccessful. The initial technology employed was reverberatory furnaces, later replaced by water jacket furnaces. In 1903, the company was merged into the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company.
The collapse of smelter operations led to a decline in Crotty’s population. The North Mount Lyell Railway, which linked Crotty with Gormanston, Linda, and Pillinger (Kelly Basin), functioned for several decades before its eventual closure.
Historical photographs of Crotty prominently display the smelting works, local hotels, and modest homes. One of the most recognizable images from Geoffrey Blainey’s The Peaks of Lyell (1902) captures the main street with smelter smoke rising and Mount Jukes forming a backdrop.
Hydro dam era
During the late 1970s, amidst early protests against the proposed Franklin Dam on the Franklin River, a musical group called the 'Crotty Ditty Band' formed in Queenstown.
Throughout the King power project in the 1980s, Hydro Tasmania’s Crotty Camp accommodated several hundred workers involved in dam construction from 1983 until operations moved to Lynchford Camp in 1989.
In the 1990s, following the construction of Crotty Dam as part of the King River Power scheme, Lake Burbury inundated the original townsite. Nonetheless, current maps continue to mark the location as the Proclaimed Town of Crotty. In 2016, lower water levels exposed remnants of the submerged settlement.
Adjacent to Lake Burbury’s eastern shore, southward of the Lyell Highway and near Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, lies the Crotty Conservation Area, encompassing , officially established on 27 December 2000.