Coal Mines Historic Site

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Coal Mines Historic Site

The Coal Mines Historic Site was Tasmania’s first operational mine, established as a place of puni

The Coal Mines Historic Site was Tasmania’s first operational mine, established as a much-needed local source of coal, but also as a place of punishment for the ‘worst class’ of convicts. Along with the Port Arthur Historic Site, the Coal Mines Historic Site is included in the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage property. Conservation Volunteers Australia is running a volunteer program at the

Coal Mines Historic Site funded by an Australian Government Your Community Heritage Program grant

A visit to the Coal Mines is a fascinating and rewarding adjunct to any visit to the Port Arthur Historic Site.

05/06/2026

Wind, water and bushland have reshaped the Coal Mines Historic Site over time.

What was once a industrial settlement is now a place where visitors can experience both history and the natural landscape of the Tasman Peninsula. Preserving these spaces ensures future generations can continue to learn from them.

On World Environment Day, we celebrate the landscapes that hold our stories.

27/05/2026

There is quiet care going on every day.

Natural degradation and exposure to weather have undermined a portion of brick wall next to the chimney ruin of the Officers & Miner’s Quarters. To support those remains, our conservation team will be reconstructing a ‘like-for-like’ brick directly below.

It is through care like this that the stories of the Coal Mines are kept alive.

15/05/2026

The Coal Mines was designed to be a place of punishment, discipline and hard labour, and its reputation reflected that.

As a tertiary punishment station on the Tasman Peninsula, it became known as one of the harshest convict sites in Van Diemen’s Land. Stories of its isolation, strict routines and unforgiving conditions spread widely, reinforcing its role as a deterrent to those who dared reoffend.

But beyond the fearsome reputation was a very real place of hardship for the men sent there.

Was the Coal Mines feared because of the stories told about it or because of the reality experienced within it?

Image credit Price

16/04/2026

Communication between Port Arthur and Hobart once relied on a chain of semaphore stations across the landscape. One of these towers stood at the Coal Mines, where a signalman used a telescope and code book to relay messages.

With the semaphore system, messages could travel between Hobart and Port Arthur in as little as 15 minutes.

Image source: Libraries Tasmania: Title: Signal semaphore at Port Arthur
Publication Information:
London: Richard Bentley, 1872.
Other Authors/Creators: Baden-Powell, George, 1847-1898.
Record ID: SD_ILS:640741
Electronic resources: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/AUTAS001126075639w800"

30/03/2026

The Coal Mines Historic Site offers a quieter place to connect with Tasmania’s convict past.

Walk among the ruins, look out across the water, and reflect on the lives once lived here.

The site remains open across Easter for visitors wishing to explore this remarkable landscape.

Image credit Georgie Burgess

ID: Looking through the remains of a window, surrounded by thick blocks of sandstone, out towards the rubble of ruins, a low stone wall and the water beyond.

13/03/2026

The Coal Mines Historic Site rewards those who take their time.
Follow the walking tracks past the solitary cells, the chapel, and the miners’ huts, imagining the skilled labour that once extracted coal from deep underground. It is a landscape where industry, punishment, and family life once existed side by side.

Image credit

ID1: Overlooking low walls of a ruin, out towards the bay and ranges of the other side.
ID2: The walls, windows and door of a sandstone ruin cast shadows onto the green grass.
ID3: A metal sign with information on ten walks that can be taken across the site.

03/03/2026

The cliffs, bushland and shoreline surrounding the Coal Mines are alive with movement.
Birds fly the coastline and wildlife moves quietly among sandstone remains. Today, it is a place of reflection where natural rhythms have replaced industrial noise.

ID: Six bright coloured parrots in various stages of flight, landing and balancing on a dense shrub.
Image: Stewarts Bay Lodge

24/02/2026

Behind the chapel, a row of miners’ huts once housed the men whose skills kept the operation running. They worked at the coal face, hauling out the seams that fuelled the colony, then returned to modest homes perched above the shoreline. Today only fragments remain, but the story of those workers still shapes the character of this remote place.

A map of the Coal Mine precinct : State Library of New South Wales: TAS PAPERS 156: Port Arthur Convict Settlement : Permits, Conveyances and Expenditure, 1858-1860, and Other Convict Records, 1857-1864, Including Plans of Probation Stations, Tasman Peninsula, 1857

ID: A line drawing map of the Coal Mines showing the shoreline and locations of structures

21/02/2026

Critical to the extraction of 60,000 tons of coal at the Coal Mines was the inclined pathway- a two-way rail track up and down from the shaft entrance at Coal Mine Hill to the waterline at Plunkett Point. Every sweaty hack of the pick represents the clear economic value of the underground convicts.

The tram car two-way system was the first accredited and mechanised mine in Tasmania.
Gravity and human powered coal tram cars were pulled up and down with hand-driven wheels with cables and pulleys to deliver the less than perfect coal to the waiting ships.

From 1841-42, the carts were running all day along the rail sleepers built with local hewn timber, pushing the extracted coal down the hill while at the same time bringing the empty cart back up.

All that remains now of the 600 lives who worked on the Inclined Plane is the visible and scarred imprint of a treeless straight line in the bush.

ID 1+2: A colour photo of the inclined plane with surrounding plane at the Coal Mines. ID 3: Watercolour by Conrad Martens, The Coal Mines, Tasmans [i.e. Tasman] Peninsula, Coal Point, Tasmans [i.e. Tasman] Peninsula from the long jetty

10/02/2026

International Women and Girls in Science Day
Three women from our Conservation team, three different professions, but all using sciences to showcase, care for and conserve heritage sites for future generations.

Pamela, our architect: manages physical impacts on built heritage – something that encompasses geology, chemistry, physics, and hydrology.

Sylvana, our archaeologist: uses LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) to identify landscape elements that would otherwise be obscured, and photogrammetry for highly accurate, non-invasive investigation and recording.

Caitlin, our ecologist: uses botany, zoology, ecology, meteorology and oceanography to care for cultural landscapes and look for ways to adapt the sites to the impacts of climate change.

They are passionate, knowledgeable, and critical members of our team - we recognise and thank them and all the other women in STEM on our sites helping with the conservation of our built and natural environments.

Images
Photogrammetry model of a feature revealed through coastal erosion at the Coal Mines Historic Site, Sylvana Szydzik, PAHSMA 2018
Mason Cove during the 2011 storm event. David Roe, PAHSMA 2011
Detail of a sandstone wall at Cascades Female Factory. Pamela Hubert, PAHSMA 2021

Address

Saltwater Creek Road
Saltwater River, TAS
7186

Telephone

+61362512310

Website

http://coalmines.org.au/

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