<
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-tasmania-the-mines-have-closed-but-the-rivers-remember/>
"The King River snakes through some of Tasmania’s most dramatic and diverse
landscape, flowing past rainforest, button grass plains and the rugged peaks of
the West Coast Range before emptying into a large bay near Strahan, a quiet
fishing town. To the casual visitor, the winding stream looks as wild as the
lightly settled country around it.
But on a February morning, the King’s tea-brown waters flowing past forested
banks near the sea were disturbingly silent. The air hummed with large,
persistent horseflies and little else. Healthy Tasmanian streams typically teem
with aquatic insects, including mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies, which
form the foundation of freshwater food webs.
Not here. Along the lower King River, many aquatic species are gone; an
enduring effect of copper mining above Queenstown, which sent uncounted tons of
mine waste downstream. That pollution originated at Mount Lyell, one of
Australia’s largest historic copper mines. Established in the early 1890s, its
tailing piles discharged toxic contaminants into the nearby Queen River, a
tributary that flows directly into the King.
Historic mine workings at Mount Lyell near Queenstown, where more than a
century of copper mining has left a lasting environmental legacy that continues
impacting biodiversity and posing risks to public health.
Although large-scale dumping ended long before the mine was finally closed in
2014, that hidden legacy of pollution remains embedded in river waters,
sediments and floodplains.
Surveys of aquatic life have repeatedly found that the sensitive species
expected in clean rivers are largely absent. Investigations by Tasmania’s
Environment Protection Authority describe sections of the lower King River as
“biologically dead,” a stark reminder to Tasmania and the world that the
impacts of mineral extraction persist long after mining ends.
Much of the King’s pollution originated in millions of tons of sulfide-rich
tailings deposited during more than a century of mining at Mount Lyell. When
exposed to air and water, the tailings produce acid mine drainage that
dissolves metals such as copper, zinc and iron — metals that move downstream,
accumulating throughout the Queen-King watershed. Large deposits even collected
in a mine-waste delta where the King enters the natural bay of Macquarie
Harbour.
“Mining legacy can affect natural systems for thousands of years,” says Owen
Missen, a geochemist at the University of Tasmania.
To the untrained eye, today’s landscapes can appear deceptively intact.
“Tasmania is a state of contrasts,” Missen adds. “The King River appears like
other rivers in western Tasmania, high-flowing and scenic, but beneath the
surface it still carries decades of mine waste.”"
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
