BACK TO QUEENSTOWN LIST

What you are about to read is a true extract (and I kid you not ) from a 1922 Official Programme titled "Back to Gormanston” the author of which is unknown but his sense of humour is very evident.

"BACK TO GORMANSTON"

WHY?

Because Gormanston is the parent of Queenstown. Twenty five years ago, when the tent-dwellers in the Queen Valley were all dressed up, they had no other place than Gormanston to go If they wanted a legal drink. a postage stamp, or a shirt, they had to hop over the Hill and satisfy their wants at Lyell, as Gormanston was then known. Queenstown came after.

If you don’t live in the Lyell district and want to understand the relative positions of the two settlements, here is your explanation. There is a high ridge (1600 feet elevation) joining Mount Lyell and Mount Owen, separating the Linda and Queen Valleys. On this ridge are situated the famous Mount Lyell mines, which have produced copper, silver, and gold to the value of about £18,000,000, to say nothing of the vast tonnage of iron that lies in the slag dumps and the incredible quantities of sulphur that have gone up the chimney spouts at the Smelters.

The Mount Lyell mine was discovered by the M’Donough ed Karlson brothers in November 1883,when they saw from the spot which is near the sunernit of the Haulage Line, the Iron Blow. The miners naturally built their huts on the eastern or Linda Valley side of the ridge and it was not until the construction of the Smelters was started, in 1893, that there was [sic] any settlement on the western, or Queen Valley side. The ridge that divides the present towns of Gormanston and Queenstown is surmounted by a sinuous four mile road, that goes crawling after easy grades and doesn’t find them; and by the Mount Lyell Company’s Haulage line, which takes one breathless perpendicular jump, right over the hill. Queenstown, the terminus of the railway that runs from Hobart, by way of Launceston and Burnie, is 447 feet above sea level.

The summit of the Haulage line is 1550 feet and Gormanston averages about 1000 feet.

The population of Gormanston is 1590 and of Queenstown 3209. Why is it then, that Gormanston can with easy complacency await the onslaught of sportsmen from a community with twice its numbers? It is because Gormanston is superior in intellect, although Queenstown claims predominance in morality; if the contest were of a religious character, Gormanston would not enter. The highlanders of Gormanston have all the virtues and defects that are associated with dwellers in rugged and picturesque surroundings; they are brave, intelligent. enterprising and honest; but, on the other hand they have large feet, rough manners and are not beautiful.

The people of Queenstown live in a valley; you will therefore expect to find them refined, easy going, beautiful, smooth spoken, with all the corrupt civilisation and manners that could be unapproved if they knew any better. You will observe that we say nothing about their brains.

Both towns have municipal government, with electric light, water supply and the other appurtenances that are deemed necessary to the comfort and health of degenerate man.

At one time we had nothing but candles or hurricane lanterns to heat us, we had to fetch our water in a bucket from the creek and cut our wood from the bush as we wanted it and we were just as healthy and quite as happy as in these sophisticated days.

There is an impression abroad that Queenstown and Gormanston have no grass or gardens; this is not the case. The hillsides are mostly bare, for they have been ravaged by bush fires and sulphur but you can now grow at Lyell anything that does not object to imperfect aridity.

Lots of people here grow enough vegetables to last them for nine months of the year. There are 150 horses, 800 cattle and 200 sheep now grazing in the civiinty. Rain? Yes, Sir, we get lots of it but there are long intervals of dry weather; the rain keeps the place clean and healthy; we have no mud and no smells.

Back to Lyell – yes why not? We can show mountains, forests, lakes, rivers, and at Strahan, which is in our district, there are beaches and fishing grounds. The reutrn fares in the “Back to Tasmania” fortnight are from --

THEN FOLLOWING A “TOURNAMENT PROGRAM” FOR the SATURDAY EVENING 30TH SEPTEMBER 1922 THAT WAS TO TAKE PLACE IN THE SOCIAL CLUB ROOMS AT GORMANSTON.

Special Trains will leave Queenstown on that Evening, Saturday, September 30 at 6.30 and 7.00pm, conveying Passengers over the haulage to the Compressors; from there they will be met by the Gormanston residents, headed by the local Band to convey them to the Social Hall. The trains will return from the foot of the Haulage at 12 midnight and 1am.

ACTIVITIES THAT WERE PLANNED FOR the SATURDAY EVENING WERE: Billiards, Bridge, Chess, Cribbage, Draughts, Euchre¹, Forty Fives, Ping Pong, Snooker. [Forty-fives attracted the most participants.²]

THE PROGRAMME CONCLUDED WITH THANKS TO ALL INVOLVED with THE ORGANISING OF THE EVENTS.

THANKS

To those Gentlemen who have given their valuable services in the selecting of the Teams for the various events. To those Business Firms – Messrs. F. O. Henry and H. Lanigan, of Queenstown, also the Mount Lyell Company's Store at Gormanston – who have made available their windows for the display of posters and Medals in the advertising of this Tournament.

To Mr. V. O'Halloran of the “Advocate” for the unstinted assistance which he has rendered in bringing this Tournament before the public.

To the Gormanston delegates, Mr. C. Schulze, C. Campbell, and E. Burton, in attending at the meeting to assist in the framing of the Programme.

To R. M. Murray, Esq., General Manager of M.L.M. and R. Co., for his kindness in placing a Train at our disposal for the conveying of Members and Friends to Gormanston on that evening and also bringing them back to Queenstown.

To Mr C. Whitham, of the Mount Lyell Railway Office, for the invaluable information supplied and assistance rendered in his writing up the "Back to Gormanston” literature and assisting in every possible way to make this Programmer as up-to-date as possible. To the Competitors for their whole-hearted co-operation in the various games, to make this unique competition a great success.

To everybody else who has aided the smooth working of the tournament in very many ways.

J. W. MURFEY,

Hon. Secretary and Organiser; on behalf of the Committee

Committee: Hon. A. Lawson, M.L.C., Mr. G. Bradshaw, Mr. A. Douglas, Mr. H. J. Francis, Mr. A. Pullen.