This month we will consider the mines west of the Forth River in the vicinity of the major road junction at Moina, where the Cethana link road climbs steeply up from Cethana Dam to join the busy tourist road to Cradle Mountain. Once called Lincoln’s Corner, in recent times the tourist-related businesses on this busy corner have reclaimed the obsolete name ‘Moina’ from the old, abandoned mining township 2 kms away. The chief mines were the All Nations on Dolcoath Hill, the Shepherd & Murphy mine at old Moina and the goldfields at Bell Mount.

Dolcoath Hill comprises rugged country south of Cethana Link Rd, east of the Cradle Mountain Rd and west of the Forth River. It was here, in the early part of 1891, that prospector Bart L Thomas first found tin, resulting in a rush of prospectors and leases across this remote, unexplored region.

Dolcoath Tin Mining Co, 1891. When John Levings and Thomas Brenan found tinstone instead of gold, they named the area ‘Dolcoath Hill’ after the oldest and richest tin mine in Cornwall, England. Some tunnelling was done into very rough ground, but after government geologists judged it not a valuable field, a few years later it closed. Around 1919, when tin prices were much higher, Ulverstone speculators worked it for some time.

Iris Mine, 1892. On the south side of Dolcoath Hill, Michael Hearps discovered alluvial tinstone and wolfram in 1892. When the Iris Tin Mining Co was formed, most of the 1200 shares were held by three Launceston doctors. This mine was marked with tragedy. In Mar 1894, three miners – Callagan, Joyce & O’Toole – sent their fourth mate, Wm Inall (50), into their hut to boil the billy. When they went for a ‘cuppa’, they found him dead of a heart attack.

Taken over by Charlie Adams and brothers Syd and Edmund Davis, the company had their first alluvial load ready for shipment in May 1913. But while cutting the roots of a large stump overhanging their open cut mine, Syd Davis (33) was crushed when the stump fell on top of him. When Dr Ratten arrived by motorcar from Sheffield, Davis was already dead, leaving behind a wife and two small children. In the 1920s, Thomas Kitto began managing the mine until it closed in 1925. Fred Townsend reopened it during the 1940s and worked it profitably until 1950.

On the north side of Dolcoath Hill, a series of mines opened along Narrawa Creek. Warwick Castle discovered three of them: Princess Mine in 1908, Squibb Mine in 1909 and Sayers. Ben Gurr commenced production in 1912 at the Squibb Mine. It was the first mine in the district that paid its way from the start without resorting to floating a public company. It closed in 1920. Other nearby mines were Higgs, Narrawa Reward and Povey & Johnson.

All Nations mine, 1900
All Nations mine was one of the three big mines in this area and the largest producer of gold, silver and bismuth. The site was discovered by Tom Shepherd & Tom Murphy just off the eastern side of the Cradle Mountain Rd, close to Moina. Its multi-national name came from the composition of the original gang of workers. By July 1904, our intrepid Sheffield storekeeper and Lorinna mail contractor Thomas J Clerke took out a 25-year conditional lease over the All Nations mine that depended on him obtaining English investment money for extensive development. Clerke paid his partner, Richard Mitchell (50), to go to England with specimens to obtain funds for the All Nations Wolfram Mine Company. Tragically, during his first night in his London hotel, Mitchell died of pneumonia. Clerke continued working the mine until 1907 but was unable to comply with the conditions of his lease. He lost the subsequent court case, lost his lease and lost a large amount of money. (A similar thing happened to TJ Clerke back in Jan 1891, when he lost money after forming The Australasian Gold Mining Co at the Golden Hill mine near Lorinna.)

James Rowland installed six tons of mining machinery in the All Nations mine, but it was burnt out in 1914. Various syndicates mined the All Nations mine through the decades as the prices ebbed and flowed. In 1959, Jock Smith of Erriba leased the mine for 20 years followed by Kidd and McGrau, making it the longest working mine in the area.

Just south of the All Nations lease was the Lady Barron mine, managed by Wm Goldsworthy for a Melbourne syndicate, and the Pig & Whistle mine, worked by Harry Lawson. Originally, the only way to access the Moina and Dolcoath mines was by crossing the Forth River at Lorinna and climbing up the Five Mile Rise. A second crossing – a cage crossing from the Forth Gates – was put in between Campbell Reward Mine on the east and Dolcoath Hill on the west side. For years, this shortened the trip for individual miners until the wire broke and let one miner into the river. A flood finished it off in May 1916. In 1916, Alex Sloane with his gang cut an 8-mile direct cart-track road from Moina to Lorinna, but by this date an alternate road, north through Wilmot, was opened, and some ore was shipped from the Roland railway station.

The Shepherd & Murphy mine, 1892

One of the largest wolfram and bismuth mines in Tasmania was the Shepherd & Murphy mine on Bismuth Creek at Moina. Discovered by Tom Shepherd and Tom Murphy of Railton, it operated from 1892 to 1957. The Shepherd & Murphy Tin Mining Co was formed in Royal Hotel, Latrobe, in Feb 1893 with a capital of 600 £1 shares. George Rudge became legal manager, with mostly Latrobe businessmen, solicitors and doctors as shareholders. The only Kentish shareholders were Tom Shepherd, Tom Murphy, Arthur Hammant (all prospectors) and Robert Manning (farmer). Operations began in 1897 with above-ground manager Richard Mitchell erecting various buildings and underground boss Watty Townsend doing the tunnelling. In 1902, William Hitchcock took over the management of the mine and remained with the company for 27 years. Hitchcock commenced at Mt Lyell in 1898 and managed mines in Victoria and NZ before returning to Tasmania in charge of the Shepherd & Murphy.

In 1906, metallurgist Hartwell Condor had four tons of concentrates shipped with him to England and was successful in gaining English capital to develop the mine, which changed the company’s future. The English injection of capital allowed for the purchase of machinery and the building of a large milling plant. The company had been employing 30 men, but this rose to 200 at the peak of activity, when underground mining extended for two miles on three different levels. Between 1906 and 1920, the Shepherd and Murphy ran as a very successful company, mining wolfram, tin and bismuth, and paying dividends to English and local shareholders. This all came to an end on Sat 24 Jan 1920 when, tragically, a raging bushfire destroyed the company’s operation and brought all work to a standstill.

A new concentrating mill was eventually erected, but in the meantime, world metal prices had slumped so much that full production was never resumed. Only skeleton staff remained until the mine closed in 1926. The new mining plant was sold to Storey’s Creek Tin Mining Co and taken to Rossarden. Interestingly, Wm Hitchcock went there as well and managed the Aberfeldy Tin Mine between 1930 and 1945. Hitchcock died in Melbourne in 1945 without children.

Old Moina township

Moina was a mining company village, with streets named after company directors – Soper, Hinman, Wright and Murphy Streets – and 47 allotments for miners and their families. Located in a commanding position, Wm Hitchcock’s very comfortable manager’s residence had a pine-lined living room and carpeted floor. He served on the Kentish Council from 1914 to 1923 and was warden in 1923. Hitchcock purchased the first car in Moina to travel 23 miles one way to council meetings in Sheffield. After the Shepherd & Murphy Tin Mining Company left Moina, his house was auctioned off to Les Cox for £50, moved to Staverton and later became the home of Carl & Jean Cox.

Moina Post Office, 1910: The mine manager’s wife, Caroline Hitchcock, commenced as first postmistress on 1 Jan 1910. Then Ben Gurr 1911, Tom Dutton 1912, Elsie Jubb until 1920, Ruby Goldsworthy 1921–1929, her son Alfred Goldsworthy until 1936, Mabel Godwin until 1937, her husband – George Godwin – until 1957. The PO closed permanently in 1958.

Moina Public Hall, 1911: Moina Public Hall/school was built for the Kentish Council and was opened in June 1911 by the Hon John Hope. Hope and his councillors had made a difficult 3-hour rain-soaked journey from Sheffield for the occasion. The building contractor was young Will England of Wilmot, who erected a substantial 48ft x 20ft weatherboard hall with an iron roof for £150. Orphaned as a child, Will England (14) accompanied his uncle TJ Clerke back to Tasmania in 1900 after Clerke visited the UK. After an apprenticeship with JT Gunn, England came to Wilmot for a while, where TJ Clerke had opened a new store. England built both the Moina Hall and Wilmot Wesleyan Church. Schoolchildren remained in this unheated hall until the new Moina school was built by Arthur Bailey of Sheffield for £300; Wm Hitchcock was instrumental in getting it constructed. The school commenced in 1915, with Miss Lily Townsend in charge, but closed nine years later, in 1924. The Moina Hall was destroyed by fire on 27 Nov 1946.

Town life reached its peak during the First World War. The centre of Moina’s social life was the public hall, and the centre of Moina’s sports activities was the recreation ground, now submerged beneath Lake Gardiner. Wm (Bill) & Ruby Goldsworthy, with their young family, arrived in Moina in 1910. Bill was manager of the nearby Lady Barron mine, while Ruby became the pianist for all church services and concerts and was on-call as the local midwife. Ruby, with her daughter Irene, took over the post office and added a small shop. Bill won the contract for the mail run to Wilmot and bought a T Model Ford, which he adapted to carry passengers and parcels. As his boys – Alf (b1904) & Arthur (b1905) – grew up, Goldsworthy bought 227 acres and began farming with them. They were given charge of the Moina salmon hatchery to build up the stocks in the surrounding mountain rivers. In 1925, the Goldsworthys were the first to buy a large wireless set from Slaters at Sheffield.

After the Shepherd & Murphy mine closed, a lot of land was purchased for cattle grazing, farming and hunting. A dispute over hunting areas led to a double murder in April 1938, when Gordon Francombe (29) and Henry Dawson (57) were shot by rabbit-trapper Donovan Packett (33) on the Moina roadside. Found by Norm Croome, a skin merchant from Sheffield, the bodies had two shots in each head. In 1953, during the Korean War, the Shepherd & Murphy site was taken over by the Moina Tungsten Tin Co, who built a prefabricated village with new machinery. Unfortunately, metal prices again fell, and when water entered the mine, it closed permanently in 1956.

Bell Mount Goldfields, 1892

Malcolm Campbell found alluvial gold in the Bell Mount goldfields, and when he took out a 50-acre lease at Bell Mount in Feb 1893, it started a gold rush. By May 1893, some 100 prospectors were in the area; Sheffield and Latrobe speculators being prominent among them. Elvin Atkinson commenced packing supplies in and out of the Bell Mount goldfields. Parties and syndicates formed to peg out their claims. Averaging three men each, the parties included Malcolm Campbell & Sykes; Bound & Glover; Sweeney, Brampton & Bott; Donnelly Bros, White & L Thomas; Johnson & Ross; Allen, Shepherd & Hammond; Henry Weeks’s party, Maddox’s party and Dooley’s party.

The nuggets discovered at Bell Mount were the largest discovered in Kentish’s backcountry. Llewellyn Thomas found one 4oz nugget, and Sheffield storekeeper Wm Lade found one that was 5oz. A 22oz nugget topped the scales until George Inverarity found a 50oz nugget in Bell Creek. During the boom period, Bell Mount paid good money. It was estimated about 4,000 ounces of gold valued around £3/17/6 per oz were taken from Bell Mount. All gold nuggets were deposited with manager Edward Lamb of the National Bank in Sheffield. But after a year or so, little new gold was found.

Long after the Bell Mount goldfields had been deserted, Alex Campbell continued sluicing there and just paid his way. Alex never married. He stayed on at Bell Mount for two decades, supporting his widowed sister and her children in Deloraine. Alex died in July 1936 and was buried in Deloraine. Malcolm Campbell and wife Margaret (nee Johnson) returned to the Minnow River at Lower Beulah – where it all began. Malcolm died there on his son Claude Campbell’s farm in April 1938, aged 79, and was buried in Sheffield.

Mining that once thrived throughout this region has gone, but the tourist industry around Moina is still thriving.   The popular Lemonthyme Wilderness Retreat built by Darrell Stafford back in 1989 for the 1990 World Rowing Championships, still continues to attract its wilderness clientele. And the Cradle Forest Inn at Moina, destroyed by fire in May 2022, has been rebuilt and is a popular place to stay. This whole remote Dolcoath Hill region is soon destined to roar back to life when the enormous Cethana Pumped Hydro Energy Storage project gets under way along with Cradle Apline Retreat