A Tasmanian mining history

The story of Magnet.

A book in preparation about Magnet, its mining years, and the people whose lives were connected to this small community in Tasmania’s north-west.

Follow the project

Historic Magnet post and telegraph office with a family at the entrance

Cover of Magnet: Rise and Fall of a Tarkine Mining Town by Paul Ledger

Magnet Post & Telegraph Office.

A story rooted in place

More than a mining field.

This project follows the human story of Magnet: the families, workers, businesses and institutions that made a community in a remote part of Tasmania. It is being developed with close attention to the records and memories that remain.

For readersA local history

For researchersNames & records

For descendantsFamily connections

The work ahead

Following the evidence

↗

01 / PEOPLE & FAMILIES

People at the centre

Names, occupations and family connections help turn the historical record into a fuller account of the community.

Research under way

02 / PLACES & MAPS

A landscape of industry

Mine sites, tracks, buildings and the surrounding north-west country form the setting for Magnet’s story.

Research under way

03 / CHRONOLOGY

Magnet at a glance

A brief timeline offers a sense of the town’s changing fortunes, while the full story remains in the book.

Read the short timeline →

“A history should be precise enough to trust—and alive enough to remember.”

— A guiding principle for this project

A group posed outside Magnet Methodist Church

The lived story

Buildings hold people’s stories.

Photographs give the history a sense of place: they show the buildings and gathering places where community life unfolded.

Magnet Methodist Church.

Built on evidence

Research in progress.

The book is being built from the records that can be checked and traced. As the project develops, this site will share more of the sources and stories behind it.

01Archives & public recordsRead about the research →02Historic newspapersRead about the research →03Maps, photographs & plansRead about the research →04Family knowledge & correctionsRead about the research →