Queen River

The Queen River is a river that flows through Queenstown Tasmania, to the west of the West Coast Range in particular Mount Lyell and Mount Owen.

For over 80 years the main carrier of Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company mining residue, and the local sewage. It is estimated that 100 million tonnes of tailings were disposed of into the Queen River. This in turn flowed into the lower part of the King River, and then into a delta at the mouth of the river where it met Macquarie Harbour.

Following the Mount Lyell Remediation and Research and Demonstration Program construction of tailings dams, and general reduction of waste into this river, it is now rusty in colour rather than silvery grey as it was previously.

It passes under and adjacent to the revitalised railway now known as the West Coast Wilderness Railway

South of Queenstown on the edge of the river is the early settlement of Lynchford where a gold mine and other mining activity supported a small community in the early days of the railway.