Peninsular Tramways

Tramways of Tasmania’s Forestier & Tasman Peninsulas 1833 – 1976

By Tristan Joseph Verhoeff

Published by the LRRSA
ISBN 978-0-9093-406-2-9

NOTE: This is pre-publication price. The book will not be available for delivery until February 2026

Hard cover, 208 pages an art paper, A4 size, 133 illustrations, 96 maps and diagrams, with references, and index

Australia’s first passenger carrying railway, the convict powered railway on the Tasman Peninsula, is
well known. That line connected Little Norfolk Bay with Long Bay, an inlet off Port Arthur, to its south.

Not so well known is that there were many other tramways on the Tasman Peninsula, and the Forestier
Peninsula immediately to its north. Many of them dated from the 1830s. Until the 1870s these
tramways were associated with the convict era and were mostly used for timber getting, quarrying,
and transporting coal from mines to jetties. From the 1870s to the 1930s there were many timber
tramways, with gauges of up to 4 feet 6 inches. Most were horse worked, but some used locomotives,
both steam and internal-combustion.

As a result of extensive research of archival documents, newspaper reports, and on-site investigations,
the author has provided a comprehensive record of these tramways – mostly for the first time. The
96 maps and diagrams include detailed modern maps with the sites of tramways, mills, and jetty
sites superimposed.

The book also includes a chapter on Tasman Island, and its two tramways which served the lighthouse
at this very remote location. It is an eye-opening explanation of what it was like to live and
work in such a remote location.