Williamsford, Tasmania

{{Short description|Ghost town in Tasmania, Australia}}

{{Use Australian English|date=June 2015}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2015}}

File:North_East_Dundas_Tramway,_1909_01_21_Insert_4b_(14471518516).jpg

Williamsford, Tasmania is the location of a former mining community, south of Rosebery, Tasmania and on the western lower reaches of Mount Read.

It was formerly reached by the North East Dundas Tramway a line which operated between 1896 and 1929.{{cite book| author=Atkinson, H.K.| title=Railway Tickets of Tasmania| year=1991| isbn=978-0-9598718-7-6}} page 113 - Williamsford railway station issues rail tickets between 1899 and 1917

It was also the location of the Hercules Haulage - a 2-foot gauge haulage line on the western slope of Mount Read, and the later Rosebery - Williamsford Aerial Ropeway.

The town had an Australian rules team in the Rosebery Football Association{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article67813994 |title=ROSEBERY. |newspaper=The Advocate (Australia) |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=10 May 1929 |accessdate=26 October 2022 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}} until the competition disbanded in 1963.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article84025240 |title=WILLIAMSFORD. |newspaper=Zeehan and Dundas Herald |volume=XXIV |issue=160 |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=21 April 1913 |accessdate=26 October 2022 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article67660457 |title=WILLIAMSFORD. |newspaper=The Advocate (Australia) |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=23 June 1926 |accessdate=26 October 2022 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}

In 1924, Charles Whitham wrote:-

Williamsford is the township attached to Mount Read, and is right at the foot of the steepest and longest haulage line we have...

5 miles from Rosbery by road, and 18 miles from Zeehan by tramway, and if you like rugged and wild scenery you will find it a charming place

{{Citation | author1=Whitham, Charles | author2=Mount Lyell Tourist Association | title=Western Tasmania : a land of riches and beauty | publication-date=1924 | publisher=Mount Lyell Tourist Association | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/12518157 | access-date=20 June 2015 }}

By the late twentieth century there were no longer inhabitants of this community.{{Cite web|url=http://www.railtrails.org.au/states/trails.php3?action=trail&trail=72|title=Rail Trails}}

The townsite is to become the new site of a collection of conifers. These conifers have been collected over the last 15 years from a number of Southern Hemisphere countries where they are approaching extinction. The collected species of trees are considered extremely rare living examples of prehistoric conifers and to be "the best collection in the world".{{Cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/conifers-back-home-in-tasmania/3017462|title = Conifers back home in Tasmania|date = 30 July 2010}}