The river is impounded by the
Crotty Dam to form
Lake Burbury, covering over the former valley and named after the first Australian born
Governor of Tasmania,
Stanley Burbury. Water drawn from the lake is used to supply the
conventional hydroelectric John Butters Power Station, operated by
Hydro Tasmania. Below the dam wall, the river flows through a narrow channel as it flows west towards
Teepookana, in the last of the river, where extensive silting from the mine tailings that have been carried down from
Queenstown, has created such a resource that at least one mining company has in the past proposed the mining of the deposits at the edge of the river, as well as the delta formed out into Macquarie Harbour due to the amount of economically viable materials in the silt. The small timber mill community adjacent to the old alignment of the
Lyell Highway was submerged, as was a significant portion of the old railway alignment of the
North Mount Lyell railway line between
Linda and
Pillinger. The site of the townsite of
Crotty, and the smelters of Crotty were also submerged.
Queen River The King River was considered to be Australia's most polluted river. Mining started in the 1880s, with the Queen River, a major tributary of the King River, being used for waste water disposal from the Mt Lyell copper mine. Between 1922 and 1995 low grade ore was concentrated on site and the tailings (ore-washing residue) dumped in the river also. About 1.5 million tonnes of sulfidic tailings entered the river system each year up to 1995, along with huge volumes of acidic, metal-rich water flowing from the workings. This '
acid mine drainage' is derived from water leaching through the exposed and oxidised sulfide rocks. When it was in operation, the fumes from the ore smelter produced acid rain which also leached minerals from the bare Queenstown hills. In 1992 the King River was dammed above the confluence with the Queen River to generate hydroelectric power at the
Crotty Dam. This changed the flow regime in the King River, and affected the way tailings were transported through the river system. The tailings in the river greatly affect the water quality. About 100 million tonnes of tailings have been deposited on the banks and bed of the King River and in a delta at the mouth of the river where it enters Macquarie Harbour. Since the closure of the mine in late 1995, and the construction of a tailings dam by the new operators, tailings no longer enter the river system. However, acid water continues to enter the river due to mine dewatering and run-off from the waste rock dumps. Without the buffering previously provided by the alkaline tailings, the acidity in the Queen and King rivers has increased, and dissolved metal concentrations have greatly increased-to levels highly toxic to aquatic life.
Abt Railway route The north bank (except for the Teepookana to Quarter Mile Bridge section which was on the south bank) of the lower portion of the King River valley was the route for the old "Abt" rack railway to Queenstown. In 1962 the original builder and owner, the
Mount Lyell railway line closed and the line was removed. This has been since restored in early 2002 for tourism purposes. The new line follows exactly the same route and is known as the
West Coast Wilderness Railway. ==See also==