West Coast Piners were groups of men who worked on the West Coast of Tasmania, Australia, logging Huon pine. In most cases they used Strahan as their base, as it was the port from which the timber was shipped. The main eras of the Piners were the Sarah Island convict era (1821–33, 1846–47) and the period from the 1890s to the 1940s.
Most of their activities were focused on the rivers (and their tributaries) that flow into Macquarie Harbour – the King River and the Gordon River The smaller rivers flowing into Macquarie Harbour on the eastern side are Pine Cove Creek, the Braddon River, the Clark River, and the Bird River. Also Birch's Inlet was an area where pine was trasnported from.
They were celebrated by an annual event at Strahan, known as the Piners' Festival, which was conducted for a few years.
Famous quotes containing the words west and/or coast:
“He is every other inch a gentleman.”
—Rebecca West [Cicily Isabel Fairfield] (1892–1983)
“Frequently also some fair-weather finery ripped off a vessel by a storm near the coast was nailed up against an outhouse. I saw fastened to a shed near the lighthouse a long new sign with the words “ANGLO SAXON” on it in large gilt letters, as if it were a useless part which the ship could afford to lose, or which the sailors had discharged at the same time with the pilot. But it interested somewhat as if it had been a part of the Argo, clipped off in passing through the Symplegades.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)