Brothers Town - a history of Derby (Part 1)

Introduction

Derby is a former mining town that has a history going back over 165 years. When you walk (or ride) around town you will still see many of relics of the past, but much has changed in the last 100 years (for the better). The old slag heaps, mining buildings and the environmental damage of the mining activities have been repaired, overgrown by nature or removed by time.

It’s worth dropping into the old school house (about 100 metres from River Cabins Derby) to see and read about the history of the town, and really appreciate how much has changed.

Krushkas

The three Krushka brothers (Charles, Christopher and Fredrick) were the sons of German immigrants who arrived in Hobart in 1855. The Krushka brothers discovered tin in October 1875 in a creek now called Brothers’ Creek at Derby. They staked a claim for an 80-acre section, named the mine Krushka Brothers’ Home and started mining there in March 1876. It became the first commercial tin mine in the area and the new town, which grew quickly with other miners coming to try their luck, was referred to as Brothers’ Home.

Derby Proclaimed

In May 1887 Brothers’ Home was proclaimed by the Tasmanian Government as a town to be called Derby. The choice of the name is said to have been in honour of the Earl of Derby who had been Prime Minister of Britain from 1866 to 1868 and was Foreign Minister in Disraeli’s government in the late 1870’s. No official explanation of the choice of name has been discovered, although it can be assumed that Lord Derby was a well-respected figure. The town of Gladstone was also named after a prominent British politician of the same era. Tasmania was still a colony and Westminster was where the real decisions were made. The adoption of the pronunciation of Derby, the way it is spelt, instead of the usual English version of “Darby” remains a mystery.

Briseis company

Briseis company began mining in Derby in 1879 it gives the name Briseis Hole to the now lake located on the North Eastern side of town. The lake filled the hole which resulted from the open cut mine. The river was diverted 4 times during mining as the main tin leads were in the river bed. Wotchya Upta (from the Lake Derby trail) climbs the side of the old open cut mine. The Lake Derby trail circles the old open cut mine.

Mining operations

The general method of mining in Derby was called hydraulic mining. This entailed use of water pressure to remove the overburden, in the case of the Derby mines where the deep tin leads were overlain by layers of solid basalt and topsoil this necessitated a combined process of blasting with explosives and sluicing with high pressure nozzles to remove unwanted material before the tin could be mined.

With hydraulic mining methods came a constant and growing demand for more and more water, which had to be not only available, but also under pressure. This became the limiting factor to most mining operations, leading to disputes between mine operators and to increasingly expensive measures being taken in the construction of dams and long-distance water races.

Part 2 (the Brisesis disaster and the decline of Derby)