Kelly Basin is a bay on the south eastern side of

Macquarie Harbour Macquarie Harbour is a shallow fjord in the West Coast region of Tasmania, Australia. It is approximately , and has an average depth of , with deeper places up to . It is navigable by shallow-draft vessels. The main channel is kept clear by th ...

on the West Coast of

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

. It was named after James Kelly an early explorer of the Tasmanian coastline. It was the location of the terminus of the

North Mount Lyell Railway The North Mount Lyell Railway was built to operate between the North Mount Lyell mine in West Coast Tasmania and Pillinger in the Kelly Basin of Macquarie Harbour. History At the start of the Twentieth century it was constructed to take o ...

and the town of Pillinger. In the late 1890s, when John Watt Beattie was showing his photographs of the west coast country to

Hobart Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...

and Launceston audiences, the bay was designated as ''Kelly's Basin''. The North Mount Lyell Railway closed in the 1920s. The route of the former railway line, now known as '

Kelly Basin Road Kelly Basin Road was a road built on the formation of the former North Mount Lyell railway line in the King River Valley of Western Tasmania. It ran to the east of the West Coast Range, from the Linda Valley, to Kelly Basin. Following the ce ...

', was the land route to the bay. In the 1990s, following the failure of the

Franklin Dam The Gordon-below-Franklin Dam (or simply Franklin Dam) project was a proposed dam on the Gordon River in Tasmania, Australia, that was never constructed. The movement that eventually led to the project's cancellation became one of the most sign ...

project to proceed, parts of the Kelly Basin and Bird River area became part of reserves associated with the western boundary of the new South West World Heritage Wilderness area.(1993) ''Kelly Basin-Bird River area site plan'' Parks and Wildlife Service, Tasmania The very similarly named James Kelly Basin is further south at

Port Davey Port Davey is an embayment, oceanic inlet located in the South West Tasmania, south west region of Tasmania, Australia. Port Davey was named by explorer James Kelly (Australian explorer), James Kelly in honour of Thomas Davey (governor), Thomas ...

in the

Southwest National Park Southwest National Park is an Australian national park located in the South West Tasmania, south-west of Tasmania, bounded by the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park to the north and the Hartz Mountains National Park to the east. It is a ...

References

Further reading