QUEENSTOWN

town, western Tasmania, Australia. It lies in the west-coast ranges, in the Queen River valley. Founded in 1897 after the discovery of gold, silver, and copper at nearby Mount Lyell, the town was named for Queen Victoria and was proclaimed a municipality in 1907. Queenstown lies on the Lyell Highway to the port of Strahan (25 miles southwest) and Hobart (158 miles southeast). Most of the town's workforce is employed in the mines at Mount Lyell, and the town has concentration, smelting, and refining facilities for processing the ore. Before new ore-treatment methods were introduced in 1952, the surrounding hills were stripped of their timber for fuel. Fumes emitted from the smelter killed whatever vegetation remained, and this, coupled with erosion, has left a lunarlike landscape around the town. The regeneration of plant life has since been slow. Pop. (1991) 3,368. town, Eastern province, South Africa. The town lies in an upper valley of the Great Kei River. It has a distinctive hexagonal shape, designed by its founder, Sir George Cathcart (1853), as a precaution against tribal attack. Queenstown is a regional administrative and cultural centre with state educational institutions, particularly for girls, and scenic public gardens. Lying in a temperate plateau area often covered by tall native grasses, it is the distribution point for a prosperous wheat-, cattle-, and wool-producing district and has diversified manufactures. Pop. (1985) 17,996.