Meet the old jetty office
Before the felt went down, this address on Wilson Street, Burnie, did a different job — one that ended up giving Copper Jettys its name, if not quite its evening routine.
Picture 52 Wilson Street before the cards
Burnie grew up around its port, and for a long stretch of the twentieth century that meant copper concentrate coming down by rail from the west coast mines to be weighed, bagged and swung out over the jetties onto coastal ships.
52 Wilson Street did the weighing and the paperwork — a clerk's office attached to the jetty sheds, not much bigger than the room Copper Jettys now keeps its counter in.
When the ore traffic wound down the building sat empty for years, a step up at the door and all, before it was fitted out as a card room, keeping the name the wharfies always used for it.
1940s
Built as a weighing and clerk's office for jetty-bound ore.
Empty for years
Sat unused after the west coast ore traffic wound down.
Now
Six felt tables, a house dealer, and a small counter for tea and coffee.
Trace 52 Wilson Street through the decades
| Decade | What stood here | What's left of it |
|---|---|---|
| 1940s | A weighing office for jetty-bound copper concentrate | The ledger desk, now part of the counter |
| 1960s | Ore traffic slowed as the rail schedules changed | The original skylights, still overhead |
| 1980s | Stood vacant through the harbour's quiet years | The same timber front you see today |
| Today | A card room with six tables and a house dealer at each | Cards, coffee and tea, and not much else |