Zeehan-Strahan Road

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Zeehan-Strahan Road is a rural road in western Tasmania that connects Strahan with Zeehan. It runs beside Ocean Beach for a while, crosses the Henty River at the beach’s northern end, and then turns inland.

In the 1920s, railways were the main way to move people and goods on the west coast. The Zeehan–Strahan route was mainly served by the Strahan–Zeehan Railway, and Ocean Beach wasn’t used for regular rail traffic. Building a road was considered so heavy trucks could haul ore and timber.

Road construction on the west coast was talked about in the 1920s but really progressed in the 1960s and later. After early work on the Zeehan Highway and the Strahan–Queenstown road, travel between Zeehan and Strahan by road became possible in the 1940s. When railways declined in the 1960s and the Zeehan–Queenstown highway grew in use, part of the old railway line helped form the Zeehan–Strahan road.