Every so often, the story ripples through the sleepy streets of Tullah, passed from friend to friend, neighbour to neighbour.

It's a story with great implications for this mountain village and one that would prompt celebration had it not been told many times before.

It's the story of the Riley iron ore mine finally getting going and bringing around 100 jobs to a town with no industry apart from a trickle of tourists.

After years of false starts, legal battles, environmental protests and collapses in commodity prices, the Venture Minerals operation finally came to life this week.

And most in Tullah are excited, although they have been excited before.

"This is the third time so we're really concerned that something might happen to stop it again," Tullah Progress Association president Jenny Bowie said.

"But the town don't want that. The town want it to go ahead and they've always been very clear on that right from the word go."

You can sense how much Ms Bowie loves Tullah in the way she speaks of its mountains or chats to the locals.

"It's incredible for a town of 150 people what we can do," she said.

"If they decide they want something, then they put their mind to it and there's really no stopping them."

Ms Bowie believes that is why Tullah has endured, even as its jobs dried up and industries left.

"We call ourselves the town that wouldn't die because it has meant to die, twice," she said.

The first "death" was in the 1960s with the demise of the Mount Farrell mine.

That jobs drought was broken in the 1970s by the Pieman hydroelectric power scheme, which brought rows of new houses, infrastructure and a population of around 2500.

Tracey French remembers growing up at Tullah in those halcyon days; afternoons with the other hydro kids and "non-stop sport".

"It was completely different to what it is now for sure," she said.

She witnessed Tullah's second "death" as the hydroelectricity construction jobs dried up in the 90s. The bank closed, the supermarket shut and the primary school bell rang for the last time.

But she stayed in her beloved town and now works at the local estate agent, where cheap houses are snapped up by retirees and investors.

And even though the impending start of Riley would be one of the biggest changes since the end of the hydro, Ms French "hasn't really thought about it that much".

"If they get it up and running it would be good but I don't know if very much will change," she said.

"It will be interesting to see what happens."

The Tullah Progress Association has also had to wait and see what happens.

Ms Bowie said they supported Venture "big time" and "had a lot to do with their submissions" but much of the work to get the town ready for the start had been done years ago.

"We've been hoping for that (the mine) for like eight years or whatever it is now but the things that dictate that are out of our control," she said.

"We're not in control of Bob Brown and the Greens party. We're not in control of the federal government. We're not in control of the worldwide commodities prices and so all those things affect whether Venture goes ahead."

Things are looking positive with Venture Minerals announcing on Thursday it had started dry screening and associated mining operations.

But that was after a rocky start with environmental activists locking themselves to machinery, the latest in a long line of action against the controversial project.

Ms Bowie has a familiar distain for "Greenies" and those who don't "understand what mining was and what is had morphed into".

"It's not their turf. It's not their livelihood," she said.

But veteran environmentalist Scott Jordan, who has been fighting Riley for 11 years, believes there's good cause for Tullah to be wary .

Mr Jordan has been leading the fight against Riley as part of the broader campaign to protect the Tarkine and its natural values.

In additional to his fears about threatened species and environmental damage, Mr Jordan has questioned the economic viability of the project especially given it has fallen over in the past when prices collapsed.

He said Riley was a very different proposition to longer term projects with "sound economics", such as the nearby Savage River mine.

"What we know is that the economics of this project don't stack up long term. They're only there as long as the iron ore prices stay about $100 a tonne," he said.

He described the mine as a "short term grab and run" given its two-year lifespan and feared it would pave the way for future mines in the region.

'That isn't in the long term interest of Tasmania, for Tullah or the Tarkine," he said.

Venture Minerals managing director Andrew Radonjic said the iron ore price "continues to strengthen and the company looks forward to delivering the first shipment".

"The increased activity at the Riley Iron Ore Mine continues to provide further economic benefits to the community of the West Coast of Tasmania at a time when it is greatly needed and Venture is proud to be rewarding the support of the people of Tasmania in bringing this to fruition," he said.

Tullah Lakeside Lodge co-owner Steve de Villiers wasn't surprised the mine had been targeted once again by environmentalists because "that kind of stuff is bound to happen whenever they start a big project".

He believed everyone in town was "elated" by the project and the expected economic boost.

"You won't lose the character of the town as it is now but you might just find the place is a bit more busier or a coffee shop or something else open up," he said.

Mr de Villers said the scale of the economic boost would depend on whether workers were based at Tullah or if Venture decided to build a camp at the mine.

Other tourism operators are less enthusiastic, such as Darren Briggs, who has run a small holiday home business at Tullah since 2013 and trades upon the wilderness brand of the Tarkine.

He knows that "on the surface the news of additional jobs on the West Coast is good news" but he's not convinced it's worth mining in an area boasting "National Heritage and World Heritage values".

"Many of my guests to my holiday homes come specifically to encounter and experience first-hand what such World Heritage values are like," Dr Briggs said.

"These areas are recommended for protection as they are in increasingly short supply and in threat of disappearing and being degraded for ever; not something I wish to occur on my watch and become the legacy of our generation."

While many in town wait to see what the future holds, Dianne Ashwell will not be among them.

She has been hearing the mine is about to open ever since her family bought the Tullah Tavern nine years ago but it hasn't happened.

She hopes it will "boost the population and really help the place grow a bit".

But after years of rigmarole, legal battles and debate she is ready to leave and has put the tavern up for sale.

"It's been very quiet for the last five years so we just think its time to move on," she said.

"Now Venture is starting I know the place is going to boom but I'll let somebody else make the money."