LONE HAND BATTERY AND CYANIDE WORKS
PROVIDENCE SPUR TRACK WONGUNGARRA, WELLINGTON SHIRE
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Statement of Significance
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LONE HAND BATTERY AND CYANIDE WORKS - History
Heritage Inventory History of Site: (The Lone Hand mine east of Grant appears to have no connection with an earlier Lone Hand [formerly Mountaineer] Reef worked at Good Luck Creek in the 1860s and 1880s.)The Lone Hand Reef is an easterly continuation of the Jolly Sailor's, a reef which was worked as early as 1864. The Lone Hand extension was opened up in the early 1900s by a co-operative party of miners. They crushed stone with a 5-head battery, driven by an 8-hp engine, situated in Mornington Gully near the reef. The Royal Flush Reef, nearer to Grant, was worked in conjunction with the Lone Hand, but was a poor performer. Work on the Lone Hand mine ceased in 1907, and although prospectors re-tried the reef in 1913-14, nothing payable was found.There was a battery in Mornington Gully as early as 1865, when Kitchingham & Co. erected a steam-powered Balfour's patent crusher 'immediately next to' the Jolly Sailors claim, to service mines along the reef. Like most Crooked River reefs, the Jolly Sailors was abandoned in the late 1860s, but it was re-worked in the early 1870s by the Hopeful and Ballarat companies. The Mornington battery (or 'Mornington mills', as it was called) was again put to use, and was rebuilt in 1875 after it was seriously damaged by bushfire. Nothing more is known of the Mornington battery, other than it was used for a trial crushing from a new reef in 1880. The Jolly Sailors Reef was again worked in the late 1880s, when a 300-ft tunnel was driven to intersect it. The next recorded workings were those on the Lone Hand extension. It is possible, though unlikely, that the repaired Mornington battery was re-used in the early 1900s.Heritage Inventory Description
LONE HAND BATTERY AND CYANIDE WORKS - Heritage Inventory Description
Chimney stack, battery site, track, and cyanide works.
Heritage Inventory Significance: RegionalScientific significanceùas a rare type of site: ie., a battery site with substantial remains of a stone chimney stack.Network valuesùas part of the site network comprising the Grant Historic Reserve, which also includes mining settlements, cemeteries, quartz mines and alluvial mining landscapes, all overgrown, but linked by a navigable network of carting tracks.
Heritage Inventory Site Features: Features of the Lone Hand battery & cyanide works site are chimney stack, battery site, track, and cyanide works.Chimney stackùSubstantially intact 5ft-square stone chimney stack standing 13 ft high.Battery siteùBelow the stack is a benched platform, formerly the site of a battery, although no foundations are visible.TrackùA benched track leads from the site westwards to Grant. Cyanide worksùIn a gully below the battery site are three galvanised iron cyanide vats, partly buried and obscured by ferns.It is not known whether the Lone Hand battery site (early 1900s) coincides with the site of the earlier (1865/rebuilt 1875) Mornington battery.
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GRANT TOWNSHIP AND CEMETERYVictorian Heritage Inventory
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LONE HAND BATTERY AND CYANIDE WORKSVictorian Heritage Inventory
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