BLACK SNAKE BATTERY AND CYANIDE WORKS
GIBRALTAR RANGE ROAD HAWKHURST, WELLINGTON SHIRE
-
Add to tour
You must log in to do that.
-
Share
-
Shortlist place
You must log in to do that.
- Download report
Statement of Significance
This record has minimal details. Please look to the right-hand-side bar for any further details about this record.
-
-
BLACK SNAKE BATTERY AND CYANIDE WORKS - History
Heritage Inventory History of Site: Reef claims at Black Snake Creek were first opened up in 1865. In 1867, the Kong Meng Co. took up the Black Snake claim (called 'the most promising looking reef in the neighborhood of Grant'), about 5 km from the junction of Black Snake Creek and Wonnangatta River. The company erected a 4-head water-powered battery, and worked the mine for about three years, reputedly crushing 600 tons of quartz for an average of over 1 oz per ton. The Black Snake mine was idle for a number of years before it was taken up again and a lower tunnel driven along the line of reef for about 150 ft without striking payable stone. In 1907, a party obtained a government grant to extend the Kong Meng tunnel, but again got nothing payable.During the depression of the early 1930s, the government encouraged unemployed men to take up mining on Black Snake Creek. A small 'susso' settlement, with a post & telegraph office and school, was established. The diggings yielded poorly and by 1933 only 15 men remained. The following year, the government initiated roadworks to supplement the diggers' employment. Eight men were prospecting in the area (with government assistance) in 1936, and their eleven children attended the school at Black Snake. By 1942 the field was deserted.Heritage Inventory Description
BLACK SNAKE BATTERY AND CYANIDE WORKS - Heritage Inventory Description
Site consists of: portable steam engine, battery, battery site cyanide works and quartz workings.
Heritage Inventory Significance: RegionalScientific significanceùas a rare type of site: ie., a well-preserved battery ensemble, with five head of stamps and portable steam engine.Network valuesùas part of a network of sites documenting different periods of quartz mining.
Heritage Inventory Site Features: Features of the Black Snake battery site are a portable steam engine and 5-head battery.Portable steam engineùA portable engine is partly buried by flood debris. The engine is still in fair condition, but all brass fittings have been removed. The single-cylinder engine is upright and the flue is still intact. Diameter of fly wheel, 5 ft; diameter of cylinder, 10 inch, length 1¢ ft; overall dimension of engine, 12 ft. The boiler was inspected in 1935.BatteryùIron-framed battery of five head of stampers, manufactured by Machar & Teal, Melbourne. The cam shaft has been dislodged and lies on the ground. The inspection date on the boiler (1935) connects this site with the Black Snake 'susso' settlement of the 1930s depression.A two-head battery, cyanide works, and quartz workings are located downstream from the main Black Snake battery.Battery siteùThe battery's wooden bearers are in situ, but other relics have been scavenged or dislodged: the stamper box and fly-wheel lie 10 m downstream, and a pulley wheel in the creek bed.Cyanide worksù50 m downstream is a small dump of tailings with an in situ 9ft-diameter galvanised iron vat, and two uprooted vats. The vats are very overgrown.Quartz workingsùSeveral levels of adits with machinery remains (not surveyed).The two-head stamper box and battery relics are likely to be remains of the 4-head battery installed by the Kong Meng Co. in 1867. The higher adit level/s represent the workings of the Kong Meng Co. (reworked in 1907); a lower adit was driven in the 1870s or 80s. Nothing is known of the cyanide workings, but they probably date to the 1930s, when miners are known to have been active on the field.
-
-
-
-
-
BLACK SNAKE BATTERY AND CYANIDE WORKSVictorian Heritage Inventory
-
-