Back to search results
MT WILLS PROPRIETARY BATTERY SITE
ONE MILE SPUR TRACK MITTA MITTA, EAST GIPPSLAND SHIRE
MT WILLS PROPRIETARY BATTERY SITE
ONE MILE SPUR TRACK MITTA MITTA, EAST GIPPSLAND SHIRE
All information on this page is maintained by Heritage Victoria.
Click below for their website and contact details.
Victorian Heritage Inventory
-
Add to tour
You must log in to do that.
-
Share
-
Shortlist place
You must log in to do that.
- Download report
On this page:
Statement of Significance
This record has minimal details. Please look to the right-hand-side bar for any further details about this record.
Show more
Show less
-
-
MT WILLS PROPRIETARY BATTERY SITE - History
Heritage Inventory History of Site:
The battery of the Mt Wills Proprietary Co. was the first known to have been erected on the Mt Wills field. It was christened in March 1892, after two years' construction. The battery was situated about two miles from the mine, on Gills Creek which it was hoped would provide a plentiful supply of water. The distance between mine and battery necessitated a series of self-acting and level tramways for the conveyance of stone. The machinery initially consisted of a stone breaker, a 20-head stamper battery, and a series of classifiers and concentrators, all driven by a double-cupped Pelton wheel, 8 ft in diameter.
The first eight months of operation were disastrous, the failures indicating the difficulty of managing so extensive an undertaking in such difficult terrain. In July it was reported that the mine had not been sufficiently developed to provide enough ore to keep the battery busy. In the summer the plant ran short of water and the tramroad required re-grading to minimize the number of men engaged in haulage. Worst of all, though, the plant proved incapable of saving tin: from 800 tons of stone treated during this period only 1½ tons of oxide were recovered; the rest was swept away into the creek with the tailings. Extensive alterations were made to the plant in 1893 (apparently including the addition of a steam engine and boiler), but no improvement resulted. From that point, the company's operations were almost solely confined to prospecting and the machinery lay idle. The Mt Wills Proprietary Co. had spent £30,000 on its mine and machinery.
In about 1898, 10 heads of stampers, boiler and steam engine were removed to the Samaritan battery site in Four Brothers Gully. In 1907, the remaining 10 heads and Pelton wheel were removed to the Mulhausen battery site on Merrimac Creek.Heritage Inventory Description
MT WILLS PROPRIETARY BATTERY SITE - Heritage Inventory Description
Machinery components littering the site include: shafts, gearing pulleys, flywheels, nuts, bolts, chutes, handwheels, dog clutches, jaws, overturned body of the stone breaker and a neat stack of pipes.
-
-
-
-
-
MT WILLS PROPRIETARY BATTERY SITEVictorian Heritage Inventory
-
-