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WARDLE'S WATER RACE
EAST AND WEST OF OSBORNE ROAD, CURRY'S HILL, WOMBAT STATE FOREST
WARDLE'S WATER RACE
EAST AND WEST OF OSBORNE ROAD, CURRY'S HILL, WOMBAT STATE FOREST
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Victorian Heritage Inventory
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
Remaining sections of the race located in the Wombat State Forest , east of Osborne Road
How is it significant?
Early relic of the Victorian gold rushes
Why is it significant?
Race is significant due to its age (late 1850s/early 1860s) and association with Edward Wardle, a notable mid 19th-century water race entrepreneur
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WARDLE'S WATER RACE - History
Edward Wardle, gold miner and water race entrepreneur, lived in Connell’s Gully, Table Hill, Daylesford, for 38 years. In the late 1850s/early 1860s he constructed a 30 miles (48km) race which took water off two small creeks (tributaries of Kangaroo Creek, Blue Mountains) and through a tortuous route brought water to Daylesford to enable sluice mining to be undertaken. Giving evidence to a Government Select Committee (1864-65) Wardle stated that his race had, over a 8-year period, had delivered annually 9 million gallons. It was still operating in 1867 as the Ballarat Star (28 Oct 1867, P.4) has a story on how a young lady saved a 3-year old boy from drowning in the fast flowing water in Wardle’s race. Edward Wardle was also associated with at lest two other water race systems. 1862: Coliban Water Scheme – Victorian Heritage Register Site H1021 A 1899 newspaper report of a Government Select Committee presents the claims by Mr. Wheeler that Edward Wardle as the person who conceived (in 1862) the idea of the Coliban Water Scheme. In that years, Wardle, had applied to the Mines Department to get a licence to use water from the Coliban for the purpose of supplying the mining communities of Bendigo and Castlemaine. Wardle had made preliminary surveys and devoted a great deal of time and money on the idea. Wardle ended up in a three-way tussle with two other water race designers – Brady and Riley. In the end, Joseph Brady is recognised as the designer of the Coliban Water Works in 1863. 1866: River Loddon & Tributaries Water Race – Victorian Heritage Register Site H1230 In 1866, Mark Amos and Edward Wardle constructed a race that diverted water directly from the Loddon River near Glenlyon along a contour race to the heads of various gullies at Fryer’s Creek (Fryerstown-Vaughan area). A 15-mile (24 km) open channel was built that included 11 timber flumes on trestles up to 100 feet (30 m) high.25 At the Fryerstown end the company built a tunnel, known as Devil’s Gully Tunnel that was over 400 feet (122 m) in length. All the work was done manually with pick, shovel, hammer and drill. With separate gangs working on the race, flumes and tunnel, the project took only six months to build and was completed in 1866 at a cost of £5,000. [Peter Davies, Susan Lawrence and Jodi Turnbull, 2016]WARDLE'S WATER RACE - Interpretation of Site
Late 1850s/early 1860s water race that only survives within the Wombat State Forest. Elsewhere the race has been destroyed because it exists on private land.
Heritage Inventory Description
WARDLE'S WATER RACE - Heritage Inventory Description
Remnant sections of Wardle's race survive in the Wombat State Forest, east of Curry Hill/Osborne Road. Sections of the race within the forest can be followed but thick vegetation and storm damage makes this a extremely difficult task in some places. Where it can be traced the channel is still visible but is largely filled with debris. The excavated earth forms a low mound, which is always on the down slope side of the race. In places large trees grow in the channel or have toppled and ripped apart the race.
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