MAXWELL CONSOLIDATED OR JUST IN TIME
DAYLESFORD-HEPBURN ROAD HEPBURN SPRINGS, HEPBURN SHIRE
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Statement of Significance
During the Depression of the early 1930s, the price of gold rose from £4 to £8 an ounce. The conditions of the times and the massive price rise caused a mining revival throughout the State. The key company in the mining revival at Daylesford was the Maxwell Consolidated. This company was vigorously prospecting in 1936 and by 1938 had installed a large mining and crushing plant. Rich crushings in the same year enabled the company not only to pay off a joint State and Commonwealth prospecting loan, but to distribute a small dividend to its shareholders. The following two years brought more success: £13,743 distributed in dividends in 1939, and £27,486 in 1940. The profits enabled the company to install more plant, including a cyanide works. The company's production declined in 1941, and from this time until its close in the early 1950s it was engaged in unproductive developmental work.
The Maxwell Consolidated Gold Mine is of historical and scientific importance to the State of Victoria.
The Maxwell Consolidated Gold Mine is historically and scientifically important as a characteristic example of an important form of gold mining. Gold mining sites are of crucial importance for the pivotal role they have played since 1851 in the development of Victoria. As well as being a significant producer of Victoria's nineteenth century wealth, quartz mining, with its intensive use of machinery, played an important role in the development of Victorian manufacturing industry. The site stands has extensive and well preserved foundations and, as such, is a fine example of 1930s mining revival technology.
The surviving plant at these mines form an important reference point for an understanding of the technological history of gold mining.
[Source: Victorian Heritage Register]
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MAXWELL CONSOLIDATED OR JUST IN TIME - History
Heritage Inventory History of Site: During the Great Depression (early 1930s) the price of gold rose from £4 to £8 an ounce. The conditions of the times, and the massive price rise, caused a mining revival throughout the State. The key company in the mining revival at Daylesford was the Maxwell Consolidated. This company was vigorously prospecting in 1936 and by 1938 had installed a large mining and crushing plant. Rich crushings in the same year enabled the company not only to pay off a joint State and Commonwealth prospecting loan, but to distribute a small dividend to its shareholders. The following two year brought increased success: £13,743 distributed in dividends in 1939, and £27,486 in 1940. The profits enabled the company to install more plant, including a cyanide works. The company's production declined in 1941, and from this time onwards, until its close in the early 1950s, was engaged in mainly unprofitable and unproductive developmental work. In 1949 the company installed a diesel driven compressor and in 1950, the company changed hands and was known as the Aurora Company. The new company overhauled the winding plant.Heritage Inventory Description
MAXWELL CONSOLIDATED OR JUST IN TIME - Heritage Inventory Description
Mullock heap - Mullock heap has been partly quarried and flattened.Battery - Adjoining brick engine beds - solid bed, 13ft x 4ft; and a tank-like bed 13ft x 51/2ft, standing over 6ft high. The latter bed is covered with sheets of galvanised iron and used as a cubby house. Both beds are constructed of machine-made red bricks set in concrete mortar.Stamper foundations (10 head) - On the northern side of the beds are two levels concrete floors. The upper floor has two set of timber mortar blocks and associated tie bolts. The stamper foundations and lower floor are overgrown by blackberries.Mining machinery - To the east of the battery are the remains of the mine's engine house - a 36ft x 30ft concrete floor containing an arrangement of concrete mounting beds. The largest of the beds is 19ft x 9ft, and has 11/2 inch mounting bolts. There is a 20 metre wide mass of blackberries between the mining machinery and battery foundations.Shaft - Filled shaftCyanide works - To the south of the shaft, largely covered by tailings are cyanide vat footings: a rectangular arrangement of concrete footings, 60ft x 12ft, with 3/4ft thick walls and four compartments. The dump of tailings extends for some distance from the eastern wall. The area is overgrown.
Heritage Inventory Significance: The site has:Historical significance - main mine of the 1930s mining revivalScientific significance - because of the intactness and range of foundations Archaeological potentialNetwork values - North Maxwell, Maxwell Consolidated, Daylesford Pyrites Works (local significance), Ophir CompanySIGNIFICANCE RANKING: National Estate
Recorded by: David Bannear
Heritage Inventory Site Features: Mullock heapBattery bedsRemains of the mine engine houseShaftCyanide works
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FORMER MACARONI FACTORYVictorian Heritage Register H0407
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MAXWELL CONSOLIDATED QUARTZ GOLD MINEVictorian Heritage Register H1760
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EIGHTY FOOT SANDSVictorian Heritage Inventory
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