CHAMPION WORKINGS & BATTERY SITE

STANDERS CREEK WOODS POINT, MANSFIELD SHIRE

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Victorian Heritage Inventory

Statement of Significance

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  • History

    CHAMPION WORKINGS & BATTERY SITE - History

    Heritage Inventory History of Site:
    The Champion Reef (or claim) was one of a bundle discovered in the Black River/Stander's Creek vicinity in 1865. A 16-head water-powered battery was installed the next year, and the first crushing yielded an average of 15 dwt per ton. The mine was worked by open cut and the supply of stone for crushing 'may be said to be almost unlimited', but the claimholders (or shareholders) were said to be disappointed and the lease went unworked until 1868. Being reliant on water for crushing, the Champion Co. spent a lot of time waiting for rain; when it came, their stone yielded only poorly. In 1871, the Oriental Co., also on Black River, struck good stone and laid a tramway from their mine to the Champion battery. Nothing more was heard of mine or battery for many years.
    In 1886, pioneer 'loamer', William Wye, found a reef (called the New Standard) crossing a narrow ridge 'on which runs a track long in disuse' leading to the Champion mine. At the same time, the Golden Fleece Reef was struck a short distance to the south. In 1888, the Champion battery was removed by the Golden Fleece Co. a distance of two miles ('but this is equal to fully 200 miles in the lower country') to a new site on Stander's Creek, where it crushed for the two new mines. The Champion mine itself is not known to have been worked again.
    
    References:
    Milner, p. 3
    Mining Surveyors' Reports (Wood's Point Division), March & December 1865, March & June 1866, September & December 1868, March 1870, June 1871, September 1886, June 1888

    Heritage Inventory Description

    CHAMPION WORKINGS & BATTERY SITE - Heritage Inventory Description

    Features of the Champion mine are a battery site, tramway, mine workings, and building sites

    Heritage Inventory Significance: state

    Informants: Dr P Milner/HPS 1989/nRecorded by: R Supple et al Date Recorded: 1989

    Heritage Inventory Key Components: /nBattery site - about 500 m upstream from the Royal Standard battery site, on the steep western side of the creek, are three house sites. In the creek itself are rubble masonry foundations for what was probably an undershot waterwheel and, on the eastern bank in the vicinity of the site, beneath an almost sheer rock wall, are other rubble masonry structures which probably define the position of the Champion battery, a storage bin, and several buildings. To the north-east of this site, and running down a quartz-strewn gully, is a tramway formation. This terminates below the lowest workings of the mine, at about the 1000-m level./nWorkings - the mine itself consists of several adits, shafts and open cuts on a shallow spur between two gullies. /nBuilding sites - on reasonably level ground above the workings, and extending into the shallow head of the gully at the northern end, are at least eight building/house sites.

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