ODELLS GULLY BATTERY

CASSILIS HISTORIC RESERVE CASSILIS, EAST GIPPSLAND SHIRE

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Victorian Heritage Inventory

ODELLS GULLY BATTERY

Statement of Significance

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  • History

    ODELLS GULLY BATTERY - History

    Heritage Inventory History of Site: Odells Gully, a tributary of upper Swifts Creek, between Cassilis and Brookvillle was named after Jack Odell, who was Mining Registrar for the Omeo Subdivision during the early 1880s. The locality was characterised by small, patchy reefs. Like those at Long Gully (Cassilis) to the north, the Odells Gully reefs were first opened up in about 1888. Operations there probably peaked in the early 1890s, but small parties worked the reefs throughout that decade and into the early twentieth century. According to Fairweather, a handful of batteries operated in the Odells Gully–Upper Swifts Creek locality between the early 1890s and 1908, but details of their precise locations are sketchy. The Dawson family—of Dawson City, Haunted Stream—were active in the area, and Fairweather mentions a battery erected by them in 1896 at the head of Swifts Creek, which a Dawson descendant claims was once part of the original (1867) Swifts Creek Quartz Crushing Co. battery, at the foot of Charlotte Spur. That was a 15-head plant—probably three boxes of five heads—so the Dawson's battery could conceivably have been one of the five-head components. Also mentioned is a Dawson-owned steam-driven battery on the ridge between the two branches of New Rush Creek, also nearby, in c.1898. It is possible that the two Dawson batteries were actually the same one, shifted from one locality to another. The remains of the battery now standing on the north side of Odells Gully might correspond with the same battery, or components of it, moved again at a later period. Fairweather also refers to a battery of unspecified size, erected at Hayward's Old Stop mine near the junction of O'Dell's Creek and Swifts Creek in the early 1890s, and later known as Dyson's battery. Frank Cherry erected a battery—said to be four-head, ex-Haunted Stream—at the head of Swifts Creek in 1908, which was most recently used by Martin and son, working the Arizona mine at Brookville, in 1937. Writing in 1975, Fairweather believed that the battery was still standing.

    Heritage Inventory Description

    ODELLS GULLY BATTERY - Heritage Inventory Description

    Features include a standing 5-head battery, portable double cylinder engine (still standing on its four wheels) and small cyaniding plant with small tailings dump.

    Heritage Inventory Significance: National EstateScientific significanceùintactness, rarityVHR STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCEThe Odells Gully Gold Battery Site consists of portable steam engine and a five head timber framed stamping battery in a rugged and remote bush setting. The battery and engine are remnants of a handful of ore crushing sites which originally served the quartz mine workings of the upper Swifts Creek.The Odells Gully Gold Battery Site is of historical, archaeological and scientific importance to the State of Victoria.The Odells Gully Gold Battery Site 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, gold mining, with its intensive use of machinery, played an important role in the development of Victorian manufacturing industry. The abandoned mining machinery at Odells Gully is historically important for its evocation of the adventurousness, hardship and isolation that was part of mining life in the high country areas of the State.The Odells Gully Gold Battery Site is archaeologically important for its potential to yield artefacts and evidence which will be able to provide significant information about the technological history of gold mining.

    Heritage Inventory Site Features: Portable engineùDouble cylinder engine, still standing on its four wheels, but moved about 100 m from its original position. The wheels have wooden spokes and felloes, steel hubs and tyres, and were manufactured by æà[illegible], GainsboroughÆ. The engine is in good condition and still has its wooden cladding and some brass fittings around the piston rod. The cylinder is 10 inches in diameter and 14 inches long, and the total length of the engine is 11 ft.Batteryù5-head, wooden-framed battery, still standing although the cam shaft has dropped slightly. The battery was manufactured by Langlands, Foundry, Melbourne. The fly wheel is 4 ft in diameter. The stems are of the screw-tappet type and the battery box has a wooden splash plate. The steel-lined wooden loading chute has collapsed. Nearby is a small ore truck. Iron frameworkùAbove the battery is a heap of iron framework, perhaps intended for repairing or upgrading the battery.Cyanide worksùIn the gully near the engine is a small tailings dump, one small galvanised iron vat and at least one depression containing iron rings from a collapsed timber (oregon) vat.The presence of cyaniding vats suggests 20th-century use (or re-use) of the plantùprobably as recently as the 1930s. Cherry's 1908 battery, used by Martin and son as late as 1937, seems the most likely candidate, were it not said to have only four stampers, rather than the five of the extant battery.

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    ODELLS GULLY GOLD BATTERY SITE

    

    Victorian Heritage Register H1275
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    ODELLS GULLY BATTERY

    

    Victorian Heritage Inventory
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