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GLENGARRY BATTERY AND CHLORINATION WORKS
CORRYONG-BANMABRA ROAD CORRYONG, TOWONG SHIRE

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Statement of Significance
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Statement of Significance

The Glengarry Gold Battery and Chlorination Works consists of the remains of a 5-head timber framed battery and associated oil engine, wilfley table and water tank. Connected to the battery is a largely buried but intact roasting furnace and the remains of several oregan vats. Little is known of the mine, but a chlorination plant was shifted to the site from Granya in 1937.

The Glengarry Gold Battery and Chlorination Works is of historical, scientific and archaeological importance to the State of Victoria.

The Glengarry Gold Battery and Chlorination Works is historically and scientifically important as a characteristic and well preserved example of an important form of gold mining. When the greater part of the gold in some ores is contained in its pyritical contents, the gold is very difficult to extract.

From the mid nineteenth century miners experimented with various metallurgical (or heat treatment) processes to unlock gold from heavily mineralised ore. Evidence of these metallurgical processes, such as the one carried out by the Glengarry Gold Battery Site during the late 1930s, are extremely rare in the State of Victoria.

The Glengarry Gold Battery and Chlorination Works 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.

[Source: Victorian Heritage Register]

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- History
  
  GLENGARRY BATTERY AND CHLORINATION WORKS - History
  Heritage Inventory History of Site:
  Nothing is known of the history of the Glengarry mine itself. A chlorination plant was shifted there from Granya in 1937, where it operated in conjunction with a five-head stamp mill (possibly ex-Dark River Co., according to Morrow), power unit, and roasting furnace. The treatment process gave unsatisfactory results and operations were short-lived.
  
  Heritage Inventory Description
  
  GLENGARRY BATTERY AND CHLORINATION WORKS - Heritage Inventory Description
  
  Features are: a battery, water tank, wilfley table, oil engine furnace, cyanide works, mine building and remains of works.
  
  Heritage Inventory Significance: National Estate. The site has scientific significance because of its intactmess and rarity.
  
  Heritage Inventory Key Components: Battery - On a small mullock paddock with stone-retained walls is a 5-head wooden-framed battery, still standing. The cam shaft has a 6ft-diameter double-spoked fly wheel (similar to one at the La Mascotte chlorination works) and the stems are screw-tappet type. The battery box still has a wooden cover. According to the maker's plate, the battery was manufactured by Langlands Foundry Co. Water tank - A partly-decayed galvanised iron water tank is situated above the battery. Wilfley table - By the side of the battery are the largely-buried remains of a Wilfley table, measuring approximately 17 ft x 5 ft, with a wooden base and some ironwork visible. Battery engine - The battery was powered by an oil engine, which remains on the site. It rests on wooden foundations and is fairly complete, although the maker's plate has been removed. The twin fly-wheels are each 2¥ ft in diameter. Furnace - Below the battery is a stone-retained platform bearing a more-or-less intact (albeit overgrown) roasting furnace. Constructed of brick and stone, it measures approximately 40 ft x 7 ft, and stands 5 ft high. At the rear (northern end) of the furnace are the remains of a small brick chimney stack, measuring 2¢ ft x 1¢ ft x 5ft high. Cyanide works - Below the furnace is an intact circular oregan vat, measuring 13 ft wide x 4¢ ft high and retained by five metal bands. The vat is full of calcined sand and sits on wooden bedlogs. The wooden foundations of the vat have decayed, causing it to tip to one side. A second vat has completely collapsed and survives only as a jumble of boards, metal rings and a spread of calcined sand. Mine building - On the opposite side of the creek to the battery are three benched platforms. The most northerly bears a stone forge which is covered by collapsed timber. The next platform has a small oil engine which is fixed to a wooden trolley. The piston and other parts have been removed from the engine and lie scattered about. The third platform may have been the site of a hut. Adit -Directly above the gully, on the east side and about half way up the spur, is a collapsed adit.
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- GLENGARRY GOLD BATTERY AND CHLORINATION WORKS
  
  Victorian Heritage Register H1278
- GLENGARRY BATTERY AND CHLORINATION WORKS
  
  Victorian Heritage Inventory