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OMEO PIONEER QUARTZ CRUSHING MACHINE (GAMBETTA REEF GOLD BATTERY)

Location

410 DRY GULLY ROAD OMEO, EAST GIPPSLAND SHIRE

Level

Heritage Inventory Site

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Statement of Significance

The Gambetta Reef Gold Battery Site consists of the remains of one

5-head iron framed battery, portable steam engine, and various buried

and partly buried piece of machinery. The site also has some relics,

including a Cornish boiler, relating to an earlier phase of battery

installation. The site is obscured by blackberry bushes.

The Gambetta Reef Gold Battery Site is of historical and scientific

importance to the State of Victoria.

The Gambetta Reef Gold Battery Site is historically and

scientifically important as a characteristic and well preserved

example of an important form of gold mining. Although being very close

to Omeo, the machinery has not been significantly scavenged. The

Gambetta Reef battery main period of operation was from 1901-12. 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, with its

intensive use of machinery, played an important role in the

development of Victorian manufacturing industry. The abandoned mining

machinery at the Monarch battery site 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 Gambetta Reef 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.

Please note the correct name for this place is 'OMEO PIONEER QUARTZ CRUSHING MACHINE'.

[Source: Victorian Heritage Register]

Group

Mining and Mineral Processing

Category

Battery/Crusher