WARANGA TRAMWAY AND QUARRY

The Waranga tramway and quarry extant features consist of the foundations of a tramway extending from a stone quarry to the edge of the Waranga Basin in the north-east. The fabric of the tramway mainly comprises a raised earth platform or foundation on which the track was laid. As the track foundation emerges from the quarry, it has been incised into the hilly landform before emerging onto flat ground. The tramway extends approximately 514 meters north towards the Waranga Basin embankment.

The Waranga tramway and quarry site is of historical and scientific (technological) significance to Victoria.

The Waranga tramway and quarry site is of historical significance because it is directly connected to an important local, regional and state level historical event, the construction of the Waranga Reservoir and the development of the Goulburn Irrigation System. The site relates to the first phase of construction of what was to become the Waranga Basin. The Basin water storage reservoir was an integral part of the Goulburn Irrigation System, described by architectural historian Graeme Butler as the 'most important irrigation system in Victoria' until the completion of the Snowy River Scheme in 1974 (G Butler, Waranga Conservation Study: Shire of Waranga Conservation Study 1988). The importance of the reservoir was also acknowledged at the time of its construction with one reporter claiming that after the second phase of development the Waranga Reservoir would be the ‘second or third largest artificial lake in the world’ (Nagambie Times, 7 July 1916:3). 

The tramway and quarry are of scientific significance because they provide archaeological evidence of the construction process of the reservoir and are a rare example of a horse drawn tramway used in an industrial context for mining stone. The site is representative of a specific period of technological development relating to transportation in the mining and construction industry. The tramway and quarry demonstrate the use of horsepower aided by rail to shift heavy raw materials between places in the early twentieth century.