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Lime Kiln Complex

Location Limeburners Point Hearne Road, GEELONG VIC 3220 - Property No B1637 File Number B1637 Level State

[1/2] B1637 Lime Kiln Complex [2/2] B1637 Lime Kiln Limeburners

Statement of Significance

The five surviving lime kilns at Limeburners' Point on Corio Bay may have been established as early as 1841, as Taylor and Bouchier are recorded as producing building lime form available limestone and sea shells in December 1841. In 1852 George Cakebread, a Geelong bricklayer, acquired the site and developed the industry, supplying the Western District. The kilns are built of brick and stone as hopper chambers in the face of the cliff, facilitating top loading and bottom tunnel collection.

The lime kilns may be the oldest of those established in the mid nineteenth century in Victoria to meet the pressing demand for lime for building construction. The kilns are of paramount archaeological significance as illustrations of this once critical primitive industrial process. Cakebread's lime was almost universally adopted for building construction in the Western District until 1880, when superior supplies were won from kilns at Lara and Waurn Ponds.

The lime kilns are virtually intact, although concealed in part with overburden. The limestone working and associated structures are no longer discernible at the site.

Classified: 06/12/1973