Garfield Water Wheel - Victoria, Australia - Water Mills on Waymarking.com

Quartz reefs near the site of the Garfield wheel were being worked as early as 1856. By the mid-1880s the reefs were being mined by the Garfield Company and in 1887, the company relocated its 23-head quartz crushing battery, replacing its steam boilers with a 70ft diameter timber waterwheel, hailed as being the largest in the southern hemisphere.
The wheel was mounted on large stone foundations and was set in motion by a supply of water from a nearby water race. The race had been installed by the Colonial government, as part of the Coliban Water Supply Scheme. The battery and waterwheel were later operated by the Forest Creek Gold Mining Company until about 1903. Following the passage of the initial alluvial rushes, deep lead quartz extraction and crushing became the order of the day. This was a more expensive form of mining and lead to the formation of companies with sufficient capital to equip and operate the extraction methods.
As well as being a significant producer of Victoria's nineteenth century wealth, quartz mining, with its intensive reliance on machinery, played an important role in the development of the Victorian manufacturing industry. The surviving wheel abutments at the Garfield site are associated with the largest waterwheel ever erected in Australia, and along with a similar but smaller example at Mopoke Gully, are testament to an innovative use of waterwheel technology in an environment that was too dry to accommodate it, until the arrival of water from the Coliban system. Waterwheels were relatively common on many Victorian goldfields where water was available, particularly those in the alpine regions.

Current Status: Ruin Current Use: Not listed

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