Taffy Battery Ten Mile Creek Dec 2017
I located the battery remains last month after tramping in from the Croesus Track Smoke Ho carpark near Blackball. The photo was only possible after doing about 30 mins sensitive work with a silky saw removing dead trees, light scrub, vines and bungies. Before that the area was too dark for a photo and it was hard to see the battery remains.
Despite having visited the general area many times over the last 39 years for work and recreation I had never seen the Taffy battery remains. I know someone who visited it 3 or 4 decades ago but had heard no recent news of its condition or even if it was still there. There has been flood damage to the site and a big landslide just downstream of the battery has covered some of the site. Thankfully the battery, pelton wheel and some other stuff are still there.
This relic of the quartz mining for gold operated from the very late 1800's intermittently for about ten years. It is located on the TL of Ten Mile Creek 1.5km's west of Croesus Knob.
Comments
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bernieq Lovely photo, glenn. Just now asked by a freind if I ever come across old mining stuff when tramping - he was very impressed :)
7 January 2018 -
glennj Yes an aerial tramway took ore down hill from the tussock, scrub and bush areas to the battery site at Ten Mile Creek where water power could be put to use.
4 January 2018
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matthew This is just outstanding. Was the mine itself up on the tops originally, with an aerial cable?
3 January 2018 -
glennj Susan Barlow made this comment about the photo of the battery; "It looks like something from the Mayan Empire; it's "life" no longer lived. Nature will enclose it softly and it's "story"will only be told in failing memories and eventually, between the faded covers of a dusty book. Thus,we progress!"
2 January 2018