ANDERSON’S MILL - SMEATON
Cover
Anderson’s Mill at the turn of the century. Horses and
wagons were commonly used by local farmers and by the
mill until the 1930s. (Courtesy: Miss L. Anderson & Mrs S. Meulan).
Left to right
Anderon’s Mill pre 1946. Anderson Mill early 1930s flume.
The waterwheel at Anderson’s Mill. The Anderson’s Mill Festival.
Anderson’s Mill, Smeaton
Anderson’s had built this place . . . had guided its
destinies and worked on it . . . had lived beside it,
never out of sound of its moving parts.
Creswick Advertiser, April 1939
Contents
Introduction _____________________________________________________________________
Anderson’s Mill site plan ___________________________________________________________
Site plan notes ___________________________________________________________________
Floor plan of the mill complex _______________________________________________________
Floor plan notes __________________________________________________________________
The oat mill and kiln ______________________________________________________________
Notes on the oat mill ______________________________________________________________
Pencloe _________________________________________________________________________
Anderson family tree ______________________________________________________________
The Anderson family ______________________________________________________________
The boom years __________________________________________________________________
Anderson Bros. __________________________________________________________________
End of an era ____________________________________________________________________
David Anderson & Co _____________________________________________________________
Agricultural Victoria ______________________________________________________________
The Waterwheel at Anderson’s Mill ___________________________________________________
The Leffel turbine at Anderson’s Mill _________________________________________________
Restoration ______________________________________________________________________
John Anderson’s letter _____________________________________________________________
From the goldfields _______________________________________________________________
Anderson’s Mill Festival ___________________________________________________________
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ISBN 07306 0582 5
Copyright – Department of Conservation and Environment
240 Victoria Parade,
East Melbourne 3002
Reprinted 2012 by Creswick Museum with the assistance of a
Parks Victoria Healthy Parks, Healthy People Grant.
Creswick Museum
Introduction
Anderson’s Mill is a particularly important part of Victoria’s Goldfield’s heritage.
It draws together so many of the threads that make up the colourful tapestry of
the goldrush era.
The Bicentenary of European settlement in Australia provided the opportunity for
the Victorian Government to purchase the mill for future protection and benefit
to Victorians. To this end a restoration program was commenced and the mill
was opened to the public in November 1988.
This revised booklet reflects the material contained in on site displays and briefly
describes the story of the pioneering Anderson brothers, who built the mill,
and how they used the education and social customs of their old world to help
establish industry and society in their new one. The flour and oat mill at Smeaton
represents the pinnacle of their endeavours. Built in response to local needs with
capital obtained from gold and timber, the mills very construction put pressure
on local craftsmen to produce their very best.
Anderson’s Mill is regarded as a heritage asset of the utmost significance and
the Government gives a high priority to the conservation of its fabric, setting
and remaining machinery. Detailed and painstaking research has gone into the
interpretation of the mill.
Parks Victoria acknowledges and thanks those members of the Anderson family
who have so generously donated their time and personal family memorabilia
which make up an important part of the visual material in the booklet.
March 2012
1
Anderson’s Mill site plan
2
Site plan notes
1. The mill complex
Refer to pages 4 and 5 for further details.
2. Office
The office was built in 1869. Its bluestone
external walls and chimneys were worked
to a higher quality of finish than the mill
buildings. The stonework on the front wall
has been laid in small courses with joints
tuck pointed. The lead flashing over the
front door and the windows indicates that
a verandah was originally planned but was
never built.
3. House
The weatherboard house was built in
1861-62 and later extended. A detached
bluestone kitchen was built in 1876. John
Anderson and his family lived here. He
had originally intended to build a finer
home in time, but his declining fortunes
made this impossible.
The house and grounds are private
property and are not open to the public.
4. Garage and Stables
There was a small stable or shed on this
site by 1869. Parts of the present building
may date from that time. The horse boxes
were removed when the west end was
converted to a garage.
5. Former stable site
A timber stable probably built on this site
in 1876 was demolished some time after
1945. It had a corrugated iron roof, cast
iron rainwater heads and weatherboard
walls similar to the granary (6). An open
section in the southern half of the stable
was used to store horse drawn vehicles.
6. Granary
Built in 1866. Partitions were used to form
separate compartments but these were
removed after 1945 when the original
timber floor was replaced with concrete.
Bags of grain could be taken up into the
loft through the hatch at the west end,
along the central elevated walkway and
placed on top of the stored piles. Iron
fittings are attached to the posts along the
external walls. These may have been for
tying rods to support the walls against the
pressure of the bags stored against them.
External timber props were also used to
support the walls. During the 1960s the
granary was used as a chicken shed.
7. Fowl house
Probably build in the late 1950s or 1960s.
8. Blacksmith’s shop
This building existed by 1869 and may
have been the carpenter’s shop built
in 1861 or 1862 as no mention of a
blacksmith’s shop has been found so far in
the earlier records. The brick blacksmith’s
forge at the west end was added some time
after the original building was constructed.
A set of timber pulleys up in the roof at the
east end suggest that the workshops were
equipped with an overhead drive shaft.
Note how the wall studs have been joined
together from short lengths of timber.
This building would have been a most
important part of the complex, enabling
machinery parts to be made and repaired.
9. Site of demolished building next to
blacksmith’s shop
Two small timber buildings were located
just east of the blacksmith’s shop by
1869. Together with the blacksmith’s shop
they probably form part of the group of
buildings described as ‘carpenter shop, and
dwelling house of weatherboard erected
same time as mill’ in William Anderson’s
probate inventory of 1886. The two
buildings were demolished some time after
1945.
10. Water race from weir
Water to power the wheel and turbine
travelled 900 metres from a bluestone
weir on Birch Creek along an earth and
stone race before it entered the wrought
iron flume. The last section of the race can
be seen here before it passes under Alice
Street on its way to the mill.
13. The back creek
This small creek flows underground in
bluestone and brick channel from more
than 80 metres and passes below the
middle of the stable building. It can almost
disappear in summer but after the winter
rains takes a considerable volume of water.
Twice in the memory of Miss L, Anderson
and her sister Mrs Meulan this creek has
flooded and flowed across the site into
Birch Creek.
14. Oil Store
This small weatherboard shed was built to
store oil some time before 1943 when the
mill was temporarily closed during World
War II.
15. Toilet
Timer toilet built after 1945. Access
available only on mill open days.
11. Tail race from wheel
After passing over the wheel, water from
the flume flows away through a bluestone
and brick tunnel which goes under the
two oat kiln buildings and re-enters Birch
Creek down stream from the bridge.
12. Bridge
The Anderson Brothers build a timber
bridge probably in this location in 1861,
before the first government bridge on
the Creswick Road. The present bridge
was built before 1917 and has a timber
superstructure and bluestone piers and
abutments.
Courtesy: Miss L. Anderson & Mrs S. Meulan.
A view of Anderson’s Mill through the
bluestone bridge over Birch Creek in 1892.
3
Floor plan of the mill complex
4
Floor plan notes
1. Flour mill
Anderson’s Mill was designed by John
Anderson who had trained as a millwright
in Scotland. Construction of the flour mill
began at the southern end of the building
in September 1861. The huge timbers used
in the structure almost certainly came from
the Anderson saw mills. By April 1862
the mill was in production and the autumn
harvest being processed.
6. Engine House
This was built in the 1860s to house an
auxiliary steam driven 60 horse power
engine which was located over the
mounting blocks and pit in the south
west corner of the building. Steam was
generated by a 3 pass Cornish boiler in
the south east corner. The steam engine
was removed after a gas engine was
installed about 1908.
2. Water flume
The flume carries water over the last
60m to the top of the wheel. Flat sheets
of wrought iron were riveted together to
construct the flume, probably in the 1870s.
It replaced the original timber flume which
can be seen in the earliest photographs.
7. Oat mill
Work began on the oat mill in 1862 soon
after the flour mill was completed. By the
1920s and 30s oat products were the main
produce of the mill. Refer to pages 6 and
7 for further details.
3. Waterwheel
The waterwheel was the primary source of
power for the mill until it was connected to
mains electricity in 1947.
4. Turbine
The Leffel turbine waterwheel was
installed in 1898 at the bottom of the
wheel well below the existing timber deck.
It was powered by water dropping from the
flume through the large iron pipe (called
“penstock”) which passes through the
deck. Although capable of driving the mill,
the turbine appears to have been mainly
used to generate electricity for lighting the
mill and house.
9. Oat roasting building
Ballarat architects Clegg and Miller
designed this building in 1904 to house
two 10 foot diameter oat roasting pans.
Loading, grain turning and unloading
were automated, superseding the labour
intensive process (and uncomfortable
working conditions) of the earlier
bluestone kiln.
10. Verandah
The verandah was built at the same time
as the mill. All bags of grain were weighed
here when delivered to the mill.
8. Oat kiln
The two storey kiln was probably also built
in 1862. It is an example, rare in Victoria,
of a traditional grain drying kiln common
in nineteenth century Britain, particularly
Scotland and Ireland.
Grain was spread out across the floor of
the upper level at the north end. The floor,
which is made of perforated cast iron
plates was heated by a fire below. To avoid
scorching the grain it had to be turned over
manually by a mill hand working inside
the hot kiln.
The kiln was also used for drying split peas
and pearl barley.
5. Grain store
The weatherboard grain store was built
after World War II.
Courtesy: Miss L. Anderson & Mrs S. Meulan.
End Section of the mill after 1904 showing the old kiln and the new oat roasting building.
5
The oat mill and kiln
6
Notes on the oat mill
The oat process
1. Sacks of oats were unloaded from wagons
or trucks onto the front verandah to be
weighed before being taken into the mill.
2. The sack hoist in the roof raised the sacks
to the top floor.
3. Oats were emptied from the sacks into the
dirty oat bin.
4. An oat clipper clipped the ends of the oat
shells.
5. A separator (missing but located here)
removed rubbish such as straws, wire and
stones from the oats.
6. The double cylinder oat grader removed
the small oats for plain oatmeal or stock
feed.
7. Elevators raised the oats back up to the top
floor.
8. Oats were stored in this bin before
dropping down the pipe to the kiln.
9. The floor of the kiln may have been heated
up to 230º F. Oats were spread out over
the iron plates to dry for about 5 hours.
The dry oats were shovelled out and
returned to the ground floor of the mill
by shutes or conveyors to be raised to the
top floor again by the elevators at 7.
10. A cylindrical sieve called a “reel” cleaned
the oats after drying.
13. The oats were then ground between the
stones to loosen their shells.
14. This reel and the aspirator
15 were used to clean the
oats and remove the shells,
leaving ‘groats’.
16. An eliminator (no longer
at the mill) removed any
unshelled oats from the
groats.
Ancillary Equipment
21. Known as a ‘cyclone’, this equipment
collected dust probably from the clipper
at 4.
22. The cyclone was vented at the top up
through the roof.
24. Dust and oat shells from the bin at 23 were
bagged at this screw packer.
25. Find dust (stive) from the stones was
collected in the “stive room”.
26. Booths patent cutter
27. Bins for cleaned groats.
23. This bin stored dust from the cyclone.
17. Further cleaning of the
groats were done in an
oat polisher (no longer at
the mill).
18. The large groats were
made into oat flakes
in a roller flaking mill.
An oatmeal grinder
produced oatmeal from
the smaller groats. These
two machines (no longer
at the mill) were on this
floor.
Wheat Cleaning Building
19. Oat meal and oat flakes
were bagged on the first
floor and the bags often
stored in this area.
20. Bags were loaded onto
trucks or wagons by
sliding down a shute
from here onto the
verandah.
11. This reel graded oats by size into the
sheller bins 12 underneath.
Engine House
Verandah
Waterwheel
Cross Section through oat mill
7
Pencloe
Pencloe in New Cumnock, Ayrshire which William Anderson
farmed before his early death and where the Anderson family
lived until they migrated to Australia. Pencloe was on the old
smugglers route from the Solway coast to Edinburgh.
8
Anderson family tree
Courtesy: Mrs K. Anderson Kelly
A portrait of Sarah Anderson by William Tibbits
William Anderson
m
Sarah Kirkland
1798-1865
1796-1837
Annie
m James Smith
1820-1908
David b. 1845
Sarah Kirkland (dates unknown)
William b. 1850
Mary (dates unknown)
1831-1858
1827-1886
William b. 1865
Isabella b. 1867
Thomas b. 1869
John b. 1871
Sarah b. 1876
Sarah b. 1868
John b. 1869
Alexander b. 1870
Margaret b. 1872
Annie b. 1873
William b. 1875
Barbara b. 1877
Catherine b. 1879
Robina b. 1880
1820-1908
Thomas Craig
William m Isabella McColl
John m Barbara Meiklejohn
1823-1895
James m Katrine Vallance
1825-1901
Mary b. 1851
William b. 1853
Joan b. 1867
Georgina b. 1870
David m Lillian Cumming
Robert
1828-1877
m Margaret Meiklejohn
1833-1921
Lillias
David
1872-1953
1870-1929
m Ruby Cole
Lynette
David
Shirley
b. 1920
b. 1922
b. 1922
Thomas b. 1870
John b. 1874
James b. 1876
David b. 1878
Robina Margaret b. 1880
William b. 1882
9
The Anderson family
Family background
Life changed dramatically for Sarah Anderson when her
husband William died suddenly in 1837. He was brutally
killed, according to family legend, by a highwayman.
Sarah and William lived on a grazing property at New
Cumnock in Ayrshire, Scotland.
William left Sarah at the age of 39 with meagre financial
resources and seven children.
Courtesy: Creswick Museum.
Anderson’s Mill
Anderson’s Mill at Smeaton is one of Victoria’s
outstanding monuments to our pioneering past.
The property consists of a five-storey bluestone building,
an 8.5 metre diameter waterwheel, a tall brick chimney
and a variety of outbuildings including a bluestone
office, stables, granary, blacksmith’s shop and a family
residence.
10
An early photograph of Anderson’s Mill before the office was built in
1869 showing the original timber trestle bridge over Birch Creek.
The mill was built with money generated from the
Victorian goldfields to meet demands from the booming
goldfields towns for food.
The whole complex represents the entrepreneurial skill,
enterprise and sheer hard work of early settlers.
The mill is listed on the Historic Buildings Register,
the National Estate Register of the Australian Heritage
Commission and is also classified by the National Trust.
Courtesy: Gilbert Tippett.
Sarah Kirkland Anderson.
But Sarah Anderson was a shrewd and farsighted woman.
She was able to secure apprenticeships for the two older
boys in highly skilled trades, John as a millwright and
James as a wheelwright, but William had to hire out as an
agricultural labourer.
The Anderson family
All three helped to support the family and educate their
younger brothers. David trained as a cabinet maker,
Robert as a vet and Thomas in ironwork. Annie was
brought up as a young lady but to her mother’s horror
married a gardener.
In January 1852 John wrote to his brothers in Scotland
from the goldfields; “ . . . we have done very well Gold
is easy to get here a man with one hand and a tin dish
can make a living here. We got twenty-two ounces in
four days.”*
Voyage to the New World
News of the older boys’ success persuaded the rest of the
family to join them. In April 1854 Sarah sailed with her
three sons David, Robert and Thomas for Melbourne.
Only Annie remained in Scotland.
*See page 28 for the full text of this letter.
Courtesy: G Tippett. Robert Anderson
Sarah and her sons sailed to Melbourne on the Cairngorm,
which according to Thomas’s Journal, only had one bath on
board.
With their mother’s encouragement, John, James and
William decided to seek their fortune in colonies. They
took advantage of an assisted passage scheme for
labourers sponsored by wool growers in South Australia.
In June 1851, with James’ wife Katrine, they sailed
from Plymouth in the Reliance. The ship’s records show
that they downgraded their qualifications in order to be
accepted under the scheme.
It must have been a hard voyage for Katrine who gave
birth to her first child soon after landing.
Within months of their arrival in Adelaide the brothers
heard of the gold strikes in Victoria. They sailed to
Melbourne and tried their luck at Castlemaine, Mt
Korong and Bendigo.
William Anderson
Thomas Craig Anderson
11
The boom years
Creek. By 1863 both areas were stripped of timber
and the brothers were forced to look further afield for
supplies. Rather than haul logs over long distances by
horse or bullock jinkers, they decided to build a tramway.
Courtesy: Mrs K. Anderson Kelly.
One of the trestle bridges on the Anderson tramway.
Courtesy: La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria.
A coloured lithograph of the diggings at Forest Creek, Mount Alexander in 1852 when John and William Anderson were there.
Timber and gold
The Anderson’s settled in Melbourne for a while but
the opening of the Blackwood goldfield in 1855 lured
the older boys back to mining. On Christmas Day that
year the family moved to Dean near Ballarat and made
the astute decision to abandon gold digging in favour of
timber milling.
At that time attempts were being made to open up the
deep alluvial leads to Ballarat. This required an enormous
12
amount of timber for pit props and to feed the boilers that
drove the machinery. Deep lead mining also encouraged
a more permanent population than did surface alluvial
mining and timber was needed for building the fast
growing mining towns.
The Anderson’s began in a small way with a sawpit
near Dean. In 1858 they built their first steam-powered
sawmill also at Dean and in 1861 built another at Adekate
A few traces of the Anderson tramway can still be seen in the
Wombat Forest.
The boom years
Over the next three years eight miles of tramway was
constructed at a cost of £9,000 (about $2,000,000 in
modern terms). In 1866 the Andersons spent £3,500 on
building an enormous new mill beside the tramway track
at Barkstead.
Prosperity and problems
Anderson Bros. timber milling business thrived
throughout the 1860s and well into their 1870s. In 1873
the firm acquired a steam locomotive for the tramway
track, now at fourteen miles, the longest in Wombat
Forest.
GARRATT 0-6-0 LOCOMOTIVE
Courtesy: Creswick Museum.
The Anderson’s timber mill at Adekate Creek operated from
1861 to 1867.
Sixty men were employed who, together with their
families, formed the settlement of Barkstead. A post
office, school, police station and stores were established.
At first Barkstead was teetotal, reflecting the dour
Presbyterianism of the Anderson brothers, but by the
1880s two hotels had been built.
Little is known about the Andersons’ personal life during
their early timber milling days but it seems they all lived
around the timber mills at Dean in houses built from their
own timber.
The family passed on stories of Sarah, a striking woman
with red hair and blue eyes, smoking a clay pipe and
dominating family business meetings. Her sons’ success
in Australia must have been a source of satisfaction to
her. Her greatest heartbreak was the death in 1858 of
Thomas from a falling tree.
Courtesy: N. Houghton from his book Timber and Gold.
Diagram of the Anderson’s first engine showing a cross section
of the tramway.
In 1874 a second engine was commissioned from the
Union Foundry at Ballarat and the brothers seemed set to
maintain their position as the biggest saw millers in the
area. But in the mid 1870s a bitter boundary dispute with
rival saw millers Crowley and Fitzpatrick almost led to
their financial ruin.
The Anderson’s were accused of poaching trees from
the Crowley and Fitzpatrick licence area, and in January
1879 the Andersons’ saw mill and tramway licences
were not renewed, causing severe hardship for the mill
employees.
Operations were allowed to resume in May and the
mill work continued for another five years, by this time
Anderson Bros., like many other Wombat Forest saw
millers, finally cut themselves out of business.
Nothing remains of the Anderson’s timber mill at Barkstead
except the sawdust heap which, over 100 years later, still covers
about one hectare.
13
Anderson Bros.
At the same time as they were expanding their timber
business in the late 1850s, the Anderson’s diversified into
land speculation and agriculture. The first sale of land in
the Smeaton district took place in 1856 and both William
and David Anderson were among the purchasers.
Within six years Smeaton became a prosperous
agricultural district. The Anderson family played a
prominent role amongst the new settlers of the area in
establishing the institutions of the Old World. Their name
occurs frequently on local committees and organisations
as the new community developed.
The first settler in the area, Captain John Hepburn, owned
the only mill on the Bullarook Creek. Following his
death in 1860 the trustees of his estate put tenants in the
mill who antagonised the local farmers by the low price
they offered.
Courtesy: La Trobe Collection, Courtesy: Creswick Historial
State Library of Victoria.
Society.
Captain John Hepburn.
Hepburn’s Mill, Smeaton.
Courtesy: Creswick Museum.
14
John Anderson served on the Creswick Shire Council for 35
years. His portrait, painted by Longstaff in 1897, hangs in the
old Council Chambers and is entitled; “A Man of high moral
character and strong mental power. A leader amongst the best
men of his best days,”
Anderson Bros.
A local Joint Stock Company was formed to build a rival
mill. When this venture failed to get off the ground the
Anderson brothers bought the site on Birch Creek and
announced their intention to design and build their own
mill to produce oats as well as flour.
The flour and oat mill
The first report of Anderson’s Mill working appeared in
the Creswick Advertiser on 29 April 1862. The reporter
was impressed by what he saw; “the five storey building
is full of flour and wheat and the whole although only
recently completed presents already a very business like
and busy appearance. The large water wheel constructed
at a cost of £1,500, works well.”
enterprises of rural Victoria – all on the strength of
goldfields demand.
The Anderson’s had built the mill with money made
from the goldfields (gold digging or supplying timber
to the mines and mining towns), they benefited from
new technological developments on the goldfields when
setting up the waterwheel and machinery for the mill, and
they sold their product to the booming goldfields towns.
Between 1865 and 1874, annual sales exceeded £30,000
per annum and health profits were made.
Marriage
marriage until they were well established in business but
it is intriguing to note that they also waited until after
their mother’s death in July, 1865.
William at the age of 38 married Isabella McColl two
months after Sarah died and they made their home at a
farm in Smeaton and later on the family’s property at
Derby, Victoria.
In 1866 John, then aged 43 married Barbara Meiklejohn,
a fellow Scot and they built a home for themselves beside
the mill at Smeaton. The following year Robert aged
33 married Barbara’s sister Margaret and they lived at
Barkstead near the saw mill.
In the years immediately after its opening Anderson’s
Mill became one of the major industrial and commercial
The 1860s were important years for the Anderson family
on a person level too. Like most of the immigrants
of their generation, all the brothers except James had
sailed to Australia as bachelors. Not only did they delay
David did not marry until 1869 when he was 41. He and
his wife Lillian lived at Dean initially and later at the
family property at Derby. Their marriage was cut short
when Lillian died in 1873.
Courtesy: Miss L. Anderson & Mrs S. Meulan.
The earliest surviving photograph of Anderson’s Mill, taken
between 1862 and 1869.
Courtesy: Miss L. Anderson & Mrs S. Meulan.
David Anderson, whose early death significantly altered the
future of Anderson’s Mill.
David’s wife Lillian was fatally injured in a buggy accident.
15
End of an era
Land acquisition
In the late 1860s and the 1870s, the Anderson’s greatly
expanded their landholdings in the Smeaton area by
manipulating the selection system. They took up the
maximum land holdings that they legally could and then
acquired more land by either buying out their neighbours
or using ‘dummies’ to take up selections.
The dummies were usually their own employees who
later transferred the land to their bosses. In this way the
family holdings eventually expanded to 7,000 acres.
At the same time the brothers invested in over thirty
goldmines, only one of which, the North Clunes
Company, paid substantial dividends. In 1869 the
Anderson’s bought the Bristol Hill Mine at Maryborough.
Courtesy: Jack Anderson.
Robert Anderson (fourth from right) in front of one of the Berry
Deep Lead mines in which he had and interest.
Left: Map showing the Anderson family land holdings.
16
End of an era
Profit & Loss of the Anderson Brothers
7000
some cases, which meant smaller markets. The opening
of railway lines to the new wheat growing areas helped
city millers.
6000
Added to that, country millers with outdated equipment
like the Anderson’s could not compete with the more
capital intensive city millers who produced lighter, whiter
flour with the new roller mills.
5000
Pounds
4000
3000
The decline of the Anderson family business must also be
seen in terms of personal mismanagement. The firm was
slow to react to the movement of the wheat frontier to the
north and to changes in milling technology.
2000
1000
Between David’s death in 1877 and William’s death in
1886, the family’s financial situation deteriorated rapidly,
mainly because of the unsuccessful mining investments
and the close of the timber mill.
0
-1000
-2000
1864
1865
1866
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
1872
1873
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
Year
Land values around Smeaton had fallen with the
movement of the wheat belt, and Australia was moving
into a depression. In 1894 James Anderson was forced to
sell up and leave the district.
Over the next twelve years they spent £34,000 on the
mine for a return of £20,000. This was not to be their last
venture into gold mining. In the 1880s they invested in
the Berry Deep Lead mining system at North Creswick
which produced a lot of water but very little gold.
James’s son-in-law, Gilbert Tippett, bought some of the
Anderson land at Dean and James and Katrine eventually
returned to Dean to spent the rest of their lives living with
Gilbert’s family.
Decline
In the late 1880s when John Anderson was interviewed
by a journalist from Melbourne, he sadly commented
that Anderson’s Mill had seen busier days. The reason
he gave was farmers leaving the district or abandoning
farming for mining. But although these changes had
badly affected the mill they did not fully explain why the
Andersons were financially ruined at that time.
There was no simple answer to this. The growth of the
goldfields towns had slowed down and even shrunk in
In 1877 the brothers’ net assets were £55,000. In 1885
this had dropped to £23,467 with a mortgage of £35,000.
John, William, Robert and James had also run up debts
with David’s estate of £6,000.
When John died in 1895 the net assets of the firm were
£803. To make good some of the loss of David’s estate,
the mill was transferred to his children, David and Lillias
and the firm of Anderson Bros. was wound up. John
Anderson’s family moved to Numurkah.
Courtesy: Mr W. Ord.
The mill was a very dilapidated condition in 1896 when it was
inherited by David and Lillias Anderson.
Robert Anderson lived almost a quarter of a century after
the dissolution of the partnership at his property ‘Stoney
Rises’ at Campbelltown. The dream of wealth had not
left him and he continued to invest unsuccessfully in
goldmining ventures. He died in 1921 at the age of 88.
17
David Anderson & Co.
Courtesy: Miss L. Anderson & Mrs S. Meulan.
Lillias Anderson
David Anderson.
Ruby Anderson.
David and Lillias were only in their early twenties when
they inherited the mill but what they lacked in experience
and capital they made up in courage and enterprise.
They borrowed money and modernised the mill.
of milling. Furthermore, siblings David and Lilllias found
their milling plant obsolete. David wrote to a client that
“all buildings on the property and more especially the
mill are very much in need of repairs.”
With Victoria in the midst of a major depression, 1895
was not a good year to enter the highly competitive work
Although David and Lillias were joint owners of the mill,
David appears to have had most control over the daily
running of the business. Lillias ran the office when David
was away either buying grain or selling the mill’s produce
but all major decisions were left until he returned. Mary
Cumming had moved to Smeaton with her nephew and
niece and helped Lillias with the house and garden.
New beginning
18
David Anderson & Co.
Breaking even
At the turn of the century the mill had annual sales to
the value of £12,000, a figure well below the peak days
of the 1860s and 70s but an improvement on the 1890s.
After paying all their expenses including their own
salaries, David and Lillias were just able to break even,
occasionally making a profit of a few hundred pounds.
This was not enough to plough very much back into the
business or make further major changes or improvements.
A late marriage
In 1916 David married Ruby Cole, a primary school
teacher from Brunswick. Lillias retired from the business
and she and Mary Cumming decided to make their home
in Ballarat. Although at 46 David had seemed a confirmed
bachelor, he and Ruby were happily married for 13 years
and had 3 children, Lynette and twins David and Shirley
War had badly damaged the manufacturing capacity
of Europe and Asia. David adapted the flour milling
equipment to produce a rice substitute called ‘Ricena’
which was exported to Asia. Ricena was merely polished
wheat and was cheap to produce. The mill’s profits
jumped dramatically for a couple of years but the boom
went almost as quickly as it had come.
Towards the end of the 1940s it was becoming clear that
the mill was no longer a viable proposition. It kept going
mainly on oatmeal and stock feed but finally closed in
1957. Most of the machinery was sold for scrap.
David left Smeaton for Melbourne but his sisters Lynette
Anderson and Shirley Meulan stayed on in the family
home. Shirley used the outbuildings for poultry farming.
To maintain the mill complex was well beyond the sisters’
means and it fell into decay.
An early death
In 1929 David died suddenly from a heart aneurysm. It
must have been a difficult time for Ruby. She was left to
run the business and bring up the children.
David’s executor, Mr James Paterson, was pessimistic
about the value of the mill. If placed on the open market
he did not believe it would fetch a good price for “nobody
wants country flour mills and what else could it be used
for?”
In spite of her lack of experience, Ruby overcame
numerous difficulties to keep the mill going, one of which
was being a woman alone in a very male-dominated
business.
World War II and after
Proceeds from the annual sales gradually dropped to
£5,137 just before the Second World War. Young David
joined the air force during the War and in 1944 the mill
closed for the first time in 80 years. When David returned
he reopened the mill and was able to cash in on the postwar boom.
An early machine for servicing pearl barley and split peas, with
a fan extracting dust and rubbish.
The mill still contains some original machinery.
This ‘reel’ or sieve on the top floor removed husks from the oats
and was powered by belts which would have been attached to
the pulleys above.
19
Agriculture Victoria
over 100,000
25,000 - 99,000
1860
10,000 - 24,000
1,000 - 9,000
less than 1,000
Before gold was discovered in Victoria the colony was
basically a pastoral outpost of the British Empire and
had to important grain to feed itself. Farming was centred
around the rapidly expanding city of Melbourne which
grew from 1,200 people in 1837 to 23,000 in 1851.
Most of the early settlers who established themselves on
large sheep runs were men of means, like Captain John
Hepburn at Smeaton.
The goldrush
1880
The pastoralists’ peace was shattered by the discovery
of gold in 1851. Thousands rushed to Victoria from all
over the world seeking their fortunes. Gold was found
in many places in Victoria and new towns sprang up
sometimes almost overnight. New goldfields towns were
scattered from Warrandyte to Walhalla, but mostly they
were concentrated in what is now known as the central
goldfields district between Bendigo and Ballarat.
a local foundry set up in response to the needs of the
mining companies.
Why Smeaton?
The Anderson’s built their flour mill at Smeaton mainly
because the local farmers, themselves included, wanted
to take their grain to a mill offering better service than
Hepburn’s Mill, the only local mill. It must have seemed
an excellent investment. Smeaton was close to the wheat
fields and close to good markets.
John Anderson was part of the Joint Stock Mill Company
which originally purchased the land for the mill, and it
was probably John who found the site. His experience as
a millwright in Scotland would have led him to choose a
place on level ground, sufficiently low lying to get a good
head of water from the nearby creek.
Rise of rural industry
Rural industry thrived on the back of the goldrush.
Diggers needed timber for the mines, for their homes
and for fuel. They needed equipment and machinery, they
needed clothing and of course they needed food. Bad
roads from Melbourne means it was easier and cheaper
for local towns to be as self sufficient as possible.
1913
Anderson’s Mill at Smeaton is one of the grandest
monuments to this brief period in Victoria’s history. The
mill owed its existence to linkages between gold mining,
timber production and agriculture.
The mill was built with money made from the sale of
timber to mines and mining towns to feed the mining
population with flour ground from locally grown wheat.
The mill’s huge water wheel is one of the few reminders
still in existence of the outstanding achievements of
Victorian Wheat Acreages. Wheat growing moves northwards
(Source: L. E. Frost, ‘Victorian Agriculture and the Role of
Government 1880–1914’, PhD thesis Monash University, 1982).
20
Courtesy: Creswick Museum.
The Smeaton Agricultural Show in early 1860s.
Why so big?
The mill had to be large to accommodate the machinery
and allow for storage. It had to be tall to harness gravity
in passing the grain from one floor to another as it was
cleaned. It had to be long when it was decided to process
oats as well.
Agriculture Victoria
Unlocking the land
The fact that it was quite so grand reflects the Anderson’s
hopes for the future at that time. The impressive
bluestone structure looked as if it would last forever.
As the Land Acts enabled selection of farm blocks, the
interior of Victoria was unlocked and many farmers
moved west into the Wimmera and then to the Mallee
where much larger holdings could be farmed. The drier
districts proved to be better for growing wheat and the
centre of wheat growing moved north.
Success of Anderson’s Mill
These hopes seemed well founded. From 1865 to 1874
annual sales of flour and oatmeal from the mill exceeded
£30,000 per year. Ballarat was the main market but
Smeaton produce was distributed throughout all the
central goldfields towns. But from the mid 1870s sales
began to fall.
At Smeaton many small landowners and tenants seized the
chance of acquiring larger estates and migrated to the new
wheat belt. Many others, as John Anderson complained,
abandoned farming for gold mining.
Effect on Anderson’s Mill
A prize winning haystack in 1904.
In May 1871, the Welsh Swagman, Joseph Jenkins,
returned to Smeaton after an absence of two years.
He was shocked by the changes he observed in the
landscape, and he noted in his diary: ‘Smeaton district,
once considered the garden of Victoria is now a ruinous
area from continued exhaustion of the land’. The cause of
this ‘exhaustion’ had a lot to do with gold.
All photos on this page courtesy: Creswick Museum.
A farmer at Springmount near Smeaton using a reaper binder
in 1890.
The movement of the wheat belt away from Smeaton
affected the mill in two ways. The harder wheat produced
in the hotter areas was more suited to rollers than stone
milling and the wheat cost more as it came from further
afield. Because the Anderson’s had spent so much capital
on buying land and shares in gold mines, they did not
have enough money to update their mill machinery, so
profits fell.
It had made good sense to set up the largest mill in the
district when wheat was plentiful and towns thriving.
When circumstances changed, the Anderson brothers
lacked the means to change too. When David Anderson
took over in 1895 he gave the mill a new lease of life by
borrowing money and installing new machinery better
suited to grind the type of wheat being produced in
Victoria.
From diggers to farmers
As the gold was worked out, many diggers took up
farming, either on their own smallholdings or as tenants.
In 1871 the average farm in Creswick Shire was 123
acres and one third were less than 50 acres. Where
farming on such a small scale could succeed with the
different conditions ‘back home’ it was disastrous in
Victoria. Farmers had to overcrop to survive and within a
short time the soil became exhausted.
A local farmer using a Horsby reaper in 1890.
A threshing machine and portable steam engine in 1890.
21
The waterwheel at Anderson’s Mill
Design of waterwheels
The Romans introduced vertical waterwheels in the 1st
century AD and their basic design has changed very little
since then.
axle – the central stem of the wheel, originally a roughhewn tree, later made of iron.
spokes – originally four, six or eight made of wood; and
later of iron. There are 48 spokes in Anderson’s Wheel.
shrouding – rim of the wheel.
drumming or soleing – flat strips of wood or metal
forming a backing to the buckets and stretching across the
width of the wheel between the shrouding.
buckets – angled wood or metal slats (treaders or risers)
which stretch across the face of the wheel and hold the
water for a time as the wheel turns.
Types of waterwheels
There are three main types of waterwheel – the undershot,
the overshot and the breast.
Diagram of waterwheel.
22
Throughout Victoria’s history, only 25 of the State’s
known grain mills have been driven by water power.
Of these 25, Anderson’s is the only mill listed on the
Register of the National Estate.
The undershot wheel (above) is propelled by water from a
stream or river flowing beneath it. The other two are more
efficient and involve feeding water to the top or side of
the wheel. The weight of the water in the buckets pushes
the wheel around.
The waterwheel at Anderson’s Mill
passing over the wheel, water returned to Birch Creek
through a 4m deep masonry lined tunnel nearly 70m long.
Anderson’s waterwheel
It is interesting that the Anderson brothers chose the
breast type of waterwheel as it was generally considered
by the mid nineteenth century that the ‘overshot’ was
better for small quantities of water.
Mr Martin Richards of Blampied, who worked at the
mill between 1934 and 1943, remembers that when the
creek was in flood, care had to be taken when closing the
sluice gates to avoid water backing up and flooding over
the flume. If the race filled up, excess water could escape
at the ‘falls’, a spillway off the side of the race 200m
south of Alice Street.
Anderson’s waterwheel was the second largest and
second most powerful to be built in Victoria before the
1880s. It was made in the same style as most British
waterwheels of the mid nineteenth century, mainly
developed by the British civil engineer, John Smeaton.
From the turn of the century, the main source of water
was Hepburn’s Lagoon about 5 kilometres south of the
weir. The Anderson Brothers acquired a lease to the
lagoon in 1895, and David Anderson purchased it in
1912. Hepburn’s Lagoon provided Anderson’s Mill with a
reservoir of water that could be released into Birch Creek
when the water in the creek was low.
The waterwheel was manufactured at Hunt & Opie’s
Victoria Foundry in Ballarat. It cost £1,168, 16 shillings
and 11 pence, is 8.53 metres in diameter and weighs 25
tonnes. It has a 40 horse power capacity and in its present
unloaded condition only needs a small trickle of water to
turn slowly.
According to Mr Richards the Anderson’s had an
arrangement with someone living near the lagoon to
control the release of water. Water took seven hours to
reach the mill. At the end of the week it would be cut off
early Saturday morning to stop the wheel turning about
lunchtime. Water would be released again on Sunday
afternoon in time for the first shift to begin at midnight.
The waterwheel is made of iron with a ring gear on its
outer rim. Curved buckets, 2.2 metres wide, ensure that
the maximum amount of energy is extracted from the
water. Ventilation holes in the buckets prevent air locks.
The weir on Birch Creek upstream from Anderson’s Mill, built in
1877 to improve the reliability of the water supply.
Water race
The huge hub of Anderson’s waterwheel. The original timber
pattern from which it was cast survives at the mill.
The amount of water required depended on what was
being processed. The person operating the lagoon
would be asked to release ‘half oats water’, ‘full flour
water’, etc.
Anderson’s Mill was sited to take advantage of Birch
Creek. Water was diverted from the creek via a bluestone
weir 36m (118ft) wide and located approximately one
kilometre south of the mill. Water travelled to the mill
from the weir along a head race of earth for 800m,
through a masonry lined tunnel under Alice Street for
30m and finally along a wrought iron flume for about
60m.
Manufacturing in Ballarat
The flow of water was controlled by a hand-operated
sluice gates at the weir and at either end of the wrought
iron flume which replaced an earlier timber flume. After
When the railway did arrive in Ballarat in 1862, the
town’s foundries were well enough established to be able
to sell their products throughout Australia.
This waterwheel is a tangible reminder of other advanced
manufacturing industry that developed so rapidly in
Ballarat to support the gold mining industry. Before mass
production and the railways came to Ballarat, parts for
mining equipment had to be made individually near the
mines.
23
The waterwheel at Anderson’s Mill
• patenting in 1860 an iron-framed stamp battery which
by 1867 was being exported to New South Wales and
New Zealand.
It seems that the waterwheel at Anderson’s Mill was
the first to be constructed at the Victoria Foundry. The
relatively good condition of the wheel now despite
its heavy use for at least 80 years, is a measure of the
craftsmanship with which it was made. The existence
of the timber patterns at the mill suggests that no other
waterwheels were cast by the foundry to this particular
design.
The significance of Anderson’s
waterwheel
• The waterwheel was a product of the Victoria Foundry
at its most active period.
• It demonstrates clearly the manufacturing capabilities
and levels of craftsmanship attained by the foundry no
more than five years after it started.
Courtesy: Ballarat Historical Association.
The Victorian Foundry at Ballarat was justly proud of its first locomotive built in 1871. The foundry produced the first locally made
engine for the gold diggings in 1858.
The Victoria Foundry
The Victoria Foundry was among the first to be
established in Ballarat in 1856. It flourished between
1858 and 1872 principally under the partnership of James
Hunt and James Michael Opie.
• patenting in 1863 a chain drive for puddling
machines;
The principal business of the foundry was the
manufacture of mining machinery; pumps, pump
columns, pump gears, puddling machinery, winding
gear and stamp batteries. The foundry is also reported to
have made railway locomotives, waterwheels and stone
breakers for railway contractors. It was an up-to-date,
efficient company and records indicate that its most
notable achievements were:
• producing steam and winding engines, some of which
were, at the time, among the largest produced in the
colony;
24
A 2 x 4 head iron frame battery made at the Victorian Foundry.
• The wooden patterns (above) from which its cast components were made have survived and illustrate the way
in which the wheel was manufactured.
The Leffel turbine at Anderson’s Mill
In March 1898 David Anderson wrote to company in
Melbourne that he was ‘contemplating the installation of
a turbine to drive our flour mill in place of our present
wheel, it being too wasteful of water’. In April he ordered
a ‘James Leffel vertical turbine waterwheel 151/2 inches
in diameter to work with a head of 28 feet’. The turbine
with 22 power capacity was installed the following
summer.
Hydraulic turbines
Hydraulic turbines of this type essentially consist of two
components: a runner which is turned by water flowing
through it, and an arrangement of vanes within a casing
which direct the oncoming water onto the runner.
Turbines were initially developed in Europe and America
for situations where the head of water was so great that it
could not be utilized by a single large waterwheel.
Anderson’s turbine
We do not know why David Anderson decided to buy a
turbine for the mill at Smeaton where the head of water
was not large. He had originally planned to use the
turbine to replace the waterwheel, but apparently it was
only used to generate electricity to light the mill and the
house.
The working parts of a Leffel turbine. The flow of the water
into the centre runner could be controlled by adjustable gates
around the perimeter.
The outer casting of a Leffel turbine.
Mr Les Hay, a local resident who worked at the mill
before it was connected to mains electricity in 1947, talks
about it being ‘lit up like Bourke Street’ by the turbine
generator. Mr Hay also remembers the waterwheel being
a marvellous piece of machinery and totally reliable.
Turbines in Victoria
One of the few companies in the nineteenth century with
any reputation for making reliable turbines of moderate
power was James Leffel of Springfield, Ohio. They
manufactured their first turbine in 1862.
Before the turbine was bought, electricity was run off
the wheel when it was working. With the turbine, the
electricity supply was independent of the waterwheel and
would have been a more convenient system before the
mill was connected to the mains electricity supply.
Turbine were used by a few mining companies in
Victoria, the first being the Morning Star Prospecting
Company at Woods Point before 1866 but there was
generally not enough water to run a turbine. Also many
companies had problems with the runners becoming
choked with leaves and other debris.
The turbine at Anderson’s Mill is the only Leffel turbine
now known to exist in Victoria. Another Leffel turbine
was installed at the Barwon Paper Mills at Fyansford
before 1911, but it was scrapped in 1962.
25
Restoration
When Anderson’s Mill closed in 1957, most of the
machinery was sold for scrap. Much of the complex
stood idle although some of the outbuildings were used
by the owners for egg production. For almost twenty
years little was done to stop the inevitable process of
deterioration.
In 1974 the mill was included in the States original
Historic Buildings Register. Following this the Heritage
Branch of the Ministry for Planning and Environment
arranged for some repairs to be carried out to the roofs
and windows of the mill and office. This was financed
by National Estate Grants.
stonework and the chimney repointed and the office
interior repaired.
Verandah
Ground floor
Acquisition by the State
Government
Since the mid 1970s the State Government had been
interested in buying and restoring Anderson’s Mill.
This meant a lengthy process of negotiation between
the owners and various local and state authorities.
The mill was finally purchased in 1987 through funds
made available by the government and the Australian
Bicentennial Authority.
Water, ground contact, inadequate sub floor ventilation and
termites led to extensive damage to the ground floor of the flour
and oat mills.
Most of the original structure of the verandah survived intact
but deterioration in the timber members was extensive.
Conservation analysis
A conservation analysis was prepared which has
involved a complete study of the buildings, research into
documentary and photographic sources and a detailed
report on the wheel and mill machinery. A conservation
policy was developed from this and a management plan
drawn up.
In order to allow the building to be opened to the public,
certain essential works were carried out including the
restoration of the verandah, floor repairs, the replacement
of the water flume trestles and the conservation of the
wheel and flume.
Much to be done
Repairs are still required on parts of the mill complex
and the outbuildings. As funds become available repairs
to the upper floors of the mill will be completed, the
26
The bases of many of the columns were rotting and had been
attacked by termites.
Where possible, the existing verandah posts and beams have
been repaired and re-used.
Restoration
Back creek channel
Trestles
The elements of the wheel made of sheets of wrought iron - the
buckets and sole plates - were in a seriously corroded state.
The heavier parts - axle, spokes and cast iron hubs and shrouds
- were fortunately only superficially corroded.
The Anderson’s constructed a bluestone and brick channel to
run the back creek underground through the centre of the site.
Timber sleepers spanning the channel sidewalls had rotted
through and collapsed.
The waterwheel and flume have been sandblasted to remove
sufficient of the old coatings (bitumen over red lead primer) and
loose corrosion so as to permit adequate penetration of rust
neutralising agent.
The channel was cleaned out once the overburden and sleepers
were removed.
Nearly 300 new red gum sleepers were required to re-cover the
channel.
Flume and waterwheel
Although the trestles supporting the water flume had survived
largely intact and probably dated from the 1870s, the
deterioration of the timber was widespread.
Two trestles at the northern end of the race had been protected
from the weather and were able to be replaced. This was a
difficult operation which involved propping and jacking the iron
flume above.
Holes were patched using woven fibreglass cloth bedded in a
reinforced bitumen compound. The flume and the waterwheel
were painted with a bitumen based acrylic compound.
27
John Anderson’s letter
Dear Brother,
On recept of this, you will no doubt be surprised, but
long before this reach you you must have herd of gold being
discovered in New South wales and Victoria people are leaving
South Australia in thousands for the Gold Fields Trade is
completely knocked on the head in Adelaide hundreds of houses
are empty and and a great many shops in the principle streets
are shut up in fact the Gold Mania has cast a gloom over the
whole Colony when we left thare was little but harvest work
going on. I had not an opportunity of striking one blow at my
own trade save what what I did for ourselves. James has got
nothing but two weeks work and owing to circumstances he
could not get away from town. William and I went a reaping
two weeks and James was one week being New hands we did
not get on so well as some of the Old hands still we did better
than we expected. The price per acre was 15/-, out of it we
had to pay 1/- per day for Tucker or Tuckout (the Colonial
or Native word for Victuals) which was first rate. I liked it
Most awful bad I was then a little touched with the gold fever
and troubled with a sore back and working in an atmosphere
sometimes heated to one hundred and twenty degrees and
every now and then hearing of the great successes of those
who had gone to the diggings. William and I resolved to start.
Andrew and John Wilson shipmates from this have joined up
as a party does best to get together. We paid £3.5 each for a
passage to Melbourne wich took six days I was very sick Wm
ailed nothing there is a great many Ship lying at port Phillip
and Geelong who cannot get away for want of hands infact it
is little better than Calafornia there is several Captains with
thare Crews on the Diggings. Men are getting 10/- per day
with grog and ration to ballast and stow Ships. Melbourne as a
city far beats Adelaide it stands on a beautiful situation on the
west side of the Yarra Yarra over wich is a beautiful Granate
Bridge the Streets are well McCadamised the buildings are
more substantial and better finished than the are in Adelaide.
Masons and House Carpenters get 15/- per day in Melbourne
at present. The Legislative Council House and a great many
other works are at a stand the workmen having left for the
diggings. Money is very plentiful in Melbourne the Publicans
are making fortunes a great many of the diggers think nothing
of knocking down (the common prase) £100, in a few days
infact it take a long letter to describe the numberless ways they
have take to get parted of thare money.
The distance from Melbourne here is seventy miles the rout
is as follows, by Keilor the Bush Inns through the Black Forest
then to Kyneton 50 miles from Melbourne whare I was offered
20/- per day to work as a house Carpenter. We got up very
comfortably. We payed £3 for three Cwt, the common price
of carriage. Up we came here a week past Friday put up the
tent on Saturday wich is 11 feet long by 6 broad and struck
in (the common phrase for making a commencement). on
Monday we have done very well Gold is easy to get here A
man with one hand and a tin dish can make a living here. We
got twenty two ounces in four days. Friday and Saturday we
commenced have been digging holes John Wilson and I are
down ten feet. Andrew and William have a tremendous hard
one it is a mass of sand and quartz run together I never saw so
hard stuff not to be a solid rock Some parties have dug ten and
a doze of holes and got nothing others who are less speculative
wash the surface and does pretty well but water is so scarce
now nothing but good stuff will pay washing. There has been
as far as two hundred of …of a hole. holes vary from 3 to 30
feet in depth the are mostly dugg in Gullys and along the tops
of ridges. the Diggings extend for about 15 or 20 miles. thare
has been a great number of roberies attempted and commited
of late although thare is fire arms in most of the tents. A party
apparently of the better class a little way from our tent who
had been disturbed by some ruffians one of them went out
two nights ago to make water on coming in another of them
took him to be a rober and fired a pistol at him the ball went
through the upper part of the thigh. A doctor lives next tent to
us who has been thirteen years in the Rusian army, was called
and dressed the wound which he reckons dangerous as he is
afraid the intestines are hurt.
Store keepers does very well here list of prices Flour £5 per lb.
Mutton good quality 2/- to 3/- per quarter no less quantity
is sold butter and cheese 3/- per lb. Potatoes /4 to /6 per lb
onions 1/- per lb. Cabbages /6 each. Everyone bakes thare
own bread damper is greatly used I was break at Kyneton at
1/- per 4 lb loaf barley /9 per lb. Blacksmiths are making
fortunes they charge 10/- for each horse shoe they put on, pick
sharping 1/- for each point 2/6 for steeling each point and so
on Water is quite… of them to make £10 or make £12 in one
day thsre is a number of gold buyers along the Diggings and
it was selling very low lately before Christmas it fell to £2-8
per oz it is now £2-14 we don’t intend to have any truck with
them We have sent about £48 worth to Melbourne. You will
call on Andrew and J. Wilson’s Mother in Wishain She lives
near Mr Marshall Grocer. Say they are here and well and
doing well she may expect to here from them before long. This
is a … epistle it will be hard for you to make it out I wrote it
hastily on my knee be sure and write on receipt of this address
Post Office Melbourne as I do not intend to leave this until I
have got some of the Goude if God spare me.
Dear Brother I am yours very truly
John Anderson.
Courtesy: Mrs M. Dight.
28
from the goldfields
Courtesy: La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria.
Courtesy: La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria.
John and William Anderson arrived at Forest Creek within a few months of gold being
discovered. In spite of the many thousands of diggers, the crime rate was no higher there than
elsewhere in the colony. In fact visitors were surprised at the way the miners respected the ban
on digging on the Sabbath day.
When John, James and William Anderson arrived in Adelaide it was already a well established little
town. The site had been chosen in 1836 by William Light, the Colony’s first surveyor general, and
called after the Queen Adelaide, consort of King William IV.
29
Anderson’s Mill Festival
In recent years the Newlyn Netball and Football Club have held an annual festival celebrating food, wine and music in the grounds of the mill.
30
Jack Sewell AM - The Mill’s gentleman.
Jack’s connection to the Mill dates back to his childhood and the Mill’s heyday. Jack has been a great advocate of the Mill ever since,
helping people connect with this special place by sharing its story with others. See Jack’s digital story about the Mill on Parkweb.
For further information call 13 1963 or visit parks.vic.gov.au