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Blackwood Park and Stamp Battery

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Blackwood
EducationalPicnic tablesGold historyWar historyPicnic blanket spot
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Intersection of Martin Street and Byres Road, Blackwood VIC 3458

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Features

  • Stamp battery
  • War memorial
  • Picnic tables
  • Drinking tap
  • Information board
This little park in Blackwood features a 19th century stamp battery which has been put on display, once used in the Rip Van Winkle mine and driven by a thirty foot water wheel. The park also has a couple of picnic tables, a drinking fountain, a war memorial and an information board. It is a great spot to have a picnic lunch and enjoy the views along the gorgeous main street of Blackwood and the surrounding mountains. 

A stamp battery is a machine which crushes gold-bearing rock using a pounding action. A battery consists of a set of heavy stamps which are held vertically within a frame. The individual stamps are lifted by cams on a rotating horizontal shaft, then released as the cam rotates out from under them, causing the stamps to fall and crush the rock below. This is repeated continually to crush large amounts of gold-bearing rock. Stamp batteries were widely used during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries before being replaced by more efficient crushing methods.

A plaque on the battery displays the following text:

STAMPER BATTERY

This stamper battery was donated to the community of Blackwood by Mr and Mrs Herbert Cann.

Originally owned and used by H. H. Cann, the Byers Bros, and C. Gribble in the late 1800's to crush gold bearing rock at the Rip Van Winkle mine. It was driven by a 30 foot water wheel.

Later moved to the Easter Monday mine where it was retrieved by Herb and Ken Cann in the 1970's. 

Erected on this site by the Blackwood Progress Association in 1998.

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