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The Mopoke Gully Water Wheel was used to drive the battery of the Bendigo and Fryers Goldmining Company.
It was constructed in the same year as the Garfield wheel at Chewton and to the same specifications although somewhat smaller having a 60ft diameter as opposed to 72ft.
The wheel operated until c 1900. The Mopoke wheel also differs from the Garfield wheel in that, whilst the latter was constructed on abutments which were basically above the ground, the Mopoke wheel is built into a hillside.
The wheel had a diameter of 60ft and the gear a diameter of 40ft. It drove a ten head stamper.
The remains consist of the abutments. These are substantially intact and include holding down bolts for the axle housing and the platform on which the Battery stood, above it two water races about 10m apart are clearly visible.
The abutments are massive sandstone structures, approximately 1.7m apart and 0.7m thick at the top. The wheel sat in some form of housings on top of the masonry with its axle spanning the space between them.
The wheel, in the form of a large bicycle wheel, sat between the abutments and the water, carried on flumes from the hillside above, fell into the buckets which formed its rim and turned the wheel.
Attached to the spokes of the wheel, was a circular gear which drove the shaft activating the stampers via lifting cams which were set up on the platform to the east.
There is no evidence of the base of the Battery or any enclosing building.
There are no known photographs of the Mopoke wheel.
The western abutment is slightly battered whilst the eastern is vertical with a step in its side which was designed to accommodate the gear. The leading edges of the abutments are stepped.
The platform to the east is raised with a sandstone retaining wall varying up to 1.5m high and about 12m long.
From above the wheel a track leads to what appears to be an adit in the hillside at the west.
To the east is a small quarry which may have been the source of some of the stone used for the works.
Map of the Castlemaine Mining District which shows historical features in superb detail, including mining divisions, reefs, gullies, and gold workings. Mining Department, Melbourne, 1860. High quality, durable A1 print in a satin finish. Large, 594 x 891 mm. Go to online shop.
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Campbells Creek
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