This month’s blog posts concern places on the Avoca Walking Tour, a brochure published by the Pyrenees Tourism Association.
10.c. Powder Magazine, 1860: Built at the request of the Avoca Borough Council for the safe storage of explosives.
Avoca Heritage Study (1993-4) A156 page 123 [Pyrenees Shire Heritage Precinct Study (2001) pages 231 – 233]
The powder magazine is a brick rectangular structure with a gabled slate roof, built in 1860 to one of the seven standard design types of the Public Works Department. It has significance for its rarity, associations and contextual importance. The Avoca powder magazine has value for its rarity, for although powder magazines were once common structures throughout the Victorian goldfields, only nineteen now remain in the State. It is closely associated with the township's goldmining era and is indicative of the development of lead and quartz mining where explosives were used to explore deep underground. The powder magazine is part of a complex of public buildings which includes the police quarters (1859), court house (1859), and lock up (1867). As a complex these buildings are important material reminders of the part played by the courts and the police force in maintaining public safety and good order among the highly mobile gold diggings population.
History:
Regulations passed in 1857 prohibited the private storage of all but small amounts of explosives on the goldfields where they were frequently used in the search for gold, particularly in quartz and deep lead mining. Instead they were required to be stored under lock and key in a powder magazine controlled by a public officer, usually a member of the police force. Both the design of the building and the regulations for its operation were derived from military sources. Powder magazines were originally designed to store quantities of gunpowder within a fort until required to load guns in an attack. It was important to store the powder in such a way as to keep it dry so as to be effective when used and to prevent accidental explosions causing injury and death.
One of the first motions passed by the Avoca Borough Council was a request to the Government for the erection of a powder magazine.
On 11 September 1860 the tender of a local firm, Johnston and Steel, who had already built the Avoca police quarters the previous year, was accepted for the construction of a powder magazine. This was completed by the end of the year at a cost of £299.15.6.
Strict safety precautions were observed to prevent accidents. Persons entering the magazine had to remove their outer clothing and footwear, and put on special magazine clothing. They had to empty their pockets of articles such as matches, pipes and tobacco. Rubber boots or wooden clogs were worn, because boots with nails could cause an accident. It was important to keep the premises clean as friction between a boot sole and grit could spark off an explosion. Tools were made of wood or copper and powder kegs or cases were opened on a special mat some distance from the magazine.
Between 1895 and 1921 all the government magazines were closed as goldmining had declined. They were replaced by supervised and licensed private magazines where needed. The Avoca magazine closed in 1905.
Description
The powder magazine was designed to exclude all flammable materials and protect the stored materials from weather and dampness. The powder magazine is a rectangular brick building with a gable roof clad in slate. It has a small porch in the centre of one facade with the gable roof extending as a skillion over this area. The brickwork is in English bond as seen on the police residences and the bricks have darker headers which gives the brickwork a distinctive texture.
The magazine is one of three identical buildings constructed in 1860. The other two were at Ararat and Dunolly. These are the only three designed with brick buttresses at the diagonal of each corner.
The walls of the porch and two buttresses on the opposite side also strengthen the building so as to limit damage to surrounding areas in the case of explosion.
The internal ceiling is a brick barrel vault constructed for the same reason. The only external openings were the door in the side of the porch, narrow ventilation slits and the window at the front of the porch.
[As at 1993] The brickwork around the window has been broken open and the door is no longer on the building. The slate roof extends as a deep overhand at each end and the eaves extend along the sides to cover the buttresses. The roof is in poor condition with all of the slate missing over the porch area and damage over the main roof. The floor is of timber and all fixings are of copper to prevent the risk of sparking caused by striking on iron. The two copper lightening rods which were fixed to each end of the roof have disappeared. Although requiring reconstruction and maintenance, the powder magazine is an important element in the precinct. The careful design to minimise damage and the isolated site of the building indicate the dangers of life connected with mining.
People associated with the Avoca powder magazine
- 1861 Henry Woodthorpe Silvester (warden’s clerk), to be keeper of the powder magazine at Avoca
- 1863 Powder-Magazine Keeper.— James Binnie, to be temporarily the keeper of the powder magazine at Avoca, vice H. W. Silvester, deceased.
- 1865 The appointment of Matthew Conniff, as keeper of the powder magazine Avoca, is gazetted.
- 1869 William Hamilton Simpson, constable, to be temporary keeper of the powder magazine at Avoca, vice Sergeant Conniff
- 1881 Senior-Constable Thomas Holmes Shanklin has been appointed to take charge of the building.
