ANDERSON’S MILL - SMEATON

CoverAnderson’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 rightAnderon’s Mill pre 1946. Anderson Mill early 1930s fl ume. The waterwheel at Anderson’s Mill. The Anderson’s Mill Festival.

Anderson’s Mill, Smeaton

Anderson’s had built this place . . . had guided itsdestinies and worked on it . . . had lived beside it,

never out of sound of its moving parts.Creswick Advertiser, April 1939

Contents

Introduction _____________________________________________________________________ 1Anderson’s Mill site plan ___________________________________________________________ 2Site plan notes ___________________________________________________________________ 3Floor plan of the mill complex _______________________________________________________ 4Floor plan notes __________________________________________________________________ 5The oat mill and kiln ______________________________________________________________ 6Notes on the oat mill ______________________________________________________________ 7Pencloe _________________________________________________________________________ 8Anderson family tree ______________________________________________________________ 9The Anderson family ______________________________________________________________ 10The boom years __________________________________________________________________ 12Anderson Bros. __________________________________________________________________ 14End of an era ____________________________________________________________________ 16David Anderson & Co _____________________________________________________________ 18Agricultural Victoria ______________________________________________________________ 20The Waterwheel at Anderson’s Mill ___________________________________________________ 22The Leffel turbine at Anderson’s Mill _________________________________________________ 25Restoration ______________________________________________________________________ 26John Anderson’s letter _____________________________________________________________ 28From the goldfi elds _______________________________________________________________ 29Anderson’s Mill Festival ___________________________________________________________ 30

ISBN 07306 0582 5Copyright – 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 MuseumCreswick Museum

1

Introduction

Anderson’s Mill is a particularly important part of Victoria’s Goldfi eld’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 benefi t to Victorians. To this end a restoration program was commenced and the mill was opened to the public in November 1988.

This revised booklet refl ects the material contained in on site displays and briefl y 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 fl our 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 signifi cance 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

2

Anderson’s Mill site plan

3

Site plan notes

Courtesy: Miss L. Anderson & Mrs S. Meulan.A view of Anderson’s Mill through the bluestone bridge over Birch Creek in 1892.

1. The mill complexRefer to pages 4 and 5 for further details.

2. Offi ceThe offi ce was built in 1869. Its bluestone external walls and chimneys were worked to a higher quality of fi nish than the mill buildings. The stonework on the front wall has been laid in small courses with joints tuck pointed. The lead fl ashing over the front door and the windows indicates that a verandah was originally planned but was never built.

3. HouseThe 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 fi ner 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 StablesThere 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 siteA 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. GranaryBuilt in 1866. Partitions were used to form separate compartments but these were removed after 1945 when the original timber fl oor 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 fi ttings 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 houseProbably build in the late 1950s or 1960s.

8. Blacksmith’s shopThis 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 shopTwo 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 weirWater 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 fl ume. The last section of the race can be seen here before it passes under Alice Street on its way to the mill.

11. Tail race from wheelAfter passing over the wheel, water from the fl ume fl ows 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. BridgeThe Anderson Brothers build a timber bridge probably in this location in 1861, before the fi rst government bridge on the Creswick Road. The present bridge was built before 1917 and has a timber superstructure and bluestone piers and abutments.

13. The back creekThis small creek fl ows 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 fl ooded and fl owed 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. ToiletTimer toilet built after 1945. Access available only on mill open days.

4

Floor plan of the mill complex

5

Floor plan notes

Courtesy: Miss L. Anderson & Mrs S. Meulan.End Section of the mill after 1904 showing the old kiln and the new oat roasting building.

1. Flour millAnderson’s Mill was designed by John Anderson who had trained as a millwright in Scotland. Construction of the fl our 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.

2. Water fl umeThe fl ume carries water over the last 60m to the top of the wheel. Flat sheets of wrought iron were riveted together to construct the fl ume, probably in the 1870s. It replaced the original timber fl ume which can be seen in the earliest photographs.

3. WaterwheelThe waterwheel was the primary source of power for the mill until it was connected to mains electricity in 1947.

4. TurbineThe 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 fl ume 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.

5. Grain storeThe weatherboard grain store was built after World War II.

6. Engine HouseThis 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.

7. Oat millWork began on the oat mill in 1862 soon after the fl our 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.

8. Oat kilnThe 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 fl oor of the upper level at the north end. The fl oor, which is made of perforated cast iron plates was heated by a fi re 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.

9. Oat roasting buildingBallarat 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. VerandahThe verandah was built at the same time as the mill. All bags of grain were weighed here when delivered to the mill.

6

The oat mill and kiln

7

Notes on the oat mill

The oat process1. 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 fl oor.

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 fl oor.

8. Oats were stored in this bin before dropping down the pipe to the kiln.

9. The fl oor 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 fl oor of the mill by shutes or conveyors to be raised to the top fl oor again by the elevators at 7.

10. A cylindrical sieve called a “reel” cleaned the oats after drying.

11. This reel graded oats by size into the sheller bins 12 underneath.

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.

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 fl akes in a roller fl aking mill. An oatmeal grinder produced oatmeal from the smaller groats. These two machines (no longer at the mill) were on this fl oor.

19. Oat meal and oat fl akes were bagged on the fi rst fl oor 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.

Ancillary Equipment21. 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.

23. This bin stored dust from the cyclone.

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.

Cross Section through oat millWaterwheel

Verandah

Engine House

Wheat Cleaning Building

8

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.

m Barbara Meiklejohn 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

9

Anderson family tree

Annie1820-1908

William Anderson1796-1837

Sarah Kirkland1798-1865

m

Courtesy: Mrs K. Anderson KellyA portrait of Sarah Anderson by William Tibbits

John1823-1895

James1825-1901

William1827-1886

David1870-1929

Lillias1872-1953

Lynetteb. 1920

Davidb. 1922

David1828-1877

Shirleyb. 1922

Robert1833-1921

Thomas Craig1831-1858

m James Smith 1820-1908 David b. 1845 Sarah Kirkland (dates unknown) William b. 1850 Mary (dates unknown)

m Katrine Vallance Mary b. 1851 William b. 1853 Joan b. 1867 Georgina b. 1870

m Isabella McColl William b. 1865 Isabella b. 1867 Thomas b. 1869 John b. 1871 Sarah b. 1876

m Lillian Cumming

m Ruby Cole

m Margaret Meiklejohn Thomas b. 1870 John b. 1874 James b. 1876 David b. 1878 Robina Margaret b. 1880 William b. 1882

10

The Anderson family

Anderson’s MillAnderson’s Mill at Smeaton is one of Victoria’s outstanding monuments to our pioneering past.

The property consists of a fi ve-storey bluestone building, an 8.5 metre diameter waterwheel, a tall brick chimney and a variety of outbuildings including a bluestone offi ce, stables, granary, blacksmith’s shop and a family residence.

The mill was built with money generated from the Victorian goldfi elds to meet demands from the booming goldfi elds 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 classifi ed by the National Trust.

An early photograph of Anderson’s Mill before the offi ce was built in 1869 showing the original timber trestle bridge over Birch Creek.

Courtesy: Gilbert Tippett.Sarah Kirkland Anderson.

Courtesy: Creswick Museum.

Family backgroundLife 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 fi nancial resources and seven children.

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.

11

The Anderson family

William Anderson

Courtesy: G Tippett. Robert Anderson

Thomas Craig Anderson

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.

Voyage to the New World

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 qualifi cations in order to be accepted under the scheme.

It must have been a hard voyage for Katrine who gave birth to her fi rst 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.

Sarah and her sons sailed to Melbourne on the Cairngorm, which according to Thomas’s Journal, only had one bath on board.

In January 1852 John wrote to his brothers in Scotland from the goldfi elds; “ . . . 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.”*

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.

12

The boom years

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 goldThe Anderson’s settled in Melbourne for a while but the opening of the Blackwood goldfi eld 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

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 fi rst steam-powered sawmill also at Dean and in 1861 built another at Adekate

Creek. By 1863 both areas were stripped of timber and the brothers were forced to look further afi eld 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.

A few traces of the Anderson tramway can still be seen in the Wombat Forest.

13

The boom years

Nothing remains of the Anderson’s timber mill at Barkstead except the sawdust heap which, over 100 years later, still covers about one hectare.

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.

Sixty men were employed who, together with their families, formed the settlement of Barkstead. A post offi ce, school, police station and stores were established. At fi rst Barkstead was teetotal, refl ecting 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.

Prosperity and problemsAnderson Bros. timber milling business thrived throughout the 1860s and well into their 1870s. In 1873 the fi rm acquired a steam locomotive for the tramway track, now at fourteen miles, the longest in Wombat Forest.

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 fi nancial 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 fi ve years, by this time Anderson Bros., like many other Wombat Forest saw millers, fi nally cut themselves out of business.

Courtesy: Creswick Museum.The Anderson’s timber mill at Adekate Creek operated from 1861 to 1867.

GARRATT 0-6-0 LOCOMOTIVE

Courtesy: N. Houghton from his book Timber and Gold.Diagram of the Anderson’s fi rst engine showing a cross section of the tramway.

14

Anderson Bros.

At the same time as they were expanding their timber business in the late 1850s, the Anderson’s diversifi ed into land speculation and agriculture. The fi rst 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 fi rst 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: Creswick Museum.

Courtesy: La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria.Captain John Hepburn.

Courtesy: Creswick Historial Society.Hepburn’s Mill, Smeaton.

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,”

15

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 fl our.

The fl our and oat millThe fi rst report of Anderson’s Mill working appeared in the Creswick Advertiser on 29 April 1862. The reporter was impressed by what he saw; “the fi ve storey building is full of fl our 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.”

In the years immediately after its opening Anderson’s Mill became one of the major industrial and commercial

Courtesy: Miss L. Anderson & Mrs S. Meulan.David Anderson, whose early death signifi cantly altered the future of Anderson’s Mill.

Courtesy: Miss L. Anderson & Mrs S. Meulan.The earliest surviving photograph of Anderson’s Mill, taken between 1862 and 1869.

David’s wife Lillian was fatally injured in a buggy accident.

enterprises of rural Victoria – all on the strength of goldfi elds demand.

The Anderson’s had built the mill with money made from the goldfi elds (gold digging or supplying timber to the mines and mining towns), they benefi ted from new technological developments on the goldfi elds when setting up the waterwheel and machinery for the mill, and they sold their product to the booming goldfi elds towns.

Between 1865 and 1874, annual sales exceeded £30,000 per annum and health profi ts were made.

MarriageThe 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

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.

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.

16

End of an era

Land acquisitionIn 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.

17

End of an era

Courtesy: Mr W. Ord.The mill was a very dilapidated condition in 1896 when it was inherited by David and Lillias Anderson.

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.

DeclineIn 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 fi nancially ruined at that time.

There was no simple answer to this. The growth of the goldfi elds towns had slowed down and even shrunk in

-20001864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878

-1000

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000 some cases, which meant smaller markets. The opening of railway lines to the new wheat growing areas helped city millers.

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 fl our with the new roller mills.

The decline of the Anderson family business must also be seen in terms of personal mismanagement. The fi rm was slow to react to the movement of the wheat frontier to the north and to changes in milling technology.

Between David’s death in 1877 and William’s death in 1886, the family’s fi nancial situation deteriorated rapidly, mainly because of the unsuccessful mining investments and the close of the timber mill.

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.

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.

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.

When John died in 1895 the net assets of the fi rm 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 fi rm of Anderson Bros. was wound up. John Anderson’s family moved to Numurkah.

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.

Year

Poun

ds

Profi t & Loss of the Anderson Brothers

18

David Anderson & Co.

Courtesy: Miss L. Anderson & Mrs S. Meulan.Lillias Anderson

David Anderson. Ruby Anderson.

New beginningDavid 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.

With Victoria in the midst of a major depression, 1895 was not a good year to enter the highly competitive work

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.”

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 offi ce 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.

19

David Anderson & Co.

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 fl oor removed husks from the oats and was powered by belts which would have been attached to the pulleys above.

Breaking evenAt the turn of the century the mill had annual sales to the value of £12,000, a fi gure 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 profi t 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 marriageIn 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 confi rmed bachelor, he and Ruby were happily married for 13 years and had 3 children, Lynette and twins David and Shirley

An early deathIn 1929 David died suddenly from a heart aneurysm. It must have been a diffi cult 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 fl our mills and what else could it be used for?”

In spite of her lack of experience, Ruby overcame numerous diffi culties to keep the mill going, one of which was being a woman alone in a very male-dominated business.

World War II and afterProceeds 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 fi rst time in 80 years. When David returned he reopened the mill and was able to cash in on the post-war boom.

War had badly damaged the manufacturing capacity of Europe and Asia. David adapted the fl our 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 profi ts 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 fi nally 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.

20

Agriculture Victoria

Courtesy: Creswick Museum.The Smeaton Agricultural Show in early 1860s.

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).

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 goldrushThe 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 goldfi elds towns were scattered from Warrandyte to Walhalla, but mostly they were concentrated in what is now known as the central goldfi elds district between Bendigo and Ballarat.

Rise of rural industryRural 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 suffi cient as possible.

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 fl our 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

a local foundry set up in response to the needs of the mining companies.

Why Smeaton?The Anderson’s built their fl our 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 fi elds 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, suffi ciently low lying to get a good head of water from the nearby creek.

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 fl oor to another as it was cleaned. It had to be long when it was decided to process oats as well.

over 100,000

25,000 - 99,000

10,000 - 24,000

1,000 - 9,000

less than 1,000

1860

1880

1913

21

Agriculture Victoria

All photos on this page courtesy: Creswick Museum.A farmer at Springmount near Smeaton using a reaper binder in 1890.

A prize winning haystack in 1904.

A local farmer using a Horsby reaper in 1890. A threshing machine and portable steam engine in 1890.

The fact that it was quite so grand refl ects the Anderson’s hopes for the future at that time. The impressive bluestone structure looked as if it would last forever.

Success of Anderson’s MillThese hopes seemed well founded. From 1865 to 1874 annual sales of fl our and oatmeal from the mill exceeded £30,000 per year. Ballarat was the main market but Smeaton produce was distributed throughout all the central goldfi elds towns. But from the mid 1870s sales began to fall.

From diggers to farmersAs 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.

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.

Unlocking the landAs 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.

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 MillThe 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 afi eld. 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 profi ts 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.

22

The waterwheel at Anderson’s Mill

Diagram of waterwheel.

Design of waterwheelsThe 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 rough-hewn 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 – fl at 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 waterwheelsThere are three main types of waterwheel – the undershot, the overshot and the breast.

The undershot wheel (above) is propelled by water from a stream or river fl owing beneath it. The other two are more effi cient and involve feeding water to the top or side of the wheel. The weight of the water in the buckets pushes the wheel around.

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.

23

The waterwheel at Anderson’s Mill

Anderson’s waterwheelIt 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.

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.

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.

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.

Water raceAnderson’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 fi nally along a wrought iron fl ume for about 60m.

The fl ow of water was controlled by a hand-operated sluice gates at the weir and at either end of the wrought iron fl ume which replaced an earlier timber fl ume. After

passing over the wheel, water returned to Birch Creek through a 4m deep masonry lined tunnel nearly 70m long.

Mr Martin Richards of Blampied, who worked at the mill between 1934 and 1943, remembers that when the creek was in fl ood, care had to be taken when closing the sluice gates to avoid water backing up and fl ooding over the fl ume. If the race fi lled up, excess water could escape at the ‘falls’, a spillway off the side of the race 200m south of Alice Street.

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.

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 fi rst shift to begin at midnight.

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 fl our water’, etc.

Manufacturing in BallaratThis 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.

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.

The huge hub of Anderson’s waterwheel. The original timber pattern from which it was cast survives at the mill.

The weir on Birch Creek upstream from Anderson’s Mill, built in 1877 to improve the reliability of the water supply.

24

The waterwheel at Anderson’s Mill

Courtesy: Ballarat Historical Association.

The Victorian Foundry at Ballarat was justly proud of its fi rst locomotive built in 1871. The foundry produced the fi rst locally made engine for the gold diggings in 1858.

A 2 x 4 head iron frame battery made at the Victorian Foundry.

• The wooden patterns (above) from which its cast com-ponents were made have survived and illustrate the way in which the wheel was manufactured.

The Victoria FoundryThe Victoria Foundry was among the fi rst to be established in Ballarat in 1856. It fl ourished between 1858 and 1872 principally under the partnership of James Hunt and James Michael Opie.

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, effi cient 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;

• patenting in 1863 a chain drive for puddling machines;

• 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 fi rst 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 signifi cance of Anderson’swaterwheel• 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 fi ve years after it started.

25

The Leffel turbine at Anderson’s Mill

The outer casting of a Leffel turbine.The working parts of a Leffel turbine. The fl ow of the water into the centre runner could be controlled by adjustable gates around the perimeter.

In March 1898 David Anderson wrote to company in Melbourne that he was ‘contemplating the installation of a turbine to drive our fl our 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 turbinesHydraulic turbines of this type essentially consist of two components: a runner which is turned by water fl owing 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 turbineWe 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.

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.

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.

Turbines in VictoriaTurbine were used by a few mining companies in Victoria, the fi rst 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.

One of the few companies in the nineteenth century with any reputation for making reliable turbines of moderate power was James Leffel of Springfi eld, Ohio. They manufactured their fi rst turbine in 1862.

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.

26

Restoration

Water, ground contact, inadequate sub fl oor ventilation and termites led to extensive damage to the ground fl oor of the fl our and oat mills.

Most of the original structure of the verandah survived intact but deterioration in the timber members was extensive.

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.

Verandah

Ground fl oor

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 offi ce. This was fi nanced by National Estate Grants.

Acquisition by the StateGovernmentSince 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 fi nally purchased in 1987 through funds made available by the government and the Australian Bicentennial Authority.

Conservation analysisA 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, fl oor repairs, the replacement of the water fl ume trestles and the conservation of the wheel and fl ume.

Much to be doneRepairs are still required on parts of the mill complex and the outbuildings. As funds become available repairs to the upper fl oors of the mill will be completed, the

stonework and the chimney repointed and the offi ce interior repaired.

27

Restoration

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 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 superfi cially corroded.

Although the trestles supporting the water fl ume 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 diffi cult operation which involved propping and jacking the iron fl ume above.

The channel was cleaned out once the overburden and sleepers were removed.

The waterwheel and fl ume have been sandblasted to remove suffi cient of the old coatings (bitumen over red lead primer) and loose corrosion so as to permit adequate penetration of rust neutralising agent.

Nearly 300 new red gum sleepers were required to re-cover the channel.

Holes were patched using woven fi breglass cloth bedded in a reinforced bitumen compound. The fl ume and the waterwheel were painted with a bitumen based acrylic compound.

Back creek channel Flume and waterwheelTrestles

28

John Anderson’s letter

Courtesy: Mrs M. Dight.

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 fi rst 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 fi nished 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 off ered 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 fi re 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 ruffi ans one of them went out two nights ago to make water on coming in another of them took him to be a rober and fi red 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 Offi ce 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 trulyJohn Anderson.

29

from the goldfi elds

Courtesy: La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria.

John and William Anderson arrived at Forest Creek within a few months of gold beingdiscovered. 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 banon digging on the Sabbath day.

Courtesy: La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria.

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 fi rst surveyor general, and called after the Queen Adelaide, consort of King William IV.

30

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.

Anderson’s Mill Festival

For further information call 13 1963 or visit parks.vic.gov.au

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.