This cache will take you to the Lime Kilns located off Limeburners Road. This is a new hide from the previous cache here by Flying Platapus. A big thanks to Flying Platupus for originally taking me to this historic site.
NOTE This site is protected under the Heritage Act 1995 so please do not disturb structures or rocks around the site.
Park at S38 08.894 E 144 23.221 and access via gap in corner of fence. There is a rough track to the north. Alternate access from the Limeburners Point boat ramp carpark to the west at low tide.
The cache is NOT within the kilns so please do not disturb them. Use caution when accessing this area and please do not come here at night alone- whilst I have never seen anyone here, there is evidence of some undesirable nocturnal activty here. The cache itself is a regular size hideen away from the kilns.
Brief History of the Kilns
cited from: http://barwonblogger.blogspot.com.au/search?q=bricks+and+mortar (Thanks Buckleysbabe!)
One of the earliest and most important Geelong industries was the production of lime which was in high demand by the building trade where it was used in the production of mortar, cement, plaster and stucco amongst other things. Lime production on the site is believed to date back to 1838 and the earliest days of European settlement in the region when limestone was quarried nearby and burnt in kilns on the western side of Limeburners’ Point.
Seashells were also collected and used in production. This site was no doubt chosen for the availability of limestone which was found in the cliffs, in the limestone gravel of the beach and in the shells which collected there. The limestone in the cliff face which is believed to be between 65 and 3 million years old was covered by a layer of clay, deposited in a later period. Other limestone deposits in the region are believed to have formed around 20 - 35 million years ago during the Oligocene-Miocene periods, when changing sea levels lead deposits of shells to form along shorelines which no longer exist.
In 1852 George Cakebread purchased the kilns from Caleb Joshua Jenner. Sources appear to differ on when the surviving kilns were built, however it would seem that these kilns date only to the 1860s or 70s. There are also the remains of a powder magazine at the site which dates back to 1854 however despite this overwhelming need for lime, pressure from tourist interests at nearby Eastern Beach soon saw the lime burning process forced to move to the eastern side of Limeburners' Point where these remaining kilns are situated.
During the peak of operations at Limeburners' Point, the kilns operated day and night, burning timber which was hauled in on drays. Alternating layers of timber and limestone were fed into a funnel-like chimney at the top of the kilns which were stone and brick structures built into the cliff face. The contents were burnt and the lime rendered by this process was collected from the chamber at the bottom of the chimney, bagged and carted away.
So important to the early building industry of the region was Cakebread's lime (the only other source of lime at that time was Point Nepean) that it was shipped all over the Western District. Many of the significant homesteads of the region were built from rock quarried from basalt deposits along the Barwon and held together with mortar made using lime from the shores of Corio Bay.
One such example is Sladen House, Newtown which was built in 1849. Other surviving buildings fro this era include, Barwon Grange, Kardinia House and St. Albans Homestead along the banks of the Barwon River. All are brick, or stone and brick structures built between 1850 and 1875 which presumably used Cakebread's lime. Production was not affected by the move to the opposite side of the point and reached a peak in the 1870s, however nothing lasts forever and by 1875, another lime-burning operation located on the opposite side of Corio Bay at Duckponds (Lara) was producing a superior quality lime. By the 1880s only one of the kilns at Limeburners' Point remained in operation and profits had dropped ten-fold.
The new producers had set up their kilns on the shores of the small lagoon into which Hovell's Creek empties. Somewhat confusingly, this is now known as Limeburners' Bay. At that time however, the entrance to this small bay was called Limeburners' Point. Today’s Limeburners’ Point was known as Galena Point.
Another early source of limestone was the deposit near Waurn Ponds - an extension of which reaches to the Barwon where it forms the Belmont Escarpment. It is still being quarried by Blue Circle Southern Cement Ltd and the stone is also used for monument-making purposes by various stonemasons in the region.
Historically, it seems that quarrying took place at Waurn Ponds as early as the 1840s, however it was probably only used for building purposes at this time. It was not until the 1880s when production at Limeburner's Point was in decline that kilns were built at Waurn Ponds and lime production began. A little later, in 1890, the cement works at Fyansford commenced operation. The lime to supply these works was quarried about 5.6km away at Batesford from the Miocene era deposit which was found there in 1888. [The rock was crushed on site and then transferred to the works at Fyansford first by a rope works and then by rail. With the opening of a new quarry in 1920, stone was loaded straight onto trucks and then taken to the works by rail for crushing.] The current open cut quarry at Fyansford commenced operation in 1931 and is still in use today, despite the closure of the cement works.