No. 2 Gumley’s Mill foundations
In 1942 Millars’ Timber and Trading Pty. Ltd. was given permission to build a sawmill at this location, in the vicinity of Toodyay’s first railway station. The company leased a little over one acre from the West Australian Government Railways and had the use of a siding to load railway trucks. Machinery in the mill included a large engine which ran most of the saws and a smaller engine which powered twin saws used to reduce the logs to manageable lengths. Today only the concrete foundations remain of this building.
Edward Gumley managed the mill and dealt directly with local landowners, arranging timber leases on behalf of Millars’. Leases, for either one or two years, gave Millars the exclusive right to harvest wandoo or jarrah on the property. The timber was branded for identification and landowners were paid per cubic foot harvested. This was a popular arrangement as farms were then able to be established more easily on the partially cleared land.
In 1947, mainly due to post-war labour shortages, Millars closed the mill and the equipment was dismantled and shipped elsewhere. Edward Gumley and a number of other mill employees also moved away. In late 1949 a new company, Industrial Extracts, was established in Toodyay. The core business of this company was the extraction of tannin from timber and a factory was built approx. 4.5 km from here, by the Avon River near Millards Pool. Industrial Extracts also took over and re-instated the sawmill.
In the early 1950s Gumley returned to Toodyay to manage the mill once again and by 1954 had purchased it. He continued milling at Toodyay until the 1970s when timber became difficult to obtain and the mill was permanently closed.
During its operation Gumley’s Mill processed extensive quantities of hard wood for many uses including housing and railway sleepers.
* You could have a lovely walk around town grabbing these Tourist Precinct caches
Cache contains log only so please BYO pen. Please rehide well
Please try to just use date and name only on the log to allow room for others to sign and also save our precious trees
DO NOT claim a find if you haven’t signed the logbook. I will delete your log if you do this
MULTIPLE LOG ENTRIES WILL ALSO BE DELETED
Happy Hunting 
Cache will be maintained by geocacher Elrebe 56 after she finds it of course
These caches have been placed for and in conjunction with the Museum Curator/Heritage Officer at the Shire of Toodyay. Thank you for all the information and photos