DETAILS / SIGNIFICANCE
Intact mullock heap, quartz and tailings dumps with remnants of sand heap. Also remains of equipment and a test bore. Foundations of winder pump and steam engine beds, and electricity plant, together with the mine managers house.
Heritage Inventory Significance: State
Recorded by: J. Harrington Date Recorded: 00SEP1994
Read this interesting account about a death at the mine by "William Barratt" 'The Berry Leads'' article from the Ballarat School of Mines Students' Magazine, Term Four, 1908.
ALLENDALE - A magisterial inquiry as to the death of William Barratt in the West Berry Consols mine was opened on Monday by Mr. D. M'Grath. The company was represented by counsel and the officers of the Creswick Miners' Association were also in attendance. Mr. John Rowe, the mining inspector being unable to complete his inspection of the mine and be present, an adjournment was made till Wednesday.
ALLENDALE, Sunday. - The West Berry Consols mine was the scene of a fatal accident at about half past 1 on Saturday afternoon, when William Barrett, a miner, resident at Wallacetown, near Allendale, lost his life. The deceased was employed as shootman at No. 2 shoot, his duty being to attend to the shoot and fill the trucks on the main level. William Cross, the shift boss, and Edward Cross, his son, who was engaged as a trucker, were with deceased at the bottom of the shoot, when the shoot got choked and he ascended a ladder in the manhole to probe the washdirt, to let it come away. Shortly afterwards they were startled by a disturbance and by the falling washdirt. They called to deceased, but got no answer. They called for assistance, and began to clear away the dirt, when they found the body of deceased, it having fallen to the bottom with the washdirt, and life was then extinct. It is conjectured that the shoot must have burst, either with the weight of the washdirt or the pressure of compressed air, and it is evident that the timber of the centre of the shoot shuck the deceased, as his skull was fractured. Dr. G. Ogle Moore and Constable Gardiner were immediately sent for. The body was removed to Allendale to await an inquest. The deceased, who was 33 years of age, leaves a widow and one son eight years old.
- The Argus, 17 March 1903.
- The Argus, 16 March 1903.