Venus State Battery
| Venus State Battery | |
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Venus State Battery, 2011
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| Location | MacDonald Street, Millchester, Charters Towers, Charters Towers Region, Queensland, Australia |
| Coordinates | 20°05′09″S 146°17′34″E / 20.0859°S 146.2927°ECoordinates: 20°05′09″S 146°17′34″E / 20.0859°S 146.2927°E |
| Design period | 1870s - 1890s (late 19th century) |
| Built | 1872 |
| Official name: Venus State Battery, Venus Gold Battery, Venus Mill | |
| Type | state heritage (built) |
| Designated | 21 October 1992 |
| Reference no. | 600413 |
| Significant period | 1972-1950s (fabric) 1872-1919, 1919-1975 (historical) |
| Significant components | shed - machinery, battery/crusher/stamper/jaw breaker, forge/blacksmithy, battery shed, chimney/chimney stack, residential accommodation - housing, tailings dump, machinery/plant/equipment - mining/mineral processing, office/s, weir, flue, toilet block/earth closet/water closet, weighbridge/weigh station, workshop, cyanide plant/cyanide vat |
 Location of Venus State Battery in Queensland
Location of Venus State Battery in Queensland
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Venus State Battery is a heritage-listed stamper battery at MacDonald Street, Millchester, Charters Towers, Charters Towers Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built in 1872. It is also known as Venus Gold Battery and Venus Mill. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
The Venus was one of the earliest stamp batteries to be erected on the Charters Towers gold field as it was operating by July 1872. The first owners were Mr Edmund Harris Thornburgh Plant and Mr G. Jackson. Bricks were made on site for its construction. Initially the mill processed ore from a deep lead to the south-east of Millchester. When first erected the battery had only five head of stamps, but a second five was quickly added, then a third five in August 1872 and a fourth five in September 1873 making 20 head of stamps.
By 1897 the battery was described in The North Queensland Register as having 20 head of stamps, 80 berdans, one wheeler, four settlers, three buddles, all driven by a 30h.p. engine. By this period the mill was owned by Messrs Whitehead, D. Rolleston and J. Tilley and managed by Mr J. Barrett. It was one of seventeen then operating on the Charters Towers gold field. (The term "mill" was commonly used on the Charters Towers gold field in the nineteenth century to refer to a stamper or crushing battery, and later the term included all the concentrating and processing works at the place.)
Although the Charters Towers reefs were exhausted by 1917, the town remained the centre for small mining operations which were serviced by the Venus Battery, which was owned by the Queensland Government from 1919. Ore came from as far away as Chillagoe, Woolgar River and Iron Range on Cape York Peninsula.
There is reasonable evidence to indicate that the Venus battery changed quite dramatically some time before the Queensland Government assumed ownership in November 1919; local residents date this at 1907. The number of stamps increased from 20 to 35 and the building was altered to accommodate the increase. The Inspector of Mines on 10 July 1919 stated that: "...the mill is very well laid out for public crushing, each of the seven batteries being a complete unit in themselves from the feed hoppers to the sand pits." (By 1982, this could be said of only two batteries of five head of stamps).
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