Blackall Woolscour facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Blackall Woolscour |
|
|---|---|
.jpg)
Blackall Woolscour machinery, 2010
|
|
| Location | Evora Road, 4km northeast of Blackall, Queensland, Australia |
| Design period | 1900–1914 (early 20th century) |
| Built | 1908–1920s circa |
| Official name: Blackall Woolscour | |
| Type | state heritage (built) |
| Designated | 21 October 1992 |
| Reference no. | 600033 |
| Significant period | 1900s-1920s (historical) 1900s-1920s (fabric) 1900s ongoing (social) |
| Significant components | residential accommodation - manager's house/quarters, kitchen/kitchen house, depot - fuel, meat house, yards - livestock, machinery/plant/equipment - manufacturing/processing, shearing shed/woolshed, railway, out building/s, wool scour, bore, machinery/plant/equipment - pastoralism, residential accommodation - shearers' quarters, pond/s - settling, shed/s |
| Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 420: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). | |
The Blackall Woolscour is an old place in Blackall, Queensland, Australia, where wool was cleaned. It's about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) northeast of the town. This special site was built between 1908 and the 1920s. Today, it's protected as a heritage site because it's an important part of Queensland's history.
Contents
What is a Woolscour?
A woolscour is a factory that cleans wool after it's been cut from sheep. When wool comes off a sheep, it's full of dirt, grease (called lanolin), and other bits. Scouring means washing the wool to make it clean and ready to be used.
In the past, people used to wash sheep in rivers before shearing. But by the 1890s, mechanical wool scours like Blackall became popular. These factories used machines and steam power to clean large amounts of wool much faster.
Most big wool scours were in cities. But in western Queensland, several were built in country towns. The Blackall Woolscour is the only one left that is still mostly complete. It was also the last one to stop working.
History of the Blackall Woolscour
The Blackall Woolscour started operating in 1908. It was a big project, costing a lot of money at the time. It was built near the new railway line, which made it easy to transport wool.
Before this big factory, some wool cleaning happened in Blackall using simpler methods. In 1905, local business people decided to build a large, modern woolscour. They formed a company and dug a deep well (called a bore) to get water for cleaning the wool. They also hired builders to construct the large sheds.
In 1913, a company from Melbourne bought the Blackall Woolscour. They made many improvements to the machines. This helped the scour clean much more wool. By 1918, it cleaned more than twice as much wool as it did in 1913! The years from 1916 to 1920 were its busiest.
The scour continued to work, usually making a profit, until 1964 when it was sold. In 1974, another company bought it. The scour finally closed in 1978 after a storm damaged its boiler.
Besides cleaning wool, the Blackall Woolscour also did other jobs:
- Fellmongering: This is the process of removing wool from the skins of dead sheep.
- Selling petrol.
- Farming in the 1950s.
- Shearing: Sheep were also shorn (their wool cut off) at the site. The shearing area is still used today.
In 1988, the local council took over the site. Now, a special group called the Historic Woolscour Association owns most of the buildings. They work to preserve this important piece of history. Since 1998, experts have been working to fix up the buildings and make them safe for visitors. Their work even won an award!
What the Blackall Woolscour Looks Like
The Blackall Woolscour is made up of many timber-framed sheds with corrugated iron roofs. It's located in the countryside, next to the railway line. The site also has:
- A deep artesian bore for water.
- Ponds where dirty water settled.
- A special railway track that goes right into the complex.
- Yards for sheep.
The main building is shaped like an "L" and has many attached sheds. Wool moved through these sheds in stages:
- It started with sheep being shorn in one area.
- Then, the wool was classed (sorted by quality).
- Next came the scouring (washing) and drying areas.
- Finally, the clean wool was pressed into bales.
The biggest part of the main building holds the machines for scouring, fellmongering, and drying. There's also a small office. Near this area are the shearing board and the wool classing area. The floor levels change as you move through the different parts of the process.
Around the main building, you can find other important areas:
- A blacksmith's room.
- An engine room.
- An area for the boilers that made steam.
- A large pile of ash and old tracks for moving timber to the boilers.
At one end of the scouring area, there's a two-story section. The upper part was for storing wool, and the lower part had a wool press. A loading platform outside allowed wool bales to be loaded onto trains. The railway track runs between the main building and a large wool storage shed.
Inside the scour buildings, you can still see many old machines. These include steam engines, boilers, large iron tanks, dryers, wool presses, and a complex system of belts, pulleys, and shafts that made everything work.
South of the main building, there are smaller buildings where workers lived and worked:
- A kitchen.
- Shearer's quarters (where the shearers slept).
- Toilet and shower blocks.
- A meat preparation shed.
These buildings have simple roofs, and the shearer's quarters has a verandah (a covered porch).
A shed with a shallow roof covers the artesian bore, which provides water. The water flows into a settling pond and then through drains around the site. There's also a fuel depot further away, where the railway spur line joins the main track.
The old manager's house is on a nearby property. It's a timber building with verandahs. Most of the buildings at the Blackall Woolscour are still in their original places. You can see the signs of age, like dust and wear, which tell the story of its long history.
Why the Blackall Woolscour is Important
The Blackall Woolscour is listed on the Queensland Heritage Register because it's very important for several reasons:
- Shows Queensland's History: It helps us understand how industries like wool cleaning grew in western Queensland when railways expanded in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
- Rare and Special: It's the only known example of a complete mechanical woolscour from the early 1900s in Australia. It's amazing how much of the original machinery is still there!
- Typical of its Kind: It shows what a mechanical woolscour in western Queensland needed: lots of bore water, a location near the railway, and many buildings spread out across the site.
- Beautiful and Evocative: People value its look and feel. The old buildings, machines, and the way they've aged create a special atmosphere. It's interesting to see the simple outside of the buildings compared to the complex machines and spaces inside.
- Technical Achievement: When it was built, it was a very well-designed and efficient factory. It showed how advanced engineering was at that time for cleaning wool.
- Community Connection: The Blackall Woolscour was a place where people from farms and the town came together. It was important for the social, cultural, and economic life of the Blackall area.
Engineering Heritage
The Blackall Woolscour has also received a special award called an Engineering Heritage National Marker from Engineers Australia. This award recognizes it as an important example of engineering history.
