Omeo Pioneer Quartz Crushing Machine - VIC

The Gambetta Reef Gold Battery Site consists of the remains of one 5-head iron framed battery, portable steam engine, and various buried and partly buried piece of machinery. The site also has some relics, including a Cornish boiler, relating to an earlier phase of battery installation. The site is obscured by blackberry bushes. The Gambetta Reef Gold Battery Site is of historical and scientific importance to the State of Victoria.

The Gambetta Reef Gold Battery Site is historically and scientifically important as a characteristic and well preserved example of an important form of gold mining. Although being very close to Omeo, the machinery has not been significantly scavenged. The Gambetta Reef battery main period of operation was from 1901-12. Gold mining sites are of crucial importance for the pivotal role they have played since 1851 in the development of Victoria. As well as being a significant producer of Victoria's nineteenth century wealth, with its intensive use of machinery, played an important role in the development of Victorian manufacturing industry. The abandoned mining machinery at the Monarch battery site is historically important for its evocation of the adventurousness, hardship, and isolation that was part of mining life in the high country areas of the State.

The Gambetta Reef Gold Battery Site is archaeologically important for its potential to yield artefacts and evidence which will be able toprovide significant information about the technological history of gold mining. [Source: Victorian Heritage Register]