Summary

This photograph depicts a four-wheeled timber dray, loaded with stone, parked alongside a large shed housing a stamper battery. The dray's wheels have been chocked using a stone under the smaller front wheel and a branch off-cut and stone under the larger rear wheel. The shed is constructed of rough timber poles and corrugated iron with what appears to be a rolled-up canvas curtain spanning the open, lower section of wall. A chimney protrudes from the roof and a short timber rail enclosure retains a pile of rock. A ladder is visible inside the shed, and a pipe runs from inside along the external wall to a cube-shaped metal tank mounted on a platform with a ladder leaning against it.

The ore mined from reefs would be carted to a battery to be crushed and condensed. The crushed ore and tailings from the condensing process would then be carted to a plant for treatment, most commonly cyanide extraction. While many batteries would crush ore from independent mining claims, in addition to ore from the mine the battery was affiliated with, many mines would only treat crushings and tailings taken from the mine's own land. Batteries and mines that would accept ore from independent and small cooperative claims often charged heavy fees for their services. These practices, combined with a lack of railways and roads, meant transporting mined ore could be outrageously expensive, making it very difficult for independent or small cooperative claims to be mined successfully.

The photographs in this collection were taken by the Reverend Frederic Charles Hall (1878-1926) during the period 1902-1909 when he was the Anglican Curate appointed to Georgetown in North Queensland. Hall's foremost hobby was photography. He used both a half-plate camera with tripod made by J. Lancaster & Son, Birmingham and a quarter-plate Austral No. 3 made by the Australian company, Baker & Rouse. Glass negatives from Ilford and Austral were used; developing was done by the photographer himself and printing by exposure to sunlight.