Summary

This photograph depicts a cyanide plant, most likely at Georgetown, constructed of timber poles and corrugated iron. Running up to the plant from left of photograph, a rail line can be seen with two trolleys, one carrying an ore bucket. A trolley with an ore bucket can also be distinguished inside the plant. Mullock heaps cover much of the site, and there is a stack of timber next to the plant. Discernible behind the plant are poles and wires.

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. Crushed stone would be fed into an ore hopper from where it would be fed into mills and further pulverized finely enough to pass, with the aid of water, through mesh screens. Under the screens were copper plates treated with cyanide and, when mercury was added, the gold-laden ore formed a putty-like mixture that was scraped off and placed into a crucible for heating. During this process, the mercury would burn off leaving refined gold. Some plants would use retorts to try and recapture the expensive mercury and cyanide that was burnt off.

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.