Wednesday 3 February 2016

Goldfields water cannon






We saw this at Lawrence when we were going to buy fruit, taking much the same route  as the goldminers and pioneers of old took. This is the way we travel up to our caravan.
Our first stop is at a little place called Lawrence, not  far from where Gabriel Read first discovered gold and started one of the biggest gold rushes in the southern hemisphere in the early 1860's. It lured men from all over the Australian and Californian goldfields.
I don't know but am guessing that the water cannon was used to sluice the hillsides when mining for gold.
A&T Burt were the manufaturers and were established in 1862. but sadly not still operating.

joining Tom at:

4 comments:

  1. Diana, what a massive "squirt gun" you could have quite the water fight with this thing. My google search came up that this baby was perhaps used in mining. Correct? Well this is a new one for me. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to what you find next.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Tom. Yes, the water cannon is situated in Lawrence which was the site of a big goldrush in the 1860's. My guess is that is was used for sluicing. I've added a little more to my post to make it more understandable.
      Yep, two of those and you could have a grea water fight.

      Delete
  2. Fascinating! But what in the world was this used for?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. H Anne, I've added to my post explaining a bit more. It was used on the goldfields for sluicing.

      Delete

St Kilda Beach

Dunedin, Otago.