Six Window Facade

The mill at Mill Pond Farm presents three distinct layers of construction across its facade: upper courses of locally manufactured brick, a middle section of granite-silled coursed stone, and a rougher stone base. Six multi-pane sash windows, arranged in three pairs across those three levels, are what this photograph holds. Corrugated metal runs across the roofline. Tall grass and purple flowering plants have grown up at the foot of the wall. The building was constructed in 1859 by Charles Dransfield, a Yorkshire-born wool miller who had come to the NSW Southern Tablelands during the gold rush and made his fortune growing wheat and acquiring gold leases. Bricks for the structure were manufactured on the property itself; the granite was sourced from the surrounding farm country; the massive interior beams were cut from the Budawang Ranges. The mill building was designed by C.E. Langley, a Sydney surveyor, and the engineering works, including the 20-horsepower steam engine and associated fittings, were supplied by P.N. Russell and Co. of Sydney, one of the largest engineering operations in colonial Australia at the time. The Jembaicumbene Steam Flour Mills opened in January 1860. It served a goldfield settlement of more than 1,000 miners working Jembaicumbene Creek, including approximately 600 Chinese miners. Under one roof the building ran flour milling, sawmilling, a quartz crushing battery for gold extraction, and a bakery. All milling operations ceased in 1885. Over the following century the building stood largely intact, its brick and granite construction more durable than the economic conditions that had made it necessary. A restoration of the mill and homestead began around 2008. The timber sash windows seen in this photograph were commissioned from Amish craftsmen in Pennsylvania as part of that work. The lower floors were converted to the Wheatfield Gallery, exhibiting fine art and decorative arts. Photographed in 2022, the facade records what the restoration preserved and what the original builders left behind.