Twin Sash Windows

Two sash windows set into a whitewashed brick wall, open paddocks visible through the glass. Above them, massive hardwood beams span the ceiling, cut from the Budawang Ranges when the mill was built in 1859. Below, worn plank floorboards carry the evidence of more than a century of use. The timber sash windows installed during the restoration of Mill Pond Farm were custom-made by Amish craftsmen in Pennsylvania, part of an 11-year programme begun around 2008 by Antony Davies and Andrew Gow. The building they were restoring is the most substantial structure surviving from the gold rush era in the Jembaicumbene district. Charles Edward Dransfield, a Yorkshire wool miller turned NSW gold prospector, built the four-storey mill using bricks manufactured on the property and granite sourced from the farm. The structural beams were felled and dressed from the nearby Budawang Ranges. The mill building was designed by Sydney surveyor C.E. Langley, and the engineering works, including the milling equipment and a 20-horsepower steam engine, were supplied by P.N. Russell and Co. of Sydney. The mill opened in January 1860 as the Jembaicumbene Steam Flour Mills. It served a creek-side settlement of more than 1,000 gold miners, approximately 600 of whom were Chinese. All milling operations ceased in 1885. The steam engine and fittings were dismantled and sold at some point after closure. What remained were the brick and granite walls, the hardwood beams, and floors like these. This photograph, made in 2022, records the upper room as it stands now: two windows, the light from open country coming through them, the bones of the building still sound.