Whitewashed Brick Wall

Two sash windows sit in the whitewashed brick wall of the mill at Jembaicumbene, each framing a view of green paddocks beyond. Heavy hardwood beams cross the ceiling above them, cut from the Budawang Ranges and set into position in 1859. A worn timber plank floor runs across the base of the frame. The light is quiet and even, falling across brick that has been whitewashed at some point in the building's long life, softening walls that were originally functional and industrial in character. Charles Dransfield built the four-storey Jembaicumbene Steam Flour Mills in 1859, using bricks manufactured on the property and granite sourced from the surrounding farm country. Sydney surveyor C.E. Langley designed the building. The steam engine and milling equipment were supplied by P.N. Russell and Co. of Sydney, one of the largest engineering operations in colonial Australia. The mill opened in January 1860, serving a gold rush settlement of more than 1,000 miners working Jembaicumbene Creek, including approximately 600 Chinese miners. For 25 years it milled flour for that community. All milling operations ceased in 1885. The building stood largely unused for over a century before Antony Davies and Andrew Gow began an 11-year restoration of the mill and homestead around 2008. The sash windows visible in this photograph were custom-made in Pennsylvania as part of that restoration work, fitted into the original brick openings. The lower floors of the mill became the Wheatfield Gallery. The upper floors retained their raw industrial character: brick walls, exposed beam structure, and plank flooring worn smooth by more than 160 years of use. This photograph, made in 2022, records the interior as it stood after that restoration. The paddocks through the glass are the same country where the wheat was grown that once fed the mill below.