Foreword

I was born in Bendigo, Victoria, towards the end of World War Two. I attended a state school, followed by a junior technical college, after which I completed a five
year apprenticeship as a fitter and turner at the Ordnance Factory in Bendigo, a facility with a reputation for handling the ‘Really Big Stuff’. If I remember correctly, the only facilities equipped to handle larger engineering tasks were Vickers Ruwolt in Richmond, Victoria, and the Cockatoo Island Dockyard in Sydney, NSW.

Trade schooling was undertaken at the Bendigo School of Mines and Industries, where the machine shop really had to be seen to be believed. Line shafting and flapping belts drove everything, including lathes, planers, and milling machines. The only modern concession that I was aware of, was an electric motor that had long since replaced the original steam engine as the prime mover. To this day, I can still hear the belts squealing and slapping, which I can imagine would be, by today’s standards, a real OH&S nightmare.

I moved to Melbourne in 1970, working firstly as an engineering draftsman, and later as chief draftsman, however, I then gave up the drawing office for the challenge of running engineering services in high-rise buildings. By coincidence with this career change, I was also looking for an opportunity to put my my steam ticket to good use. At that time, you had to log 300 hours of practical activity within two years before you could sit for a steam ticket; thank goodness for Box Hill Hospital’s briquette-fired John Thompson cross-drum boilers which I was able to utilise. 

I subsequently joined the Melbourne Steam Traction Engine Club (MSTEC), which was then based at Wantirna, and remember that my first task was firing the old Farrah vertical, and I have been a member ever since. Later, I was very much involved in the frantic relocation to the club’s present site. However, since starting our own business in 2000, I’m not spending anywhere near as much time at ‘The Club’ as I would like. 

I had always been aware of the existence of Horwood’s Foundry, but my interest dramatically increased after stumbling across a complete J. Horwood & Sons winding engine, that was still in situ at a long-abandoned mineshaft. I left it there and have no idea what became of it. Perhaps it has long since been scrapped but, thankfully, there is another example awaiting restoration at the Central Deborah Gold Mine (see images over the page).

My paternal grandfather often commented about having family links with Joel Horwood’s side of the family but, even right up until the point of writing this article, we have been unable to find any connection. Of interest though, is an article in the Bendigo Advertiser, from 7th May, 1900, which reports that one of the principle mourners at Joel’s funeral in 1900, was a nephew named Percy Horwood. One of my Grandpa’s brothers was a Percy Horwood, and the dates of the two are very similar! The fact that Joel’s father was also named Joel, and they had both been married twice, with Joel Jnr having ten children, means it is a very complex family tree. My daughter, Vivienne, is almost out of her mind, trying to make sense of it all.

In the meantime, whilst the search for the missing link continues, I offer this original article fromBendigo and Vicinity by K. W. Kimberley, in the hope that somebody more closely related to Joel than I, will come forward as, I believe, the story of Horwood’s Foundry forms a significant part of colonial Victoria’s industrial and agricultural heritage, and needs to be told. 

I would be pleased to receive, in confidence, any information or photos by phone or fax, (03) 9723 4223, or mail to: John Horwood, PO Box 576 Croydon Vic 3136. Email: aquavic@optusnet.com.au

The History

This article was roughly reproduced from Bendigo and Vicinity by K.W. Kimberley, 1895, F.W. Niven and Co., publishers. (No government copyright ownership).

“The growth of many Australian cities has been as wonderful as the old tales of fairy lore, for in the place of wildernesses have shot up thickly populated centres and immense buildings which are the work of man and his industry. To refer here specially to old pioneer houses, they have grown, where they proved worthy, with the city, both in size and power. Where once stood small shanties, magnificent structures now rear their heads.

To trace the histories of old pioneers, the enterprises they established in a city, is always an interesting task, but in this instance, it is rendered doubly so because of the unusual circumstance attendant thereon. Perhaps there is not another pioneer in the whole of Australia who can boast with such good reason as Mr. Horwood. Besides, he came to Bendigo unknown to those in the district, and during the years which have since elapsed, he has risen by simple and safe movements to the top of the commercial ladder. Mr. Horwood is both energetic and enterprising, and he has all the trading instincts of the old English gentlemen, who made England the Imperial and great nation it is.

In 1832 Mr. Joel Horwood began his career in the city of Oldham, in Lancashire. His father was proprietor of one of the foundries in that district, and after the boy left school he entered his father’s business house, and learnt the ramifications of engineering and foundry work. Before, however, he was fit to be a master hand his father determined upon closing the business and coming to Australia to try and bring richness out of waste.

In 1848, he and his family sailed on the barque “Baboo” Captain Barker in charge. Just at that period, a large number of fairly well-to-do people leaving England booked for Adelaide, South Australia, and Mr. Horwood was one of the number. He landed in Adelaide after a voyage of 104 days, and there established a foundry. As time went on, population increased, and a son of Mr. Horwood Senior is now proprietor of a foundry which is situated in Currie Street.

In December, 1854, Mr. Joel Horwood left the paternal roof to participate in the good things to be found on the gold fields of Victoria. He arrived in Melbourne by boat and from there went to Forest Creek. In that district he labored as a miner for 6 months, and won a fair share of the royal metal. Then followed a period spent assisting his father in his business at Adelaide.

It was in 1856 that Mr. Horwood first came to Bendigo with sufficient capital, appliances and materials, and one first class carpenter and pattern maker, to establish a business. It was considered from indications that this would eventually become a fairly large town, but his wildest dreams did not imagine that activity would, on a day not too far distant., stand where tree stumps and diggers’ holes then were. He arrived in Bendigo on a fine May morning by one of the Cobb’s coaches, and immediately making enquiries, was recommended a favorable site on which to commence operations. 

He always quickly makes up his mind, and within forty-eight hours of stepping from the coach, he had taken a lease of the land on which his magnificent premises are at present erected, and was working. A good deal of ingenuity was necessary to reach the spot, for holes of fourteen and fifteen feet deep were on every hand, and before a dray could bring the required building materials from the Melbourne main road (now High Street) many of these had to be filled up, and a road made. Should it be necessary for him to visit the township proper (now Pall Mall) after dusk, a lighted lantern was highly necessary to guide him from a thousand pitfalls. 

A small foundry was built, and a two-roomed weatherboard house, on the high ground, in which to live. When everything was put in order, work was started and six men were employed. It was a fortunate venture, and Mr. Horwood was called upon to supply large quantities of mining materials. It was not long before it became necessary to employ increased hands, and enlarge the premises. As year after year passed by, and the decade, the original walls were lengthened and heightened on three separate occasions, and departments built at the sides, and offices at the end, until about the year 1870, Mr. Horwood possessed an enormous structure, and an enormous business. 

The original six hands multiplied times over and over again until two hundred men were necessary to cope with the increasing business. In cold words, this may not at first impress the imagination, but the reader need only think of its full meaning and recognise how important was the change. Of course, the expansion of the mining industry was a large factor in this rapid increase, but the enterprise of the proprietor of the business had more to do with it. Mr. Horwood has a far seeing eye, and he saw what the future would require, and thereupon set himself to prepare for it. 

He secured drays and wagons, and many teams of horses to carry the implements from his establishment to a radius of fifty or more miles. The machinery which he manufactured was durable and effective, for he recognised that work done once well done was twice done, and consequently he turned out immense quantities of mining machinery of every kind. 

He has carried out considerable Government locomotive requirements, and has made large stocks of air compressing machinery and rock drills, but the special for which his foundry is noted is pumping, crushing and winding machinery. It would be difficult to estimate the number of people who have been enabled to earn their daily bread by the enterprise of Mr. Horwood. Mines throughout Victoria and all adjoining colonies contain machinery manufactured in his foundry, and employment directly and indirectly has been given to many hundreds of human beings.

The block of land Mr. Horwood first took on lease he eventually purchased. And it is here that the unusual circumstance occurs. That same block of land he so hurriedly took up in 1856 now contains an immense foundry, an extensive and rich gold mine, a splendid private residence, with surrounding necessary outbuildings, conservatories, summer houses, green lawns and choice flowers. 

Thus, as he quietly rests in his bright and expensively-furnished rooms, build where the old two-roomed wooden cottage stood in the early days, the wheels of his foundry make countless revolutions, the boiling, hissing, melted metal is poured into the moulds, the heavy steam hammers rise and fall with terrific force. The miners are busy extracting the precious gold right beneath him, with the cage gliding up and down, and the birds hop and twitter among the shrubs and flowers, all within the limits of two hundred and fifty square yards. And that site when he first came to Bendigo was but an open paddock and a pea garden. 

All this had been done by Mr. Horwood, and we can safely say that there is no place so unique in all Australia, if not the world. When he lived in the wooden cottage, the original owner was woot to jocularily remark to Mr. Horwood there was a big fortune in gold-bearing reef under his bed, little thinking that it was true. Three hundred and fifty feet, as nearly as possible under that bed, was where the toiling miners eventually discovered a mine of gold. 

In 1874 Mr. Horwood, thinking that there was some likelihood of his building being over a gold deposit, sunk a shaft about the centre of his foundry premises. A public company was floated under the name of Horwood’s Freehold Gold Mining Company, into 24,000 shares of a pound each. Mr. Horwood sold half the shares and kept the rest, and in addition was to receive five percent royalty on the gross yield. 

Eventually he purchased other shares and within three years of the time the pick was first thrust into the topsoil, he received considerably over thirty thousand pounds in purchase money, dividends and royalty. The mine is now over a thousand feet deep, and it is expected that a hundred feet lower a rich deposit will be struck. The private residence is one of the most substantial and commodious in the district, and has every convenience which should conduce to his happiness. 

In 1865, Mr. Horwood, in addition to his other pursuits, branched out into another line, and it was as satisfactory as the others. He purchased land for farming purposes and continued adding to it until the well know Bridgewater Park Estate, of over 2000 acres, was formed. 

He was also very successful in farming, but subsequently confined his attention solely to gaining a valuable stud of horses, cattle and sheep. He imported, at enormous expense, animals from Great Britain to form a nucleus, until he stocked the estate with some of the finest Lincoln sheep, coaching horses, Clydesdale and shorthorn cattle, in Australia. His cattle became the envy of owners al over the colonies, and English and Scotch experts who visited the estate did not stint their praise of the various breeds. 

For many years he was one of the largest prize-takers at Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, and other colonial shows, and he generally wrested first prize from all competitors. There was a deal of good-humoured rivalry between Mr. Horwood and the Hon. J. H. Angus of South Australia, at these gatherings, and the two great cattle breeders went no end of trouble to gain first prizes. In the majority of instances Mr. Horwood was the most successful, and in the interests of cattle breeding it is much regretted that four years ago he sold Bridgewater Park Estate. 

Some individual cattle brought enormous prices, and 200 guineas to 500 guineas for one beast was not at all unusual. Several hundreds of pounds have been given to Mr. Horwood for a pair of carriage horses, and during his connection with Bridgewater Park he did a great deal to improving Australian breeds. So interested was he in these matters that, out of a total of 25 years, he spent more time attending to them than to his foundry and mines. In his house there are now fine oil paintings of the beasts which have taken prizes at many leading Victorian and International shows, notably his gold medal championship for best shorthorn beasts over two years old, at the International Show of 1880.

To effectually overlook the various enterprises of which he has been proprietor, left Mr. Horwood very little time for public matters. Many years ago he consented to become a member of the Marong Shire Council, a position which he occupied for nine years, filling the presidential chair for two terms. Since that time he has been a Justice of the Peace. He was for four years a trustee of the local branch of the Savings Bank, but he resigned four years ago. Mr. Horwood is a Life Governor of the different Bendigo charitable institutions and of the Bendigo Jockey Club. He is ever proud of having spent some time as a volunteer artilleryman in South Australia, and later as a member of the Bendigo Cavalry.

Mr. Horwood has been twice married, in 1854 and in 1876 and has a worthy family of seven sons and three daughters. All his sons occupy prominent positions in different colonies. The eldest son, Mr. Charles K. Horwood is resident representative at Wagga Wagga, NSW, for Dalgety and Company; the second Mr. J. H. Horwood, MCE, was for some time Engineer of the Ballaarat School of Mines, and is now practicing his own profession in West Australia; the third, Mr. Ed. Horwood, MCE, is a mining manager, engineer and surveyor of the Proprietary Company, at Broken Hill; the fourth, Mr. Albert Horwood has one of the best orchards in Mildura; while the fifth son, Mr. Frank Butler Horwood, manages the Mt. Burgess Gold Mining Company, WA. Mr. Horwood’s eldest daughter is the widow of the late Hon. J. G. Ramsay, of South Australia. Another daughter, Miss Adelaide, lives at home and a son Mr. Norman, in his father’s office, while the other two children, Stanley and Ivy are yet at school.

Nothing remains to be said of Mr. Horwood’s character as they can be judged from what has already been written. Whatever he does, he does effectually, and is not satisfied with half measures. Socially he is one who is naturally anxious to please. He makes many friends and his success in life has been fully deserved, and has been the outcome of his own efforts and indomitable energy.

[As this article was penned five years prior to his death on May 7th 1900, it can be assumed that it was approved by Mr. Horwood. Ed.]” 

*Acknowledgement to Bendigo and Vicinity by K.W. Kimberley, 1895, F.W. Niven and Co. publishers. *John Horwood