Great Fingall Mine office
| Great Fingall Mine office | |
|---|---|
 Great Fingall Mine office in 2011 | |
  Great Fingall Mine office Location of Great Fingall Mine office in Western Australia | |
| General information | |
| Type | Mine office |
| Location | Day Dawn, Western Australia |
| Coordinates | 27°27′34″S 117°51′27″E / 27.45944°S 117.85750°E |
| Designated | 7 February 1997 |
| Reference no. | 627 |
The Great Fingall Mine office is a heritage listed building in Day Dawn (near Cue), within Western Australia's Goldfields. It was built from stone in the Federation Italianate architectural style, during the Western Australian gold rushes, c. 1902. The single-storey structure was used as the administrative and assay offices for the Great Fingall Consolidated Gold Mining Company.[1]
The mine office, and eventually the entire town of Day Dawn, were abandoned following the closure in 1918 of the adjacent Great Fingall Mine and the outbreak of World War One.[2]
The mine office has significant heritage value as the only substantial building left in Day Dawn, and as a rare example of co-located administrative and assay offices. The condition has declined due to decades without any use, but remains generally sound, with the only alterations being the removal of verandahs, deterioration related to exposure to weather, and vandalism.[2]
The Great Fingall Mine reopened in the mid-1990s. There were initially concerns about the mining operation causing further deterioration to the historic building, due to flyrock from blasting, or of a wall collapse due to the closeness of the open cut pit, but by 1997 the threat was assessed as having passed.[2] By 2020, the growth of the mine to within 10 metres (33 ft) of the building was endangering it – the gradual erosion of the edge could cause the mining office to slip into the mine.[1]
Since c. 2000, the Shire of Cue has been looking at relocating the heritage building to the town of Cue,[3] where it could be restored, and opened to the public, but the $3 million cost is beyond the capacity of the shire, which as of January 2020[update] was hoping for assistance from the state government and the mine's owner, Westgold.[1]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c O'Connor, Cecile (9 January 2020). "Fears for historic Great Fingall Mine office perched on the edge of an open-cut mine". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
- ^ a b c Heritage Council of Western Australia (7 February 1997). "Register of Heritage Places - Assessment Documentation: Great Fingall Mine Office (fmr)" (PDF). Government of Western Australia. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
- ^ "Great Fingall Mine Office". Western Australian Endangered Places. The National Trust of Australia (WA). Archived from the original on 16 July 2007. Retrieved 10 January 2020.