The Walkerville Lime Kilns are historically important and serve as visible reminders of the former lime burning industry that flourished at Waratah Bay between the 1880s and 1920s. The kilns demonstrate the former lime burning operation at the township Walkerville that was purpose built as a mining town.
The lime kilns at Walkerville are historically important as it is the only site with the range of associated site features. The Walkerville lime kilns are historically important as they are the only group kiln complex in the State dating to the period of lime burning between the 1880s and 1920s. The Walkerville lime kilns are historically significant in that they provide evidence of the largest and longest lived commercial lime burning sites in Victoria.
Six kilns (numbered 1-6 from south to north) were constructed at Walkerville. Each kiln was about 40 feet deep, brick lined and tapering to a narrow neck at the base, where a grate opened into the back of a large shed. The kilns were built separately, some distance apart, faced with local stone (granite and basalt) and each had its own storage and packing shed. The shafts were supported by a high vertical stone wall across the front, which itself was supported by two long retaining walls extending outward at an angle from each end of the vertical rear wall. At the base of the vertical facade is a brick-lined arched chamber or vault, 2. 5 m wide, 2 m deep and at least 2 m high leading to a small semicircular draw hole in the rear wall, through which the burned lime could be extracted from the shaft. The rear wall of the vault, above the draw hole is corbelled outward to accommodate the widening diameter of the shaft behind it. The corbelled brick courses are strengthened by three horizontal iron tie-beams. Socket holes for wooden beams can be seen in the inside faces of both retaining walls, which also bear traces of the line of a sloping roof over the area between the retaining walls.
The Kilns Today
Today the remains of the six kilns at Walkerville are still discernable, but in different states of intactness. None of the kilns retain any structural remains of the front bagging areas. Parts of kiln 5 were reconstructed in 1992. A retaining wall protects the area in front of the kiln and the working area has been resurfaced with concrete. The major part of the external structure of kiln 6 has collapsed, revealing the brick internal lining of the shaft. Bricks were brought in by ship although some doubt exists as to their origin. The absence of suitable clay deposits nearby would tend to rule out local manufacture. But some bricks have been salvaged from the kilns with the markings W. B. embossed on them, possibly denoting that they were made at a small kiln at Waratah Bay. A blacksmiths forge, stables for the horses and storage sheds for the lime were situated adjacent to the kilns.
