Sale Powder Magazine

Rotary Club of Sale

SALE POWDER MAGAZINE

Sale Rotary Club is committed to a major role in the
restoration of this recently rediscovered heritage building.

Sale Powder Magazine
Colonial Governments in Victoria built magazines to provide safe conditions for the storage of explosive powder which was mainly used by the gold mining industry.
Built in 1864-65, the Sale Magazine served the needs of North and East Gippsland.
Like the one at Beechworth, the Sale Magazine has massive walls and buttresses and barrel vaulting in the ceiling.
To reduce the chance of an accidental explosion, timber dowels were used to fix the flooring.
Barrack like in appearance, the building is almost encircled by the ancient course of Flooding Creek, historically giving it a buffer from bushfires.

The magazine became private property around 1925.
In 1995 it was rediscovered through a heritage study conducted by the former City of Sale.
The property is now owned by the Shire of Wellington who have utilised the services of a heritage architect to produce a schedule of works for restoration. It is managed by a Community Committee responsible to the Sale Historical Society.
The Sale Rotary Club has held a series of working bees to clean up overgrown vegetation, remove skillions and recover original bricks from buried paths.
The Magazine Committee of Management has produced a feasability study which lists three options for development.
The preferred option is for a restored building to be used as a Golfields Museum and Educational Centre, surrounded by parkland, with two bridges connecting to the Wetlands Trail.

The complete feasability study

From the original plans.

Update 17/05/98.
The first bridge has been constructed.

Update 25/02/99.
The second bridge, a fence around the building
and a picnic table have been completed.

This report is based on material supplied by Rotarian Peter Synan, Regional Historian and President of the Magazine Committee of Management.

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Copyright © 1998 * Rotary Club of Sale Inc * All Rights Reserved

Sale Powder Magazine	Colonial Governments in Victoria built magazines to provide safe conditions for the storage of explosive powder which was mainly used by the gold mining industry. Built in 1864-65, the Sale Magazine served the needs of North and East Gippsland. Like the one at Beechworth, the Sale Magazine has massive walls and buttresses and barrel vaulting in the ceiling. To reduce the chance of an accidental explosion, timber dowels were used to fix the flooring. Barrack like in appearance, the building is almost encircled by the ancient course of Flooding Creek, historically giving it a buffer from bushfires.
The magazine became private property around 1925. In 1995 it was rediscovered through a heritage study conducted by the former City of Sale. The property is now owned by the Shire of Wellington who have utilised the services of a heritage architect to produce a schedule of works for restoration. It is managed by a Community Committee responsible to the Sale Historical Society. The Sale Rotary Club has held a series of working bees to clean up overgrown vegetation, remove skillions and recover original bricks from buried paths. The Magazine Committee of Management has produced a feasability study which lists three options for development. The preferred option is for a restored building to be used as a Golfields Museum and Educational Centre, surrounded by parkland, with two bridges connecting to the Wetlands Trail. The complete feasability study From the original plans.	Update 17/05/98. The first bridge has been constructed. Update 25/02/99. The second bridge, a fence around the building and a picnic table have been completed.