History: Mudgee Great Western Roller Flour Mill

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1907

22 August 1907
Great Western Milling Co.

The Great Western Milling Co. contemplates building a new mill on a site at the railway station. The latest type of milling machinery will be installed and the capacity of the plant will be increased to cope with expanding business. The building will be lighted by electricity, and, when completed, the mill will be one or the most up-to-date outside the metropolis. Mr. A. C. Gaskin, who has been connected with the Mudgee Milling Co. as manager for the last ten years, will join the staff, and his extensive experience should prove of value to the Great Western, of which he is a shareholder1 .

24 October 1907
Western Milling Company New Mill

Work, in connection with the building of the Western Milling Company's new mill is proceeding very satisfactorily, and with great expedition. The section which will hold the plant is now completed, and ready for the new machinery, two truck loads of which were received from Messrs. Henry Simon, Ltd., the world famous engineers of Manchester. Some of the new machines are the only ones of the kind in the States. The engine, a high speed Davey Paxman Compound, is to arrive this week, and during the next few days the Babcock and Wilcox boiler will be erected. All the work so far has been done by local workmen, under the supervision of Mr. A. C, Gaskin, who has had many years' experience designing erecting and managing roller flour mills of all systems with the largest millers of the Commonwealth. Mr. Gaskin has been engaged by the Western Milling Company to design the mill and carry out the erection of the plant. The chimney has been erected by Messrs. Collyer and Carmichael from plans prepared by Mr. Gaskin, and the bricks used came out of the chimney at the old mill. Mr Gaskin considers that the admirable work done by Messrs. Collyer and Carmichael reflects great credit upon them, and disposes of the contention that our local builders are not able to carry out work of this kind2 .

1908

Western Flour Milling Co., Limited.

Important Mudgee Industry.
Pleasing Function.
Director's Dinner.
On Monday night last the shareholders at the invitation of the Board of Directors of the Western Flour Milling Co., Ltd., attended an inspection of the new mill which was followed by a dinner. The Western Flour Milling Company began its history in the early days of Mudgee, when milling machinery, was with a few elaborations, almost similar to the process used for extraction of flour from grain as was in vogue when Joseph superintended the granaries of Egypt, after he had been rescued from the pit into which his brothers, with a keen sense of brotherly love, had lowered him, through jealously, caused by Joseph's tailor who had bedecked him in a coat of many colors. The old mill stones with their corrugations still unworn are on view at the new mill, and are a striking contrast with the modern machinery which has been installed there, and which automatically reduces the grain to flour and by-products without the intervention of the hand of man. It is more than 40 years ago since the mill was established out of which the present structure has grown, and the remains of the old building still occupies the site in Mortimer-street. It was known in those days as Crossing's mill, and it was in it that Mr. George Crossing, the owner, met a fierce sudden end by being caught in a large flywheel which may still be seen lying in the old mill yard. That shocking fatality occurred about 13 years ago, and for some years after the business was conducted by Mrs. Crossing, who afterwards sold out to a company. This company carried on operations as at first constituted until about six months ago when it was reformed to a certain extent, and Mr. A. C. Gaskin, who had been head miller for the Mudgee Roller Milling Co. for ten years - since it commenced operations, in fact - joined, taking the position of managing director, and the present Western Milling Company, Ltd., was formed. Meanwhile the area under wheat throughout the district kept increasing, and the extension of the railway into the wheat-growing land giving promise that the industry would expand still further, it was decided by the company, who are far-seeing ?men, and understand their district and its potentialities thoroughly, to purchase a site on the railway and there erect an up-to-date mill furnished with the most modern type of machinery. Mr. Gaskin was commissioned by the Company to obtain from the Railway Commissioners the concession of a railway siding, and this was finally accomplished with the assistance of the late member for the district. This desirable end gained, Mr. Gaskin, who ranks as an expert in his profession, was further entrusted with the choosing and purchasing of what machinery and plant he considered necessary for the new mill, and he, like the rest of the members of the Company, with an unbounded faith, which is quite justifiable, in the productiveness of the district, purchased a plant which is capable of treating 47,000 bags of wheat each year, by running continuously. The designing, construction, and supervising the work was all in the hands of Mr. Gaskin, who worked with dogged persistence on the great responsibility he had taken, with the result that the building was erected with amazing rapidity and the machinery installed, and ready for work within the space of fifteen weeks. It is stated by those who have undertaken similar works that there is no plant in the State of a like capacity which has been erected and running in such a short time, and it may be added that such despatch augurs well for the future prosperity of the Company. We were conducted through the building on Monday evening and though dazed with the technicalities of our guide, and bewildered with whirring wheels and endless belts, it was easy to see that the whole vast mechanism ran with the utmost smoothness and with the regularity of clock work. Our guide informed us that from the time steam was first turned on not a single hitch of a serious nature had occurred in the working of the complicated machinery which fills three floors, and receives its motive power from a 150 h.p. engine in the basement. All the latest appliances for the expeditious handling of grain in any quantity, and with ease and economy, have been installed. The weigh-bridge with a little office attached is on the western side of the grain house, and is a vast improvement on the old style, which, though accurate in itself, was frequently the cause of mistakes being made by weigh clerks, who if disturbed were apt to forget the figures. On the bridge under notice a patent attachment is fixed which cannot make a mistake. When the load is taken on the bridge and the beam balances at whatever the weight is, a ticket is automatically stamped showing this weight, and thus no error can be made by the clerk's forgetfulness. The bridge is adjusted to a nicety and has been registered by the Board of Trade. In describing the working of the mill many details must be omitted, as space will not permit of a lengthy explanation, we will, therefore, endeavor to place briefly before the reader the principal methods used for the transformation of the grain into flour. The grain room abuts on the weighbridge, and directly the weight of the load is registered the bags are rapidly cut open and the grain flows into a receptacle which is elevated to the silo attached to the mill, and after this operation it is not seen again until the flour appears at the packing machines ready for market, no handling being required between the cutting open of the bag and the stowing of the staff of life into bags ready for commerce, and even this is done by machinery. The silo is of ingenious construction, and, to quote our guide, is termed the American crib type, and was chosen by Mr. Gaskin after many years' experience of silo construction adapted for handling grain. It consists of four great cells, the dimensions of which are 8ft 6in square by 47ft deep, with hoppered bottoms (another technicality cribbed from our guide's inexhaustible repertoire), built of Oregon pine, in such a manner as to withstand the enormous pressure exerted by the 300 tons contained in the silo. There is an art in the construction of these silos, or huge bins, and many accidents are on record where they have collapsed, killing men and wrecking machinery in their fall. The Western Milling Co.'s silo was, however, faithfully built, and though Mr. Gaskin experienced an anxious time while it was being filled, he was rewarded when he found that it was impossible to detect any settlement or giving after it had been filled. The grain is fed from the bottom silo by a mechanical feeding device which works so well and is of such utility, that Mr. Gaskin, who is the inventor of it, is applying for a patent. It feeds the wheat in the exact quantities required from the different cells as the mill uses it. It is a clever and well thought out addition to milling machinery, and one that will find favor wherever it is installed. After this operation the wheat is elevated into the cleaning department where it passes through an appropriately named separator which is styled The Eureka, and which extracts the refuse from the pure material. One would not expect much refuse from the clean looking golden grain, but it is there just the same and is particularly dirty and disagreeable looking. The cleansed grain then continues its journey sometimes horizontally or laterally down or up in search of other machinery to complete its reduction into flour. In the fulness of time it passes through indented cylinders, fashioned by the wonderful ingenuity of man, to separate oats and barley, and then finds its way through a scouring machine which removes any smut or dust, and the onlooker receives a sudden surprise when he once more notes the amount of rubbish coming away from the bright looking grain he saw leaving the grain house some time before. Still travelling in search of further adventures the wheat reaches the conditioning bins where it is reduced to an even condition by another process, for each floor from basement to roof is packed with machinery, and, as in Italy, all roads lead to Rome, so, in the Western Mill, all roads lead to a machine and through it to yet another and another, until the process of latter-day flour milling is complete. From these conditioning bins the wheat is drawn and measured by an automatic weighing machine which passes it forward on its long turbulent journey to a brushing machine - another contrivance to ensure cleanliness - where a further polishing is administered. But no time must be wasted, for are there not thousands waiting for white soft bread, and buttered scones, and all the other delicacies in which flour is the main factor, and so the wheat goes on through its covered wooden tramway, until its course is interrupted by the first breaking roller where the grain is broken and the germ detached. A dressing machine separates the two, and the journey continues to and through the second, third, and fourth breaking rollers, and at each of these stages it is further reduced and dressed. At the fourth breaking roller the bran detaches itself and passes into the bran bag, and is the bran of commerce. The flours and semolinas (again our guide grew technical, but explained that semolinas is the term used for unreduced flour) are separated the latter graded into three sizes and purified on three different machines. The pure products then descend to the smooth rollers where they are gradually reduced. Once more they are elevated, dressed by six centrifugal dressing machines which are clothed over the drums with a graded silt mesh supplied at about £1 per yard by Swiss manufacturers, that rugged country where the tourist falls so persistently off the mountain tops, being the only place in the world where this silk mesh is made. This is the final process, and the snowy article, which is declared by the bakers of Mudgee to be of the highest quality, is ready for the market. There is little else worth noting, except that it may be stated that the whole process, from the time the wheat is weighed, is absolutely automatic. All the machinery, which is indeed a vast array, is driven by line shafting on each floor, and is fitted with self-oiling apparatus. Inch and a half ropes drive the machinery from the basement, the power used being the 150 h.p. engine already referred to. This engine is of rare British make and embraces all the latest improvements. The mill is lighted by electricity, the installation being independent of the mill. The current is generated by a separate engine, and lights the mill throughout, also attending to other duties, such as hoisting wheat, working elevators in the grain shed, and performing other trivial acts which require a little strength. To prove that electricity was a superior lighting medium (which we knew before) our guide turned a tap and the whole building was a blaze of light. This was the signal for an adjournment to the grain room, where, under the lee of a mighty pile of bags of wheat, Nicholson's had set out a sumptuous dinner3 .

1909

2 December 1909
Purifier

Mr. A. C. Gaskin, manager of the Great Western Flour Milling Co., of Mudgee, has designed and had erected in the Company's mill, near the railway station, a handsome Middling's purifier, which is the first of its kind built in the Commonwealth. The machine stands alone for elegance and finish beside the many continental purifiers in the mill, and it is claimed to have more than one advantage over the imported machines. The motive which prompted the innovation was that the imported machines did not come up to the ideas of the enterprising manager of the mill, and the completed machine as it now stands is a credit to Australian ingenuity. The total cost of construction was equal to the usual price of an imported machine landed at Darling Harbor, thus the cost of railway freight from Sydney to Mudgee was saved. The work of erection was carried out by Mr. Chas. Garnham, assisted by Mr. Fryer, and under the personal supervision of Mr. Gaskin. The iron fittings were supplied by the firm of Henry Simon, of Sydney, and the tin-smithing was performed by Mr. G. Dykes, of Mudgee. When the mill was started for the season's operations on Thursday last it was found that the new machine acted quite up to expectations and gave complete satisfaction4 .

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