B3 Smoke Stack
It is thought the original Smoke Stack was erected on this site in 1922 when the current boiler house was constructed as it was required for the new Lancaster Boiler. It was an 85 feet tall stack and 3 feet in diameter. This stack blew down in a storm on the 6th June, 1935, causing damage to the rear verandah of the Butter Factory, the Receiving Room and about 100 cream cans. Luckily no employees were injured in the accident and the stack was re-erected and lived on.
In 2012 the Stack was deemed unsafe and the Shire of Busselton refurbished it based on structural engineering advice. The refurbished Stack was placed on a brick base with a new concrete core, guy wires refixed to new concrete pads set below ground level whilst retaining the former guy wire posts above ground level.
The present Smoke Stack is approximately 20m high, about 5m less than it was, probably due to damaged metal being removed in 2012. Its diameter of 910mm at the base is roughly the same as the original. On the southern side of the brick base there is a small hatch with a heavy steel door inscribed with the words Kalgoorlie Foundry Engineers which matches the hatch to the furnace wall immediately behind the base. The Kalgoorlie Foundry was an early iron foundry in Kalgoorlie which was owned by Claude de Bernales, who at the time was one of the richest men in Australia, certainly in Western Australia.
