Pioneers of the Waratah TownshipPrint Page

The monument commemorates the pioneers of the Waratah Township from 1878 to 1926 who mined limestone for the building industry. Walkerville was originally known as Waratah.

Its heyday was the early quarter of the 20th century, where commercial quantities of lime  were bagged and exported to the booming capital city. Lime obtained from the site is said to have been used in the building of Melbourne's iconic Flinders Street Station. Raw material was mined from the surrounding limestone cliffs, loaded into horse-drawn trams and hauled along above the high-tide line to be burned in one of six kilns. Much of the surrounding countryside was depleted from a combination of mining and timber-harvesting to fuel the kilns. Burned lime was bagged, then stacked in sheds. Lime was transported to Melbourne aboard a series of ships that stopped at the 300-metre jetty nearby. Operations continued until 1926, when shipping expenses made the product unprofitable.

Even at its peak, the township was home to only eighty people, mostly workers at the six lime kilns.

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