Cassel Water Race

(See also Cassel's Tailings Plant Site)

Map 2 (c.1894)

The Cassel Company set up their plant below the lower tailings pond. Water for power and processing was provided by the Cassel water race.

From the reservoir near Barry Road, the water was flumed or piped across a small gully (the original Mill Stream course, now filled), then in an open ditch beside the driveway of the battery manager’s house (just within what is now Morgan Park). Crossing to the south of Baker Street, it remained in-ground through what are now residential sections, until it was again flumed, and then taken to the Cassel’s plant by pressure pipe.

The water race provided a sixty-foot head of water, running a four-foot-diameter Pelton wheel, and providing pressure for sluicing with water.

When the Cassel plant no longer required the water, or may be even before, the Waihi Gold Mining Company flumed the water across to the Waihi Battery. This wooden flume is prominent in many old photographs of the battery, being near the end of Baker Street.

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Waihi District Walkways Inc. PO Box 241 Waihi New Zealand

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