Phoenix Foundry

The Phoenix Foundry was a very significant manufacturing business during its 50 years of operation. It was one of reputedly 40 foundries in Ballarat during the heyday of manufacturing in Victoria in the 1880s. It was a larger business although there were other large foundries in the city including the nearly Union Foundry which is known to have produced a number of very large Cornish pumping engines including a Cornish Bill engine supplied to a New Zealand mine.

The unfortunate reality of recognition of the Phoenix Foundry is that nothing remains of the foundry itself. This circumstance faces nominators with the task of finding some alternative “link” between the subject site and remaining relics, or other reminders, of the subject site.

In this case the existence of the railway turntable pivot foundation, adjacent to the foundry site but within a public street, provides the opportunity for a link between the Phoenix Foundry and a remaining relic associated with it.

This image shows the machine shop of the Phoenix foundry. In the centre is a large planning machine of a type which would usually only be found in very large manufacturing concerns. To the left appears to be a large radial arm drilling machine
Source: University of Ballarat Historical Society Collection.

Workers with new locomotive in the Phoenix Foundry
Source: University of Ballarat Historical Collection M6599

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Engineering Heritage Recognition Program

Marker Type	Engineering Heritage Marker (EHM)
Award Date	October 2013
Heritage Significance	During its early years (1857 to 1871), the Phoenix Foundry specialised in the production of equipment for the gold mining industry and thereafter concentrated on the construction of railway locomotives between 1871 and closure in 1906. Phoenix Foundry manufactured high quality product and established a reputation far beyond its local importance. It was the principal manufacturer of railway locomotives for the Victorian Railways during a key period of railway development in Victoria.
Nomination Document	Available here.
Ceremony Booklet Ceremony Report	Not Available.
Plaque/Interpretation Panel	Available here.