The Ilfracombe Iron Company (I.I.C.) was an iron mining and smelting company that operated in Northern Tasmania during 1873 and 1874. The company's operations included a blast furnace, ore mine, water wheel, village, and jetty. It was one of four ventures that smelted iron from local ore in Tasmania during the 1870s.
Foundation and Registration
The company was driven by Captain Duncan Longden, with major shareholders including Ayde Douglas (a Tasmanian lawyer and politician), James Major (of the Melbourne engineering firm Doyne, Major and Willet), James Bickerton, John Robb, David Spence, and two others. The Ilfracombe Iron Company was registered on 28 January 1873 with an authorised capital of £50,000 in 10,000 £5 shares.
Location and Infrastructure
The company operated in the West Tamar area, approximately 5 km south of modern-day Beaconsfield, Tasmania. The I.I.C. rebuilt a disused timber-haulage tramway terminating at Ilfracombe—now the southern part of modern-day Beauty Point—extending it at both ends to reach its iron ore mine and its jetty on the Tamar River. The tramway was horse-drawn with wooden rails set at a 3-foot gauge. The jetty was 133 feet long by 15 feet wide, built of stone and logs, and could accommodate a 500-ton ship.
Blast Furnace
The furnace was an open-top, cold-blast furnace with an iron outer shell. It was constructed on a foundation of concrete and masonry, with a large boiler plate cylinder 10 feet in diameter lined with firebricks. The ruin of this blast furnace is significant as one of only three such ruins of 19th-century iron-smelting blast furnaces in Australia, the only one in Tasmania, and the only remaining ruin in Australia of a 19th-century blast furnace that had an iron shell.
Operations and Controversy
Before the company was registered, iron ore was sent to Melbourne for trial smelting in November 1872. Two bells were cast from this iron: a smaller one (approximately 9 kg) exhibited at the Victorian Exhibition (1872–73) in Melbourne, and a larger bell (approximately 95 kg) exhibited at the Vienna Exposition of 1873, where it was inspected by Emperor Franz Joseph.
The foundation stone of the furnace was laid on 12 May 1873. A fire was lit in the furnace in August 1873 to dry it out. However, the steam engine used to drive the blast machinery proved too small. On 28 November 1873, a telegram announced that twelve pigs (approximately two tons) of Ilfracombe iron had been shipped to Melbourne. However, the furnace did not remain in continuous production after this supposed first tapping.
It remains questionable whether the blast furnace actually produced any pig iron. Four different experts examining the furnace ruin in 1883, 1982, 1988, and 2012 failed to find any iron in the hearth. The ongoing problem—a mismatch between the small capacity of the blast machinery and the size of the furnace—may have prevented the furnace from reaching a suitable temperature to smelt iron ore. The telegram announcement of 28 November 1873 was most probably part of a deliberate attempt to mislead, designed to attract additional capital.
Demise
The company exhausted its capital, wasting some on assets never put to use, such as its large waterwheel (30 feet in diameter). The Oriental Bank foreclosed, and the assets were sold to Ayde Douglas for approximately £805. A large fall in the price of iron ended any possibility of restarting operations. The waterwheel was later used to power a stamper battery at the Leura gold mine.
Legacy
Approximately three metres of the lowest part of the blast furnace is still standing on private property, including the stone base, hearth, three tuyere ports, and the lowest part of the iron shell. The iron shell from the collapsed upper part lies on the ground nearby. An unused cast iron tapping block is on display at the Beaconsfield Mine & Heritage Centre, along with a replica of the bell exhibited at the Vienna Exposition, cast in Tasmania in 2017. The pattern for plaques intended to commemorate the aborted casting of pig-iron in October 1873 is held by the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery in Launceston.
