Ilfracombe Iron Company

rdf:langString Ilfracombe Iron Company

rdf:langString The Ilfracombe Iron Company (I.I.C.) was an iron mining and smelting company that operated in Northern Tasmania in 1873 and 1874. The company's operations included a blast furnace, ore mine, village, and jetty. The I.I.C.rebuilt a disused timber-haulage tramway, terminating at Ilfracombe—now the southern part of modern-day Beauty Point—which it extended at both ends to reach its iron ore mine and its jetty. Iron ore from the company's mine was smelted at a foundry in Melbourne in 1873. Two bells were cast from this iron; the smaller one was exhibited at the Victorian Exhibition (1872–73) in Melbourne and the larger bell at the Vienna Exposition of 1873. The company constructed a blast furnace alongside a tributary of Middle Arm Creek. It originally intended to power the blast machinery from a large water wheel, which was erected but not used. Despite several design iterations, the steam-powered blast machinery was severely under-sized. Before this situation could be rectified, by raising more capital, the Oriental Bank foreclosed. The assets were sold cheaply; possibly, the new owner intended to restart operations. However, a large fall in the price of iron seems to have ended that possibility. It remains questionable that the blast furnace actually produced any pig iron, although the company announced in an ambiguous telegram that it had. The ruin of its blast furnace is significant, as one of the only three such ruins of 19th-Century iron-smelting blast furnaces in Australia and the only one in Tasmania. It is the only remaining ruin—in Australia—of a 19th-Century blast furnace that had an iron shell.