The history of local lime kilns

Did you know there’s a lime kiln in Coimadai, submerged beneath the waters of Lake Merrimu?

The Bacchus Marsh & District Historical Society (BMDHS) posted a reminder of that fact on social media, with kilns in the area dating all the way back to the 1800s, before concrete was the preferred building material.

The major recorded producers of lime in Coimadai were the Alkemades, and then, six months after the Alkemade kilns were brought into production in 1886, Mr Edwin Dibley took a lease on the remaining lime deposits in Coimadai.

“In the 1850s, the discovery of substantial rock lime deposits at Coimadai boosted settlement in the area as a small-scale quarrying and lime burning industry developed. By the 1860s, four small kilns were in operation – notably Hopgood’s and Burnip’s – although only fragmentary remnants of these early lime burning sites have survived,” BMDHS wrote.

“Mr Alkemade, assisted by his sons, had taken up three lime claims in Coimadai in 1886 and commenced constructing kilns. Demand for lime diminished as the use of concrete came to dominate the building industry. The war and post war period saw wages increase dramatically and there was a greater awareness of the dangers inherent in lime production.”

Coimadai’s lime kilns ceased production in the 1950s, but dolomite (unburnt lime used in agriculture) was still mined and crushed, up until the second phase of the Merrimu Reservoir inundation in 1986.

At the height of production in 1886, the Alkemades’ lime output is believed to have been 2,000 bags a week.

For more information on Coimadai’s lime kilns, read the article in the No. 5 ‘Clarke’s Marsh Newsletter’ Autumn 2020 at www.bmdhs.org.au.