Hoisting and Rock Handling

Hoisting and Rock Handling

Tramming
The work of trammer was entered in the Cost Book from its beginning until August 1857, after which no further entries appear. John Phillips was one such trammer and he received a regular monthly wage averaging £3.00. He was assisted at times by Robert Trestrail and Samuel Allen who received the same monthly pay, and also a boy named John Thomas, who received 1/6 (one shilling and sixpence) per day.

The only references to a tram road, i.e. a rail track on which a small wagon could run, were in the months of January 1856 on the 60 fathom level and in September and October of the same year when Henry Davis & Co were 'cutting ground and putting in tram road' on the 48 fathom level east on Dobree's lode, where the drive had reached a distance of 66 metres since October 1855. When this area had been mined out by August 1857 the job of trammer disappeared and John Phillips' name did not appear in any other work, except under the names for 'subsist' and he may have joined one of the tut work or tribute pares.

Presumably the narrow wheelbarrow with the wheel ahead of the body was used elsewhere in the mine to carry ore to the shafts, but there are no records of barrows being purchased. If they were made on the mine it seems strange that the carpenter did not make the shovel hilts also which needed to be bought from outside suppliers.

The total cost for trammers amounted to £103.

Kibble Fillers
The broken ore from the stopes, having been taken to the shaft platt, was then shovelled into kibbles for hoisting to surface. Kibble fillers were paid monthly and sometimes received overtime, the basic rates being from £2.25 to £3.00. Sometimes boys were employed for this work as well and they received £2.00 per month.

In August 1858 there is the first entry in the Cost Book mentioning skip filling instead of kibbles, which reads 'Edward Connelly. Filling skip a month 60/-. Extra 6/-' ie £3.30 a month in total. This entry is repeated for the next four months without the extra 6/- and then in January 1859 the entry says 'Edward Connelly landing skip £3.00´, which is probably a mistake by the clerk.

After this there is only one other entry concerning a skip which occurs in June 1859, Josiah Webster. Filling skip. 16 stems @ 1/9', as if skip hoisting was very intermittent.

For the 50 months covered by the Cost Book kibble fillers were paid a total of £445 and skip fillers £18.

Whim Drawing (Hoisting)
When the Cost book opens in October 1855 it is not clear whether there is a whim engine working in addition to the horse whims.

There was an Engineman by name of Richard Wearne who received £3 per month until May 1856 when he was changed to a daily rate of 2/6 (£0.25). This gave him a reduction in income for the following 18 months as he worked from 14 to 26 days per month. In January 1858 he was put back on his original monthly pay and in February this was raised to £3.50 which he retained for 15 months. However in may 1889 he was back again on a daily rate of 2/6! His job was then shown as 'working steam whim' and this is identified in September 1859 as 'working Western Whim'. I am not clear whether this is a totally different shaft or whether it referred to New Engine shaft after Windstraw shaft had been renamed as Eastern Engine Shaft.

Kibble Count
Each month in the Cost book there is an entry under 'whim drawing' which gives the number of kibbles hoisted and the amount paid to the operator of the horse whim per 100 kibbles. This price was variable but the trend was upwards from a minimum of 7 shillings (£0.35) per 100 in 1855, to a maximum of 16 shillings (£0.8) in 1859. Presumably the price increased with depth, for in most of the other work in the mine the rates remained static over the 4 years. Perhaps there were a number of kibble sizes, but unfortunately there is no indication of the bucket capacity.

The men engaged in this work were also paid for drawing water, but it was a separate item and seemed to be a lump sum depending on the hours worked.

The "Kibble Count" over the 4 years of the Cost Book is shown below:

Summary of Hoisting Costs October 1855 - November 1859

Whim drawing £880
Drawing water £135

Total number of kibbles hoisted, excluding water = 70,919

Lander
A lander was a man stationed at the shaft collar who was responsible for receiving the kibbles of ore or waste rock and to handle them accordingly. The entries in the Cost Book show that there could be from one to three landers working each month, depending on the volume of whim drawing.

The standard rate of pay for a lander was £3.00 per month gross out of which he paid one shilling per month for "Doc. & Club". Sometimes he received overtime pay of up to five shillings. During 1856 the term 'lander' was replaced by 'landing' and in 1858 it became 'landing kibbles', presumably to differentiate between 'landing skip', although the pay was the same. The gross pay to landers over the 50 months of the Cost Book was £345.