Mill grinding toward 150th celebration

Andrew Mathieson
THE four storey Portarlington mill has long had a presence on the town’s skyline.
Once threatened by demolition, and after surviving several sporadic changes to its operations, the mill will finally reach its 150th anniversary next weekend.
Celebrations will be marked with a plaque unveiling, a selection of live classical and jazz music and a vintage truck display.
National Trust Australia chief executive Martin Purslow will also attend the milestone after his heritage organisation helped save the building.
Mill historian Ron West said the state housing commission put out a demolition order in 1962 after it ruled that the building was no longer fit for habitation.
The former flourmill was converted into a boys’ home during the 1930s and turned into a residence for new, mainly Dutch, migrants from 1952.
“The locals didn’t want it demolished because it was built out of local sandstone from around the cliffs – not bluestone like most of the old buildings,” Mr West said.
“They kicked up, so the Shire of Bellarine bought it and gave it to the National Trust.”
The trust spent $40,000 to restore the structure and re-opened it to the public in 1977.
Mr West, who has been a keen promoter of the mill for more than 20 years, now manages the mill property, which opens on weekends for guided tours and monthly historical displays.
Built by its owner Thomas Widdicombe, the mill was made from sandstone quarried on site and beams were cut from local eucalypt trees.
The structure initially operated as a flourmill from 1857 until 1874 when the Bellarine Peninsula grew grain for the Portarlington Steam Flour Company.
After growers could not sustain production, Mr Widdicombe used the mill as part of his brickworks until the 1890s.
By the turn of the century, seaweed was processed for insulation and upholstery and later iodine was extracted from it in the production of ink.