Bella Street Pumphouse Museum

Bella Street Pumphouse Museum

MUSEUM
Auckland War Memorial Museum
Location:	Corner Bella St and Cochrane St Thames
Nearest Place:	Thames
Established:	2000s
Visitors:
Governing Body:

The Museum is the site of the Queen of Beauty pump opened in 1898. It was a joint operation of several mines to attempt to access the deeper parts of the Thames gold lodes. The steam driven pump operated with its own shaft and winding gear for access to the shaft. There was no mining via this shaft. The museum has the original building and overhead crane. The quadrants are at the rear of the building (open at any time) the original crankshaft and a replica of the flywheel and reduction gears. Most of the hardware was scrapped after it was closed in 1918. <googlemap lat="-37.133472" lon="175.54234" zoom="17"> 51.491706, 0.732176, River Thames, United Kingdom -37.134037, 175.54249, Bella St Pumphouse Museum </googlemap>

An historic photo of one of the two pump cylinders. The flywheel and reduction gears can be seen at the back.

Also in the building is a Francis turbine and generating set that supplied power to the plant and to Thames from 1916.

The Museum has a great photo collection of Thames and its mining infrastructure, a superb model of the engine and pump and another of the winding gear.

Opening hours are 10-3 Saturday and Sunday.

There is no website as yet. Ph 07 868 2141.

External Resource

NZHPT Register citation: http://www.historic.org.nz/TheRegister/RegisterSearch/RegisterResults.aspx?RID=4682&m=advanced