Clough & Associates Ltd. Page 18 Union Hill Heritage Management Plan THE HERITAGE REMAINS, CONTINUED Archaeological Sites There are five archaeological sites on Union Hill recorded in the New Zealand Archaeological Association (NZAA) database, four of which are in or extend within the WGCL properties (listed below). The extent of most sites is not clearly defined, and there is a good deal of overlap between sites T13/303, 822 and 823 in terms of which features they include: T13/303 This includes the six concrete air agitation cyanide tanks, the strongroom and battery features, a shaft (unspecified) and a road or tramway. T13/817 The entire low level water race that extended from a dam on the upper Ohinemuri River to the Waihi Battery. T13/818 The route of the Silverton tramway, located on the southern and eastern side of Union Hill. T13/822 This site extends over most of Union Hill to include all shafts, drives, adits, open cuts, tailings (probably mullock heaps), tracks, tramways and the water race. T13/823 This mainly records the 10 ore roasting kilns, but also includes building foundations, shafts and roading. The full extent of the archaeological remains surviving on Union Hill is not known. The Waihi Battery area was bulldozed and flooded with 1m or more of tailings during the 1970s–1980s, and additional unrecorded elements are likely to be concealed beneath vegetation growth, tailings, spoil and soil build up. However, the main surviving structures are clearly evident, and areas of structures and mining activity are recorded in various archival plans and photographs (Moore, Lens & Ordish 2010; Clough, Best & Hooker 2004), providing a good indication of the likely location of any buried remains as well as areas which have been too modified for any remains to have survived. Significance The heritage significance of the remains is well recognised. The Conservation Plan assesses the heritage significance of Union Hill as a whole to be high, based on its wide range of mining-related features in close proximity which illustrate the entire process from extraction through to refining; and which include remains of both national significance (the air agitation cyanide tanks) and regional significance (the Waihi Battery, Union No. 1 shaft, ore roasting kilns and smoke chamber). The significance of the area of Union Hill containing these heritage features is recognised by the scheduling of the ‘Union Hill (Waihi Battery) Historic Area’, cyanide tanks, ore kilns and tramway in the Hauraki District Plan (see above). The significance of the cyanide tanks has also been specifically recognised by Heritage NZ, which has listed them as a Category I Historic Place. Continued on next page
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