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14
MODERN QUARRYING
January - February 2016
industry’s presence is not insignificant.
Mawsons Concrete & Quarries, which
has catered for regional communities
throughout northern Victoria for over a
century, purchased the sand and gravel
quarry at Whorouly in early 2014. The
company’s intention, according to Trevor
Gilbert, who is the regional manager for
Mawsons’ quarry division, was to extract
aggregates and sand at the Whorouly
quarry for the decorative aggregate
market and for supplementary use as a
coarse sand at Mawsons’ concrete plants.
The quarry produces a full range of aggre-
gates, including 7,0 mm, 10 mm, 14 mm
and 20 mm fines, the aforementioned
coarse sand and decorative and garden
pebbles, including 20-60 mm, 60-150 mm
and 300 mm pebbles.
The geology of Mawsons’ Whorouly
Quarry, however, is unique, compared
to even most sand quarries. The quarry
is located on a completely flat parcel
of former agricultural land. The sand
SAND PROCESSING
AT THE
QUARRY FACE
W
horouly is a town
in Victoria’s north-
east, 275 km from
Melbourne and 35
km southeast of
Wangaratta. It is nestled between Snow
Road (which runs from an interchange on
the Hume Freeway) and The Great Alpine
Road. The town is located in the valley of
the Ovens River and was first surveyed
and proclaimed in 1868. It is surrounded
primarily by agricultural land (originally
released in 130 ha lots) that has been
used for sheep, beef and dairy cattle farm-
ing, as well as grain farming, orchards and
market gardens, timber manufacturing
and more recently wine grape growing.
Despite being nearly 150 years old,
Whorouly, as of the 2011 census, had a
modest population of 519. Of this num-
ber, 274 were in active employment (the
Census’ records will not accommodate
the total employment numbers in the
Whorouly region, as there are likely to be
employees who commute fromother parts
of the Rural City ofWangaratta). Their occu-
pations included labourers, technicians,
trade workers and machinery operators.
There are numerous quarries in the
Wangaratta local government area, so the
To reduce heavy moisture content, regional Victorian aggregate producer
Mawsons Concrete & Quarries in Australia required a wash plant that
could consistently clean sand and aggregates, and retain as many fines
as possible at one of its sand quarry operations. Damian Christie, editor
of Quarry, the journal of the Institute of Quarrying in Australia, visited
Whorouly Quarry to viewMawson’s wash plant in action.
Combined wash plant
makes grade at gravel quarry
The M1700 is a fully-
mobile rinsing screen that
can be used in sand and
gravel, crushed stone and
recycling applications.