37-45 Stephenson Street, Sale
Get directions
Nestled in a clearing at the end of the western path of Lake Guyatt, over the small bridge that crosses the Flooding Creek, this strange little building has a romance to it that is surprising.
Built to house black powder during the Goldrush in the mid-1860s, it was decommissioned with the advent of dynamite, later becoming a private residence until its heritage significance was recognised over a century later in 1994.
The Magazine is buttressed and purely utilitarian, its purpose solely to be a safe storage place for the explosives so important to mining, while being engineered to minimise the chance of an accidental explosion, and strong enough to contain one if it happened.
Because of that spare austerity, it has whispers of the architectural modernism that would follow at least 60 years later. Surrounded by a well-kept lawn and established trees, it is a perfect picnic spot if you’re looking for one, with a museum inside to satisfy your goldfields curiosity, should the mood take you.