It was built on a small hill, by a Mr Edwards in 1890.

The furnace fires were lit the same year and never went out until the year 1907 when a number of quartz mines were closing down.

The ores were dry crushed, then trucked into a furnace over a weigh bridge, where weig kits and samples of each truck were taken. This furnace was manually operated. Finally a Mr Edwards invented a mechanical gear-operated tilting furnace which was sought after by reduction plants in America, Canada, Africa and in Western Australia. On the Golden Mile Kalgoorlie, it was used for treating telluride ores and was self-feeding, continuously discharged onto the cooling floor and was further treated in a chlorinating room with chlorine gas under pressure.

The leaching was also done under pressure, ensuring a clean washing of the ore which was then precipitated on to charcoal, gold and all.

The plant ceased work in 1920. Between the years of 1907 - 20, small parcels of arsenical ores were treated, helped by the manufacture of sheep dip and the crushing of gypsum for the plaster trade.

When the plant first opened, the fumes from the chimney Stack poisoned a swathe of trees in the forest almost as far away as Buninyong.

The ravages of contact with arsenical fumes can still be seen today The old iron flues in the hillside being eaten away; the concrete work crumbling to powder. The large red dump is the remains of the roasted ore.

The native flora was preserved in all its beauty until the advent of these works, then all life was destroyed by the foul poisonous fumes.