Victoria Battery Museum is situated in Waikino, 8km east of Waihi in the North Island. It was the largest quartz ore processing plant in Australasia and one of the biggest industrial sites in New Zealand in the early 1900s. The country’s largest producer of gold at the time it is now a place to see the industrial processes that produced that gold.

This interesting heritage area, contained huge plant machinery from 1897 to 1954.  The battery produced 10 times more ore than the next largest battery at its early 20th century height. And today a society provides attractions on open days to give an insight into aspects of hard rock processing in tough goldmining days.

Named after Queen Victoria in her 60th Jubilee year, the Battery had 200 stampers. This was the largest number on any similar site in the world. And it crushed an average of 800 tonnes of ore per day, six day a week.

Today the kilns, concrete foundations, steel relics and the Transformer (Sub Station) House are all that remain of a, once, huge industrial site.  But you’ll see first hand the processes of what was once the major industry of this area.