History of Jack’s Magazine

Jack’s Magazine is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register for its  historical, architectural and technological significance. Construction of the facility began in 1875 for the purpose of explosives storage during Victoria’s gold mining boom. Additional buildings were added to the site throughout the early 1900s.

The site includes two large bluestone gunpowder storage buildings, several smaller storage rooms, remnants of the narrow gauge tram tracks and tunnels, and 10 metre high earthen  blast mounds built to protect the surrounding area from danger created by the presence of explosives. The explosives stored at Jack’s Magazine were managed safely over the 115 years of the Magazine’s working life and, as a result, all of the blast mounds and buildings remain intact today.

The Magazine is the largest gunpowder storage complex built in Victoria and demonstrates the scale and prominence of the gold mining industry across Victoria.

Jack’s Magazine was virtually obsolete for its original purpose – the storage of imported gunpowder- by the time of its construction, due mainly to the import duty placed on dynamite to Victoria in 1870.  Subsequently, the development of local ammunition manufacturing on a site immediately to the south of Jack’s Magazine saw the facility used as storage for materials used in the manufacture of ammunition.

Jack’s Magazine had a continuous role in the munitions manufacturing carried out in the local area throughout the twentieth century. It was finally decommissioned in the early 1990s and has remained unused since that time.

Why is the Magazine Jack’s?

Wally Jack served as the Depot foreman and grounds keeper from World War 1 until 1943. His commitment to managing the site throughout these formative and often unpredictable times was commended and recognised by many of those who worked alongside him and in later years.