Shot Tower

If you look up, you'll be able to see the Mount Eden Shot Tower. It's something you may have never noticed was there before! But holds great historical significance.

The Shot Tower signifies the location of the former Colonial Ammunition Company (CAC) factory, and it is the only twentieth-century shot tower in Australasia. It is unique internationally because of it's light steel contruction; the others around the world (two in the UK, four in the USA, and three in AUS) are all built similar to brick chimneys.

This one was built in 1914 to make lead pellets for shot gun enthusiasts. Mr Lylie and his two danghters were the first operators of the tower, where lead blocks were taken up a lift to the top of the tower, melted down in a furnace and then poured into a pan with many small holes in the bottom. Small droplets of this melted lead then fell 30 metres from the top of the tower, solidifying into perfect spheres in the air as they fell, before being caught at the bottom in spoapy water. Then, they would be sized and polished, with imperfect ones being returned to molten metal.

CAC vacated the site in the 1980s, and in 2001 the buildings at its base were demolished. After a public outcry to save the tower, it still remains, today recognised by Heritage New Zealand as a Category 1 Historic Place: http://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details/87