eldorado dredge

[davemg6]

hope this is in the right place,you might be interested in this one

eldorado dredge 001.jpg

There is a golden ark in a remote area of Australia that once produced an abundance of gold. A strange statement indeed you say, but building this contraption, as it is hard to describe as anything else, took a long time and its useful life was rather a short but financially rewarding one.

The small village of El Dorado is situated in northern Victoria not far from the twin cities of Albury Wodonga. Just at the base of the Great Dividing Range this quaint little village was the home to one of the great feats of gold recovery in Australia. The simple ingenuity of this great Trojan dredge, using at the time, state of the art technology remains a phenomenal feat.

It may seem that the township got its name from the golden wealth there, but historically this does not appear to be the case. As early as 1839, El Dorado Park was the local sheep run in the area covering some 47,000 acres. Gold had not been found in Australia at the time, and it is unlikely that gold was the reason for the naming of the run. Ironically the future years would prove very successful for the recovery of gold.

Once it was fashionable to find gold throughout Victoria the El Dorado area was no different. Although privateers recovered very little from the area, good quantities were in fact recovered from company mining operations. Deeper mines were the order of the day, but consistent flooding of deeper mines with several drowning disasters dampened the enthusiasm and there was easier gold to be got.

The first company operations did not get under way until 1859. At least 20 companies operated mines in the area. A number of other companies operated mines under leases. It should be stated that the area was also a major producer of tin. In 1895 a major disaster occurred where 6 miners lost their lives in a flooding incident.

It was said that El Dorado was not a "rush" town but a "boom" town by 1870. In fact the historical records support this. There were 4 newspapers, 2 doctors, 7 general merchants, 2 cordial factories, 16 hotels and 2 wine shanties. Butchers, bakers, and assorted stores flourished, and there was even a brick kiln. El Dorado was declared a township in 1902.

Following a collapse in the gold price and rising wage costs almost all company mines ceased operating early this century. It was not until the early 1930's when the concept of a mining dredge was proposed for El Dorado as it was known that Reid's Creek contained a great deal of gold and tin.

It was proposed by the Cock's El Dorado Company to construct a large dredge for use on Reid's Creek to dredge the tin and gold from the creek. The creek adjacent to the township is shallow but broad, and stretches for some distance to the west of the township. Construction of this huge contraption took some time to complete and firstly a large barge was built, as the floating base and then the bucket ladder and buckets were added along with the winches that raised and lowered the bucket ladder and also controlled the dredge.

Consequently the construction of this dredge commenced. The design was rather unique and the base for the dredge was a pontoon style structure. On the front of this massive rectangular pontoon the dredge ladder and buckets were attached, and at the rear the waste chutes were constructed. In the body of the structure screens and extracting machinery were constructed to remove the gold and tin.

Upon completion of the structure it looked more like a floating factory than a barge as the outer walls were constructed of galvanized iron. It was of monolithic proportions. It was locally known as "The Tin Shed". It weighed over 2,500 tons, and with a length overall of 328 feet. Width at the stern was 65 feet and at the bow 50 feet. The pontoon was 210 feet in length with the bucket ladder measuring 160 feet. Attached to this ladder were up to 118 buckets each weighing 1.6 tons each. The bucket ladder took some 5.5 minutes to complete a full revolution. The cost of the dredge was 83,000 pounds.

The dredge was capable of reaching depths of 100 feet but operated usually to a depth of 90 feet. The power to drive the dredge was electricity, which was provided from a portable power station on the shore with an electrical cable 361 yards long. The dredge operated in a sideways movement and was anchored to the shore by four steel cables one attached to each corner and then to trees on opposite shore lines. A series of winches allowed the dredge to be moved sideways by releasing the cables on one side and tightening on the other. A highly effective method of maneouvering the facility to maximize the gold and tin recovery operations.

The dredge commenced operations on 1st May 1936 and in general worked 24 hours a day, but on Thursdays and Sundays regular maintenance was carried out. Each bucket on the dredge was capable of holding 12 cubic feet and about 12,000 tons of dirt could be processed in a 24-hour period. During its life it is estimated to have lifted some 35.4 million cubic yards for processing. Total gold production from the operations was 70,664 oz of gold and 1,383 tons of tin.

Unfortunately over time, recovery costs rose some 300%, but there was no corresponding increase in the gold and tin price. Consequently on 13th August 1954 the dredge ceased operations and was taken to where it now lies west of the township of El Dorado. A caretaker was appointed and it is rumoured that he was so diligent that he used a shotgun on occasions to warn off trespassers, most of whom were young lovers seeking solitude which the old dredge provided.

The dredge is now under the control of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and is to be developed as an historic site. Although fenced off the dredge can be visited and the "Tin Shed" can be seen from the main Wangaratta, El Dorado Road. It is well worth visiting this historic site and other towns in the vicinity, including Yakandandah and Beechworth while in the area, as the history of gold here is unique.

eldorado dredge 001.jpg

[John Gaunt]

Hi Dave, Thanks for posting a very interesting article. I've been to Albury/Wodonga and I have a friend who olives in Beechworth (a very nice little town). Never been to El Dorado though. I had thought that the Gold mining operations were in Southern Victoria around Ballarat, clearly they were widespead throuh Victoria. Great that they are preserving that old behemoth