Frogmouth Cottage Photography

El Dorado Dredge

19 October 2020 El Dorado
  • Black and white photograph of the pully system at the top of a dredging machine.
    El Dorado Dredge, 1999.
  • Black and white photograph of two large dredging buckets on land, with a coil of wire rope visible to the side. Bushy grass and trees are in the background.
    Dredging buckets at El Dorado Dredge, 1999.
  • Black and white photograph of a large building with dedging machinery leaning out of a body of water. The dredge is reflected in the water and leaning to the right of the image.
    El Dorado Dredge, 1999.
  • Black and white close up photograph of a string barbed wire with three barbs.
    Barbed wire at El Dorado Dredge, 1999.
  • Black and white photograph of a large building clad in corrugated iron, with the water from the dredge visible at the lower edge.
    El Dorado Dredge, 1999.
  • Black and white photo of the buckets of a dredging machine extending into water.
    El Dorado Dredge, 1999.
  • Black and white photograph of a tall leafless tree with branches winding up from the base, surrounded by scrubby grass and leafy trees in the background.
    Trees at El Dorado Dredge, 1999.
  • Black and white photograph of a large leafless tree surrounded by scrubby grass. The branches take up almost the entire image in a circular shape.
    Black Tree at El Dorado Dredge, 1999.

Another one from the archives and my photography course. These were taken on a day trip to El Dorado near Wangaratta in Victoria in 1999.

The name El Dorado came before gold was discovered in this area. In 1841, Captain William Fury Baker, a settler and previously a Royal Navy Captain, named his property “El Dorado”. He had found his utopia – his ‘pot of gold’ – and the means to a rich life. Hidden beyond the boundary of his property lay vast wealth with several floors of alluvial gold and tin. The miners that came later would adopt the name El Dorado for the town.

In 1936 production of a large bucket dredge began, mining alluvial gold and tin until 1954. It was one of the largest dredges in the Southern Hemisphere, weighing 2,142 tons and pulling the third most power from the State Electricity Grid after Melbourne and Geelong. In its 18 years of operation the dredge produced 70,664 ounces of gold and 1,383 tons of tin concentrate.

By the time the dredge was decommissioned it had dredged 30,000,000 cubic metres from the river flats of El Dorado Plain.

It is an impressive sight – it’s enormous! – and definitely worth a visit. I’m inspired to get back there we can travel again and Go Local First.

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