THERE'S GOLD IN THEM THAR HILLS - OR AT LEAST IN THE CREEKS - EL DORADO AND LATER THE BEECHWORTH RSL (17 MARCH 2016)

El Dorado was on our 'to do' list whilst in Beechworth. In the face of a threatening forecast (which proved all too true as we have seen), we decided to visit this historical area a couple of days after we had arrived at Lake Sambell whilst the weather was still sunny, clear and warm.

Apart from a general prowl, we we were on something of a personal quest of discovery, one with a nostalgic touch. Our close friends the Jerichos (who are now producing excellent wines under their own label....as Molly Meldrum was want to say "do yourselves a favour" when you see these bottles...buy some) lived in this tiny town many years ago whilst Neil was honing his undoubted skills as a winemaker in this part of the world. We were tasked to find his old home and to see if we could find two significant trees close by.

Neil had also strongly advised us to make sure we took in the huge gold dredge located just outside the town. We were astonished at what we found, but more of that later.

El Dorado, as seen here in this excellent aerial shot taken by Graeme Bartlett, lies in a natural geological hollow some 25 kms north-west of Beechworth. Today it has a population of about 300 residents, but it was a very different story in the mid 1800's.

Let's begin with the name, which until today I had automatically assumed had been given to this area as a result of the gold found here...not so!  I'll let the El Dorado Tourism Business Group take up the story:

"The name El Dorado came long before gold was discovered. In 1841, Captain William Fury Baker a settler and previously a Royal Navy Captain, renamed his Barambogie property, near Chiltern, “El Dorado”.

Here, Baker had found his utopia – his ‘pot of gold’ – and the means to a rich life. Little did he know that hidden beyond the boundary of his property lay vast wealth with several floors of alluvial gold and tin and that the miners to come would adopt the name El Dorado for the town."

Now doesn't this just show how important it is not to make automatic (irrespective of any associated logic) assumptions! 

Gold was discovered here in 1855 and the rush was on. Reedy Creek and nearby Woolshed Creek were rich with alluvial gold which had flowed down into the creek beds from the surrounding granite hills over thousands of years.  As it began to run out under the predation of the 'panners 'and 'sluicers', shafts were sunk and the layers of gold and tin beneath the creeks were exposed and mined. Later, after these mines were closed, the remainder of the gold was ripped from the soil by the huge dredge we were to see shortly.

It is almost impossible to conceive that the small town we were visiting was once home to about 2,000 people and over 20 listed business with goodness knows how many pubs.

Eldorado is one of those strange goldrush towns which once spread along the valley and had a population of over 7,000 residents. Since the departure of the gold miners the town has only a few hundred inhabitants but the physical size of the town has not diminished. Consequently Eldorado spreads ... and spreads ... and spreads. In the centre is a small shopping centre, a park, the church and the local museum. Beyond it the surviving houses are scattered along the valley. The highlight is clearly the remarkable Eldorado Dredge which is not only a huge piece of machinery in the middle of nowhere but an opportunity to learn about the latter stages of the town's gold mining and mineral riches.

Location

Eldorado is located 276 km north-east of Melbourne via the Hume Highway. It is 21 km east of Wangaratta and 29 km west of Beechworth.
^ TOP

Origin of Name

It is an amusing irony that this historic gold mining town was not named because of the gold but rather because of the rich green pastures. A drover named William Baker seeing the richness of the valley believed it was an Eldorado for his animals and named his property accordingly.
- See more at: http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/eldorado-vic#sthash.9ttBRyzD.dpuf

Eldorado is one of those strange goldrush towns which once spread along the valley and had a population of over 7,000 residents. Since the departure of the gold miners the town has only a few hundred inhabitants but the physical size of the town has not diminished. Consequently Eldorado spreads ... and spreads ... and spreads. In the centre is a small shopping centre, a park, the church and the local museum. Beyond it the surviving houses are scattered along the valley. The highlight is clearly the remarkable Eldorado Dredge which is not only a huge piece of machinery in the middle of nowhere but an opportunity to learn about the latter stages of the town's gold mining and mineral riches.

Location

Eldorado is located 276 km north-east of Melbourne via the Hume Highway. It is 21 km east of Wangaratta and 29 km west of Beechworth.
^ TOP

Origin of Name

It is an amusing irony that this historic gold mining town was not named because of the gold but rather because of the rich green pastures. A drover named William Baker seeing the richness of the valley believed it was an Eldorado for his animals and named his property accordingly.
- See more at: http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/eldorado-vic#sthash.9ttBRyzD.dpuf

Eldorado is one of those strange goldrush towns which once spread along the valley and had a population of over 7,000 residents. Since the departure of the gold miners the town has only a few hundred inhabitants but the physical size of the town has not diminished. Consequently Eldorado spreads ... and spreads ... and spreads. In the centre is a small shopping centre, a park, the church and the local museum. Beyond it the surviving houses are scattered along the valley. The highlight is clearly the remarkable Eldorado Dredge which is not only a huge piece of machinery in the middle of nowhere but an opportunity to learn about the latter stages of the town's gold mining and mineral riches.

Location

Eldorado is located 276 km north-east of Melbourne via the Hume Highway. It is 21 km east of Wangaratta and 29 km west of Beechworth.
^ TOP

Origin of Name

It is an amusing irony that this historic gold mining town was not named because of the gold but rather because of the rich green pastures. A drover named William Baker seeing the richness of the valley believed it was an Eldorado for his animals and named his property accordingly.
- See more at: http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/eldorado-vic#sthash.9ttBRyzD.dpuf

We began our journey of exploration with the successful discovery of Kaye and Neil's modest El Dorado hacienda 

and the nearby park in which stand the two trees Neil had told us about. They were not hard to find as you can see. This old oak is massive. I did wonder how many fine sturdy ships its timbers could have produced.

The nearby cork tree was not much smaller, and as you can see, has thick foliage which casts dense shade. I have to confess this was the first time I had ever seen one of these trees and I was curious to discover if the bark actually did look like the material we pop from the top of champagne (oops, sorry, sparkling white) bottles with delightful regularity.   

It does, and I have to say this discovery is one I would have completely by-passed if not for 'our quest'. This is a tree which should feature on the relevant tourist blurb as a real point of interest.

From this end of the town which now held an odd degree of familiarity for us, we made our way into 'El Dorado central', passing along the way the rather dilapidated Memorial Hall and its small stone cairn of remembrance,

 

and then a red brick building so typical of this part of the world.

Opposite this edifice of brick and stone is a construction which is its complete architectural  antithesis....this old wooden cottage which is also so typical of the region.

El Dorado is surprisingly spread out, a legacy of the way in which the early miners set themselves up right along the length of the creek gully from which they all hoped to leave as rich men.

But all things are relative...we were in the central hub of El Dorado in no time. 

In the the small triangular park formed by this road junction we found a much more 'up market' memorial to our service men and women in the form of this small shelter shed, 

opposite which stands a building of continuing significance to all who live here or merely visit.....

...the El Dorado general store and the McEvoy Tavern. We shall look more closely at what is on offer here shortly.

Before we did so, we were off on a short hike. 'Reids Walk' takes one on a bush jaunt along Reedy Creek to a swing bridge crossing, another spot of significance to the Jerichos.  

Compared to some we have done, this was not a hard ramble.

The track is relatively well laid out, and in many places fallen timber has been used to mark the edges of it.

On the day of our visit, the entire surrounding countryside was very dry (all the locals were crying out for rain), but here and there along the way was clear evidence that these narrow gullies are often far less dessicated.  We could but marvel at the strength of the roots of this eucalyptus tree which have defied all attempts to wash it away.

Over one last rise in the track 

and the bridge (s) came into sight.

Here were the old and the new, side by side.

As we crossed on the more modern of these two structures, and took in the scene of the virtually dry bed of Reedy Creek looking upstream to the road crossing,

we needed absolutely no encouragement to obey the notice on the old bridge which strangely enough warned against using it. This once much used crossing has definitely gone the way of those who trudged across it.

In along the track, and out on the road made sense to us....there may well be more to see.

And there was.  As the dirt gave way to bitumen we walked past two homes which are good examples of the 'new' El Dorado, a place of commuter houses, B&B's and small farming holdings.

It was here too that we come across another reminder of El Dorado's  past, this time with a tragic note to it. This small rock memorial is dedicated to those miners who lost their lives in the shafts which were sunk below the creek bed in this area.

I can tell the story no better than the words on a nearby explanatory plaque.

With our return to the waiting Cruiser it was now time to complete the last of our set tasks, a visit to 'the dredge', where we were to see something we had neither heard of before nor could have possibly imagined existed. 

A few facts to begin with.  The Cocks dredge, which was, at the time, the largest ever built and operated in the Southern Hemisphere, (a larger 5,000 ton dredge was later installed at Harrietville, but this was later dismantled and shipped to Malaysia to dredge for tin) is the last to be found in Australia. It is 100 metres long, weighs 2,142 tonnes, and was powered by three phase electricity delivering 6,600 volts. Each of its 118 dredge buckets, which formed a continuous chain, could gouge out 3.6 cubic metres of soil with a 24 hour total of 12,240 tonnes of earth being dug each 24 hour period.

This diagram, courtesy of "bhidphotography" hopefully provides some idea of how this extraordinary leviathan worked. The bucket chain ripped away at the target soil and delivered it to the top section of the dredge where it was dumped and processed. The gold and tin were removed and the waste material was then ejected from the stern.






As we soon discovered, the raw statistics do not do justice to the sheer size of this thing. This is the front end, the gantry used to raise and lower the bucket chain to the required depth.












Here you can see the top section of the bucket chain emerging from the water in which the dredge is floating.








It travels up past the control room and into the section of the machine where the soil was dumped. This raw earth was processed through a revolving tumbler containing thousands of small holes to separate the larger stones from the sand and clay that contained the gold. Sand and clay were tipped into vibrating jigs to separate the heavier material, with the gold then extracted through amalgamation with mercury. Tin was recovered with a magnetic separator.





I'm hopeful that this shot may give you some idea of the size of each of the dredging buckets.













We went on board via the entrance gangway to have a look at what can be seen inside this behemoth,









where I found this photo of the dredge in operation. Just look at its size in comparison to the houses in the background.

From the time the dredge began operating in 1936 (naturally with something of this size it had to be built on site) until it was closed down in August 1954, it had extracted gold which would today be worth almost $30 million. 



The movement of the dredge was managed by maniputlaing this group of levers in the control room. From here, a place completely open to the elements (note the pot bellied stove....useless in practical terms so we read), the bucket chain could be raised or lowered and moved to the left and right. Huge cables attached to trees allowed the dredge to be hauled forward along its planned track. 


Apparently the noise was horrendous. It could be heard over 10 kilometres away in El Dorado town. It was so invasive that when operations ceased for whatever reason, the townsfolk began to worry!  And the electricity required to power all the various fourteen motors in the dredge was mind boggling. At one stage the 900 horsepower necessary to achieve all this drew electricity which was only exceeded by that used in Melbourne and Geelong. This is almost stuff of fiction!



As I looked along the bowels of this monster, I could imagine just how terrible the working conditions must have been for the nine or so men who were required for each shift. Remarkably, given the noise, dust, moving machinery and exposure to the elements, only one man died during the dredge's operational life, and he actually drowned when a sand bank collapsed on his little boat whilst he was greasing the bucket band.


Thankfully the dredge was listed on the State Register of Historic Buildings and the National Estate Register in 1975 and will remain floating on its specially built pond so that others like us can marvel at the lengths to which mining companies would go to extract that precious yellow metal, gold. 

After all this it was time for refreshment.  Our heads were still spinning as we returned to the El Dorado CBD to take a closer look at the general store.....who am I kidding....it was really the pub which was fixed in my sights.

But first we did visit the general store 













with its marvellous mural
















before we headed next door to the Tavern.

I can make no objective appraisal of the claim that this is the smallest pub in Victoria. Certainly the beer garden seemed a reasonable size, 









but then as we made our way along past the outside tables and

into the bar proper, I was prepared to concede they may have a point. This is not a big room.

But it did contain all the essentials including a fine, refreshingly cold local cider, which was just what the doctor ordered (well in fact I ordered it, but you know what I mean)

For our return to Beechworth we ventured back along the unsealed surface of the Woolshed Valley Road, 

along which a series of informative signs provide an insight into the incredible activity which took place along here in the late 1800's.  

We crossed the dry creek bed at the  Kangaroo Crossing ford

where the rugged nature of the creek bed was apparent 

and a local native just happened to be on the scene as if to prove that the name was apt.

A few kilometres further on, where we stopped to look over Sebastopol Flats, we became acutely aware of the incredible fact that absolutely nothing now remains of what was a period of incredible activity along this creek in the late 1800's.

Hopefully this extract from The Ned Kelly Touring Guide Website provides some insight, and I quote:

"Now only a ghost town, Sebastopol Flat was once a place of importance. In 1857, along the four kilometre main street there were 83 businesses, 23 restaurants, at least eight hotels and a brewery, as well as tent-makers, jewellers, storekeepers, butcher shops, carpenters and watchmakers. The first tin smelter in Victoria was built and operated in Sebastopol. Among the eight hotels, the Hibernia and the Britannia were the most popular. The entertainment was great: three nights a week you could attend a ball and on the other nights there were concerts. The Ashton Circus would visit regularly."

Looking out across this now completely empty landscape, it seems to defy belief that there is not a shred of remaining evidence of what must have been a frenetically active place.

And then there is the reminder that we were still in Kelly country.  

"Sebastopol Flat is rich in Ned Kelly history. This was the place where Joe Byrne grew up with his friend Aaron Sherritt, and where gang members hid out. Across the distant hills of the valley you can see the Kelly Caves, and on the left, the highest peak is Kelly's lookout, from where gang members used mirrors to signal other members at Telegraph Rock in Beechworth about police movements.

Before the siege at Glenrowan, the Kelly Gang hid in those caves. Joe and Ned would sneak down via a Chinese water race to visit Joe's mother, who lived in a hut near the creek. Meanwhile the police would spy on Byrne's hut from a cave two kilometres away, known now as the Police Caves. The Chinese water race is still visible today.

At the back of Sebastopol, on the left hand side of Byrne Gully, there is a blind gully where Ned and Joe would alter the brands on horses they had stolen, before selling them in New South Wales. A secret meeting place called London Rock is also located in the area.

Near Byrne's hut a community of Chinese miners settled. Joe formed a close association with the Chinese. He learnt to speak Cantonese and most likely picked up his opium smoking habits from them. It is also believed that the inspiration for his armour may have come from camp fire stories about the leather armour worn by Chinese warriors."

Now the opium smoking habit I could understand, but just who would have thought that a fellow like Joe Byrne would have been fluent in Cantonese (and apparently he really was). 

With this remarkable revelation we completed our tour of El Dorado and its surrounds. It had been a marvellous day where much of what we saw was thanks to the briefing notes provided us by Neil Jericho.....thanks mate.

Oh, and before we take our final leave of El Dorado, one for you, KG.  A free lunch no less......they know how to do it over here!

Because it was a Thursday, our day was not yet at an end. This is the day on which the local Beechworth RSL opens its doors for 'fellowship' (love that word!) A quick scrub back at camp and we were off to join the troops for a quiet one or two.

As advertised, it was open for business

and as we made our way through the entrance area

and into the main bar room it was soon apparent that the local lads had done a wonderful job of presenting memorabilia and displays

all around the room. 

One of these was personal for me. Included on this memorial to those who had won the Victoria Cross during the Vietnam conflict is a list of all those who did not come home from it,

including one of my old Glenelg Surf Lifesaving club mates. As I am sure I've mentioned before, our highest club award is 'The Remeljej Trophy', named in honour of Alex who, as a conscript, was killed in action. I have to confess that to so unexpectedly see his name writ large on this display did set me back for a minute or two.

The chaps of the Beechworth RSL could not have been more welcoming. Liz and I had a wonderful couple of hours yarning to all and sundry, in particular the club's unofficial patriarch, Mick, a retired school teacher who had served on Corvette minesweepers during WW2. This charming and erudite man was an absolute delight who regaled us with endless local stories. 

We left having learnt much about the town and in no doubt that they breed them tough in Beechworth.....Mick had just come in from visiting his sister.....103 years old and still living quite independently!

What a day this had been. By the time we trudged home around the lake we were all in, but still mentally buzzing with all we had seen and learnt.  Next, we take a closer look at Beechworth itself.