Eldorado Dredge

Eldorado
Old gold mining town now a small service centre
Eldorado is located 254 km north east of Melbourne and 20 km from Wangaratta and 22 km from Beechworth. Located on the banks of the Reedy Creek. Although it would seem likely that its name (Spanish meaning 'the golden one' and usually associated with vast wealth) from the imagined riches which were waiting for the gold miners who poured into the area, in reality the name was given to the first European property in the area and was an expression of the confidence of the owner, a drover named William Baker, who saw the green pastures and believed that here was his Eldorado.

Gold was discovered in the district in 1854 and over the next twelve months thousands of miners arrived hoping to find their fortune. The town soon moved into deep mining with shafts being sunk to depths of 100 metres and by 1860 tin was being mined as well. By the 1870s there were around 4000 people living in the town many of whom were Cornish miners who had come across from the copper mines of South Australia.

The technique of deep mining fell into disrepute when, in 1895, there was a collapse at McEvoy mine which killed six miners. After that the town's main gold extraction occurred as a result of open cut activities. This resulted in the construction of a huge dredge (now listed by the National Estate) in 1936. It was reputedly the largest in the southern hemisphere and continued to operate until 1954 extracting 2.3 million grams of gold and 1475 tonnes of tin. Many of the miners houses were removed from the town in the 1950s.

Things to see:  

Eldorado Dredge
This is a large steel dredge which was designed and built by Thompson's Engineering for the Cocks Eldorado Gold Dredging Company in 1935-36. By the time it was decommissioned it had dredged 30 million cubic metres from the river flats of the Eldorado Plain. It has 110 digging buckets each of which was capable of digging and lifting 0.3 cubic metres of soil.

St Jude's Anglican Church
A reflection of the changing circumstances of the township this small and attractive church was built in 1870 when the population was 4000 and the town was looking towards an affluent future driven by the mining of tin and gold.

Old School
Dating from the 1860s there were plans to demolish this historic building (one of the oldest in the town) until it was agreed to turn it into the Eldorado museum. It has a number of interesting displays which reflect the mining history of the area.

	Hotels
	McEvoy Tavern Eldorado Mackay St Eldorado VIC 3746 Telephone: (03) 5725 1612
	Caravan Parks
	Gemstone Caravan Park Main St Eldorado VIC 3746 Telephone: (03) 5725 1758, (03) 5725 1745 Rating: ***