This photograph depicts Cock's Pioneer G & T Sluicing site No. 4 in El Dorado. Looking eastwards, the photo captures a wooden and tin building with various mining equipment strewn in the foreground. Underneath the verandah, figures can be seen. These are believed to be a Mr. Hollister (left), Mrs. Breustedt (4th from left), children Min and Chris Breustedt, and Kate Timmons holding a girl's hand. The Cocks Pioneer Gold and Tin Mines N.L was one of El Dorado's two largest open-cut sluicing mines of the 20th Century. The other was named the Cocks El Dorado Gold Dredging Company. The Cocks Pioneer Mines operated from 1901 until 1941 and found a total of 117,378 ounces of Gold and 1,673 tones of tin concentrates over these years. The Cocks company was formed in 1898 and operated until 1941. Open cut sluicing involved the use of high-powered hoses which used the centrifugal sand pump system (known as hydraulic sluicing) which broke down the soil which was then processed for gold and other precious metals. From 1914, four years after this image was captured, the company reformed to Cocks Pioneer Gold and Tin Mines NL (previously it was known as Cocks Pioneer Sluicing Co) and undertook large-scale sluicing operations until 1929 and then 1934-1941. The Cocks Pioneer was an extremely successful mining company during the 20th century. In the Annual Report of the Secretary for Mines for the year 1915, the Cocks Pioneer was the largest producer of gold and tin collecting 5,535 ozs. of gold and £7,500 of tin. Twenty years later in 1935, Cocks Pioneer was still one of the most profitable mines in Victoria, ranking as the second-highest dividend paying mine. The company produced a total of 3,650 kg of gold. El Dorado is located on Reedy Creek and is surrounded by forested country to the north and east. It is 20 km east of Wangaratta in Victoria's regional northeast. John Cock was the son of a Cornish miner who arrived in El Dorado in 1858. Cock founded his gold and tin mining company which ran successfully for many years in the El Dorado region. It was an open-cut sluicing company because of the abandonment of underground mining after this was deemed too dangerous. In 1935 Cock's El Dorado Company commissioned the floating dredge which is still visible in El Dorado today. The dredge was built by the Thompson engineering works, Castlemaine, and weighed over 2,000 tones and today has a place on the Victorian Registers of historic buildings. Interestingly, the name El Dorado does not derive from the gold in the region, but from the Barambogie pastoral run completed by William Baker in 1840-1841. Gold was discovered in El Dorado in 1854 but the gold was too deep for individual prospectors to find, it required the use of heavy machinery.The search for gold is ingrained into the history of Victoria and therefore, images like this one which portray an open cut sluicing site can reveal important information for society and technology for the date when the photograph was taken. This image is of important historical significance for its ability to convey information about sluicing and the methods used to find gold in 1910. It also shows a location where sluicing was undertook which provides insight into the impact of sluicing on the environment at a time when it was done. This image is important for current research into the history of El Dorado, a small regional location near Wangaratta in Victoria's North East. Therefore, this image has the capacity to be beneficial for research into society and the motivations of those living and working in this region during this period and therefore, has social significance. The Beechworth Burke Museum has additional images relating to gold sluicing and El Dorado which can be analysed and studied alongside images like this one.A black and white copy of a sepia coloured rectangular photograph printed on matte photographic paper mounted on boardObverse: COCKS PIONEER G + T SL CO, N.L. / 1910 - 11 / NO 4 SITE LOOKING EAST / 4 Reverse: 1997.2508 / AUG 29 1909cocks pioneer gold and tin sluicing company, el dorado, mining, sluicing, hydraulic mining, hollister, breustedt, timmons, gold, tin, gold rush, victoria

Original photograph in Gilded Frame - 2.5cm floral edged, 2cm internal gold rim, molding floral plaster edging. Gold internal matte approximately 5cm. Internal mounted photo 6cm black/white - sepia? Timber covered Back - 2 central screws and hanging wire.'Photograph is of Mr. J.Corby Davis. Identified as such by Mrs Eva Boswell (nee Breustedt), Mrs Annie Crawford ( nee Skinner). Presented by Mrs Goodyer 30/11/1973. Beechworth 24th April 1937. John Corby Davies. O&M Paper.' Davis was an auditor for the Athenaeum in the 1900's.

Pair of black timber lockable doors which are hinged and open. Inside doors black frame with red stripe. Lettering gold on green background, 'PCR' above LH door. Outside - main cabinet area 61cm wide , 76cm long and 12cm deep. Top & bottom pieces approximately 70cm wide & 16cm deep at base. Extra fancy piece at top is broken & unattached. Inside - dispensation certificate from the High Court with one eye depicted. LH side names : Scopes T 2, Nicoll jnr, Wiseman Hy 3, Mc Geeghan Ed 8, Salmon Wm H, Shont Wm, Donaghue Mel, Breustedt Hy 3, Nichels Chs 4, Hulme Wm, Tidyman Jn 2, Egan Geo 12, Mc Laren FS 8, Waddell JND, Birtles Pr, Wiseman WH, O'Neill Jas, Pope Wm, Cook ChS, Lorrimer JSL 4. RH Side : Yeatman Jas, Tresise WJ, Yeatman S.M.L, Lorimer Wm 5, Batters Wm 2, Malsem Alex 2, Downs Sml N2, Dodds Geo, Currie D, Nl C, Currie Jnd. Certificate - framed, authority from Plymouth, Devon, bros Nicoll, Little, Foster of Stanley, 28th August 1865. b/w emblem with 2 men each side of shield including deer, horn, hound and background of forest.