The Beechworth Burke Museum
Photograph, 1910
... ...Cocks pioneer gold and tin sluicing company no liabilities...This photograph depicts Cocks Pioneer Gold & Tin Sluicing Company, N.L. (no liabilities) site No.3 and is looking from the east side of the site. ...This photograph depicts Cocks Pioneer Gold & Tin Sluicing Company, N.L. (no liabilities) site No.3 and is looking from the east side of the site. ...
This photograph depicts Cocks Pioneer Gold & Tin Sluicing Company, N.L. (no liabilities) site No.3 and is looking from the east side of the site. The image is captured within a small valley creek bed and presents the conditions in which mining was evolving in the early 1900s. In the foreground are remnants of components such as flume pipes, timber and iron pieces, mixed with rocks and rubble. These appeared to have connections to the small processing sluice plant featured in the background.
The scale of the processing plant appears to be relatively small with the structure resembling a shack or cottage built from iron and positioned upon a floating pontoon. This is known as dredge sluicing, essentially a floating factory, that was capable of covering large areas of the lake and dams. As this dredge was compact it could maneuver in tight spaces, which larger structure could not. The size of the figures at the front opening, which appears to be a doorway, indicate the scale of this very modest production plant. Scaffolding on the roof and to the left process alluvial from the stream floor into sluicing boxes, which filtered deposits passing over a series of ripples to collect the heavier material such as gold.
A faded sepia rectangular photograph printed on matte photographic paper mounted on grey green cardCocks pioneer G&T S.L. Co. N.L./ 1910/ No.3 site looking eastsluicing, el dorado, beechworth, water race, flume pipes, cocks pioneer gold and tin sluicing company no liabilities, dredging