mining mud & medals, mmm

damian finalyson, mining mud & medals, mmm

This image was sourced during a 'Show and Tell' event run as part of Victorian Interpretive Project Inc's 'Mining Mud and Medals' project (see http://victoriancollections.net.au/items/535d787e2162ef071895b7c6)Eleven World War One Australian soldiers pose for a photograph in Egypt. Among the soldiers is Eddie Boyce (back row second from the right) and Frank Boyce.boyce, frank boyce, eddie boyce, mmm, world war, world war one, mining mud & medals

George McWilliam headstone in Amherst Cemetery.george mcwilliam, mining mud & medals, amherst cemetery

Series of 4 black and white photographs of the construction of three tracks or roads at East Preston Depot 7/1955. .1 - Mud mining - earthworks with the Stately Shoe and Wall Bros buildings in the view. .2 - showing one track complete with a second underway, .3 - two tracks complete with a third just in the view. .4 - pouring concrete at the depot - bicycle shed?trams, tramways, east preston, construction, trackwork, tram depot, track materials

This photograph was taken in approximately 1870 and depicts four male miners standing in mining sluice at the Three Mile Goldfields. These men are wearing typical attire for 1870s gold miners. They wear white shirts, tan coloured pants with water proof shoes and most of the men are wearing an apron to prevent their clothing from becoming too dirty from the mud. Each man is wearing a wide brim hat and hold large wooden tools used for sorting through the sluice. Three of the four men have full beards. The photograph was donated to the Burke Museum by R. Ziegenbein before 2001 but the photographer and the individuals captured in the photo are unknown. The image depicts the landscape of the Three Mile Goldfields during a period when open cut sluicing was undertaken to reach gold. Open cut sluicing is a method used to extract gold and other precious metals from beneath the surface of the earth. This technique involved the use of high-powered hoses which broke down the soil enabling miners to come along and search this soil for gold. After the gold rush of the early 1850s, diggers had to enlist the assistance of heavy machinery and techniques like hydraulic sluicing in order to reach gold because the surface alluvial gold had already been discovered and removed. This heavy machinery was not used until after 1853. The Three Mile Goldfields was a site of rich alluvial gold deposits located about 5 km south of Beechworth in Victoria. Today, the location of this gold deposit is called Baarmutha. It was a popular area for gold mining in the 1850s but became largely abandoned by the following decade. In 1865, a man named John Pund recognized that the area could be potentially rich if a better water supply could be obtained. He secured a 15 year license with three other miners. Within the next five years, these men had constructed 19 km of water race going from Upper Nine Mile Creek to Three Mile Creek. By 1881, these four men had delivered 950,000 gallons to the Three Mile Sluicing area which is depicted in this photograph. Pund was later go into partnership with John Alston Wallace who would become owner of the Star Hotel in Beechworth. The Three Mile sluicing location continued to be operational until 1950. Sluice box workers were a vital part of gold mining regardless of how inefficient they were in the recovery of gold. After using hydraulic sluicing to cut away the earth, miners would use the big wooden boxes depicted in the image to catch the earth which would then be sifted for gold. However, accidents would occur often which would result in the gold washing away and unable to be recovered. It was not a very efficient system because the gold, which was alluvial and thus very fine, would often pass through the sluice box undetected.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 the late 1800s and early 1900s. 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. Images, like this one, of Australian gold rush history can reveal important information about the social and environmental impact of this period. This image depicts diggers standing in a mining location and therefore, this image has the capacity to reveal or support significant information for researchers studying the fashion and social status of diggers in Australia in approximately 1870. It can also provide information on the landscape of Australia in this period and the impact of mining for gold on both society and the Australian landscape. The Burke Museum is home to a substantial collection of Australian mining photographs which can be used to gain a deeper understanding into life on the gold fields, technology used in mining, the miners themselves and the impact of the gold digging on the environment.Sepia toned rectangular photograph printed on matte photographic paper and mounted on board.[illegible] about 1870 / 97 2514.1 / 2594 30three mile goldfields, goldfields, 1870, 1870 gold, australia, australian landscape, miners, gold miners, diggers, gold diggers, beechworth, victoria, sluice box workers, sluicing, sluice, mining

Two men and a dog outside of a wood, bark and mud hut. Plate 4.building, persons, mining

Diggers & Mining. Getting the Gold. Slide: (Continued) Nothing could be more astonishing than the sight of hundreds of men bustling about, all eagerness, all hurry, working away in the midst of mud of up to the hips, and pools of puddle thick as batter for a pudding; tubs, cradles, windlasses, and wee-gees, or long poles balanced by a stone at the end and a bucket at the other, to raise water for their washing - all in motion - a perfectly confounding phantasmagoria of impetuous action and of sludge. (Continued) Markings: 34 994.LIF:4. Used as a teaching aid.hanimounteducation, tertiary, goldfields

Diggers & Mining. Getting the Gold. Slide: But when you came to where the diggers were at work, the scene defied all description. The whole surface was thrown into heaps of clay from six to ten feet high - for it appeared to be all clay which they threw out there. Here, indeed, had accumulated all the mud and clay which for thousands of years had been flowing from the hills around, It was this which had thus buried the gold 160 feet deep, and through which the diggers had to sink for it. Between these muddy mountains thrown up by diggers, the water accumulated in deep pools which they avail themselves of to was their gold our with and the heaps of clay were trodden by hundreds of men constantly crossing them in all directions. (Continued) Markings: 33 994.LIF:4. Used as a teaching aid.hanimounteducation, tertiary, goldfields

Diggers & Mining: The Digging - The Diggers. Slide reads: Contemporary writers liked to compare a diggings to a great ants' nest; in many ways the scene must have been colourful and exciting. But to some observers, the general picture was an unattractive one. They saw the unsightly heaps of clay, the trees felled, the dust everywhere in summer and the mud in winter; the flies and the mice. The next two frames contain a description of the Forest Creek diggings taken from the Argus of March 22, 1852. Markings: 24 994.LIF:6. Used as a teaching aid.hanimounteducation, tertiary, goldfields

A fossil refers to any remains or traces of past life that are preserved in the rock. It could be remains of plants or animals. Fossil leaves are commonly found on different types of rocks. These fossils can go as far back as the Triassic Age just like the series of fossil plants collected at Denmark Hill, Ipswich in Queensland. Fossils leaves are formed when dead plants get buried by sediments like mud, sand, or volcanic ash. Often, it gets detached cleanly from stems along a special layer of weak cells, then twigs, and, less commonly, cones of conifers and fruits and seeds of flowering plants. Over time, the leaves or pieces of leaves get buried by more sediments and eventually gets 'lithified' or hardened into a rock. Erosions and mining can cause the rocks to break and reveal the fossils buried in it. Fossilisation frequently takes place at sites in the lowlands where deposits of clay, silt, sand are found. This is usually due to weathering and erosion of rocks. Fossil leaves can provide information about ancient Australia's way of living. It contributes to Victorian biodiversity records and its botanical collections. It also contributes information on the geographical profile of Victoria as fossilisation usually occur at estuaries and deltas of rivers, river flood plains, ponds and lakes. This specimen is part of a larger collection of geological and mineral specimens collected from around Australia (and some parts of the world) and donated to the Burke Museum between 1868-1880. A large percentage of these specimens were collected in Victoria as part of the Geological Survey of Victoria that begun in 1852 (in response to the Gold Rush) to study and map the geology of Victoria. Collecting geological specimens was an important part of mapping and understanding the scientific makeup of the earth. Many of these specimens were sent to research and collecting organisations across Australia, including the Burke Museum, to educate and encourage further study.Piece of light brown rock with fossilised leaves in shades of golden yellow and brown.Existing label: Fossil Leaves / Locality unknown / might be worth checking if this is Glossopteris, a Permian age plant. / C. William 16/4/21 geological specimen, geology, geology collection, burke museum, beechworth, fossil leaves, fossilization, 1868 geological survey of victoria, lithified, rocks, fossilised leaf, rock, fossils, leaves

BHS CollectionA4 advertising flyer,yellow background, black text. 'Visit the Central Deborah Gold Mine Bendigo' 'See Historic Victoria Hill'. Handrawn mud maps for each site on bottom of page.bendigo, mining, crentral deborah gold mine