The photograph shows Lake Sambell under construction. The present day park and reserve occupies the site of the former Rocky Mountain Mining Company, an open-cut sluice mine that began operations in the mid-Nineteenth Century and operated until the early 1900s, through the peak of Victoria’s Gold Rush. It was converted into a park and leisure area in the 1920s. Lake Sambell was formally opened to the public on Friday 5th October 1928 and was opened by the Victorian Government’s Minister of Lands, Mr Bailey, as part of initiatives to boost the economies and development of country towns. The lake was named after Mr L.H. Sambell, a shire engineer and secretary of the Forward Beechworth Committee who was involved in promoting the transformation of the mining site and promoting plantation forestry and tourism as alternative industries. £300 to begin the process was provided by Mr J. McConvill, a former resident of Beechworth, who is remembered in a street name adjacent to the lake. An article in the Ovens and Murray Advertiser on Saturday, 5th May, 1917, gives some insight into issues in the Rocky Mountain Mining Company’s final years. The writer details the 1917 annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Mining Company, stating that locals present appeared ‘well pleased this important local industry is in such a prosperous condition and that future prospects are so encouraging’. The author describes plans to give workers a bonus as evidence of profit-sharing that would ‘bridge the gulf between capital and labour’. The article concludes, however, with the statement that ‘there is a little arithmetical puzzle in the report in connection with the dredging operations I have been unable to solve.'The photograph is significant as it contributes to knowledge about how Beechworth reinvented itself after the Gold rush period, and more broadly how country towns repurpose and redevelop infrastructure and facilities to meet the present needs of their populationBlack and white rectangular photograph printed on matte photographic paperObverse: Spring Creek diggings, (k)now Lake Sambell / Copied from the George Peach Albums, 19(2)30’s Oct 14 1931 / From the collection of Robert O’Hara Burke Memorial Museum /lake sambell, beechworth, rocky mountain mining co, lh sambell

This photograph shows an operator for the Rocky Mountain Mining Company holding a mining drill. The drill is likely a Ford's patent rock drill, used by the Rocky Mountain Extended Mining Company to dig the Rocky Mountain Tunnel that still exists beneath Beechworth as part of gold mining efforts. Work on the tunnel began in 1856 under Robert Dryburgh, but was met with trouble when the tail-race (a channel for removing water) fell. After the land changed hands a few times (see Beechworth: A Titan's Field, p. 99), the newly-launched Rocky Mountain Extended Gold Sluicing Company resumed the tunnelling works in June 1876, starting beneath Newtown bridge. Completed in December 1879, the tunnel was almost 800m long and cost a total of £13,500. The mine was closed in 1921 "after yielding 47,926 ozs of gold and paying £63,639 in dividends". The photograph appears to have been taken against a solid backdrop, rather than at a mine, possibly as a way to demonstrate the equipment the miners were using.The search for gold is ingrained into the history of Victoria and therefore, images like this one which portray the machinery and workers involved 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 the specific types of machines and the methods used to find gold in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The photograph also appears to have been taken out of the drill's standard operating context of a mine, which might convey information about how mining, drills, and mine workers were portrayed in a more presentation-like context. 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.Black and white rectangular reproduced photograph printed on card.7815 / Copy 1/3 /beechworth, beechworth museum, burke museum, australian museum, mining, gold, rocky mountain mining co., rocky mountain mining company, mining machinery, drill, mining drill, mining company

The photograph appears to depict the of the entrance to the Rocky Mountain Tunnel. The Rocky Mountain Tunnel runs from opening of the tunnel, underneath the Beechworth town, to the Gorge. This tunnel drained the excess water from the upper Spring Creek Goldfield to allow for mining access in the area. The Rocky Mountain Co. blasted through the granite rock to create the original 400ft-long tunnel in 1859, but between 1867 and 1871, the Rocky Mountain Gold Sluicing Co. widened and extended it. At its completion, it measured 14ft deep, 6ft wide, and almost half a mile long. The mining surveyor at Beechworth called it 'without doubt, the greatest undertaking of the kind in the colony'. When the company became the Rocky Mountain Extended Gold Sluicing Co. in the mid-1870s, they continued the tunnelling work. The work was reportedly vital to mining being able to continue at Beechworth and may have established world records in tunnelling through hard rock. The entrance at the Gorge side of the tunnel can be seen from the Beechworth Gorge Walk. The tunnel continues to be an outfall drain for the lake and the town.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. 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.A black and white rectangular reproduced photograph printed on matte photographic paper.7814beechworth, beechworth museum, burke museum, australian museum, mining, rocky mountain mining co., rocky mountain mining company, mine, mining company, rocky mountain mine, mine entrance, rocky mountain, gold, gold mining