Historical information

While gold was discovered in Emerald in 1858, mining and alluvial gold sluicing on the Menzies Creek reopened in response to the 1890s depression - one of the largest economic crises in Australian history, from which the economy did not significantly recover until after the end of the 1895-1903 drought. This photograph, dated to around 1900, likely originates from this period of activity. Sluice boxes are effectively artificial channels with riffles at the bottom to disrupt the current and take gold out of suspension; the heavier gold sinks to the bottom and remains in the box while lighter material flows out. This photograph was taken at Prospect Bend, which appears to have been north of Emerald between A'Vard Park and The Patch. There is another larger copy of this photograph in the collection.

Significance

Gold mining was an important part of the region's early economy, and this photograph captures a major method of extracting gold from the land and water.

Physical description

This item is a black and white photograph taken from the direction of flowing water as it runs over a gold sluice. In the foreground the banks of the creek are covered in grass and shrubs, before transforming into earthen slopes after the water drops down; the gold sluice is in the water towards the background, where the creek turns left. Behind the sluice, the far bank of the river is covered in logs, ferns, and shrubbery. The reverse of the photograph features handwritten annotation in pencil, including an accession number.

Inscriptions & markings

Reverse, pencil: "Prospect Bend / [crossed out] Emerald Park[?] / 10 / Sluicing for Gold. / near Menzies Creek + Monkey / Dung Creek / near (A'Vard Park) / Creek / Flows into Leigh Aslings Dam then / out again"