Eldorado, or El Dorado, is a small town in the north-east of
Victoria, Australia
Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in Au ...
. At the
2016 census, Eldorado had a population of 264,
[
] down from a population of 287 at the time of the
2006 census
6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number.
In mathematics
Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...
.
[
]
History
Eldorado was named after the legend of
El Dorado
El Dorado (, ; Spanish for "the golden"), originally ''El Hombre Dorado'' ("The Golden Man") or ''El Rey Dorado'' ("The Golden King"), was the term used by the Spanish in the 16th century to describe a mythical tribal chief (''zipa'') or king o ...
in 1840 by William Baker, the name he used for his run.
Even though the name refers to a land abounding in
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
there was no gold found in Eldorado until the 1850s when it became a thriving
gold rush
A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Z ...
town. Eldorado Post Office opened on 1 August 1861.
The town's population declined sharply after the area ceased to yield gold.
The remains of an old
gold dredge
A gold dredge is a placer mining machine that extracts gold from sand, gravel, and dirt using water and mechanical methods.
The original gold dredges were large, multi-story machines built in the first half of the 1900s.
Small suction machin ...
can still be seen today.
This is a large steel dredge which was designed and built by Thompson's Engineering for the Cocks Eldorado Gold Dredging Company in 1935–36. By the time it was decommissioned it had dredged 30 million cubic metres from the river flats of the Eldorado Plain. It has 110 digging buckets, each of which was capable of digging and lifting 0.3 cubic metres of soil.
The dredge received an Engineering Heritage National Marker from
Engineers Australia
Engineers Australia (EA) is an Australian professional body and not-for-profit organisation whose purpose is to advance the science and practice of engineering for the benefit of the community. Engineers Australia is Australia's recognized org ...
as part of its
Engineering Heritage Recognition Program.
Gallery
File:Eldorado Victoria aerial.jpg, Aerial photo from south east
File:EldoradoTownEntrySign.JPG, Entering Eldorado
File:EldoradoGoldDredge.JPG, Gold dredge
File:EldoradoStreet.JPG, A residential street
File:EldoradoSoldiersMemorialBusShelter.JPG, Memorial bus shelter
File:Eldorado Dredge panorama.jpg, Gold dredge
References
External links
*
Parks Victoria'
guide to the Cocks Eldorado gold dredge
Towns in Victoria (Australia)
Towns in Central Hume
Rural City of Wangaratta
{{Hume-geo-stub