The Advent of Tin Dredges in Eastern Australia

Peter Bell's illuminating review of Helen Brown's book, Tin at Tingha, in the Australian Journal of Historical Archaeology, Volume 5, highlights her assertion that 'the first tin dredge ever to be used in Australia started operating along Cope's Creek' near Tingha on 4 March 1901.1 This statement by Helen Brown, without identifying the source of the information, raises questions of comparisons of technological development in both the tin and gold mining industries between Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland. Both industries were booming in Australia in 1900. However, New Zealand mining engineers already had perfected gold and tin dredges. They brought this technology to Australia to capitalise on the opportunities of large-scale alluvial workings which had ample water supplies but had long been abandoned by the Chinese.