Twelve months after the finding of Coolgardie an important discovery was made 24 miles away in a north-easterly direction. About 150 miners had set out to search for some lost prospectors near Yerilla. They were compelled by lack of water to halt, and actually camped on the spot where the find was afterwards made! Rain fell and the main body went forward and continued their search, but two of the party, named Hannan and Harrigan, remained, and stumbled on what has since proved to be the richest field the world has ever known. They had begun specking, and obtained nearly 100 ounces in a few days. As gold is worth nearly £4 per ounce, that was good work. They returned to Coolgardie, reported the find, and secured an area equal to 10 alluvial claims. Nearly 2000 men followed them on their return to the find, most of whom remained there. It would be impossible to tell in words the value and marvellous richness of this new Eldorado. Nine thousand ounces of gold were taken from 4 tons of stone at Hannan’s mine, and other claims of 50 feet square yielded 400 and 500 ounces of gold each. Some of the prospectors were new chums, and had never been on a goldfield before. One who knew nothing of mining sunk his shaft by sheer luck fair on the gold. Hundreds of practical diggers had walked over the ground before, little thinking that the ironstone gravel was so rich in the precious metal and that they were passing over thousands of ounces. Another man dollied (that is, crushed by hand labour with a heavy weight) 650 ounces in three weeks, the only implements being half a bottle of quicksilver and the head of a pick. Many a time these prospectors of the gold country have felt that a spring of fresh water and a few loaves of bread would be more welcome to them than all the gleaming gold they were getting. Under what trials did they work! No water to wash the dirt, and yet the ground so moist that they had to dry the dirt before they could blow it to find the gold; yet they persevered, and many found fortunes by hard work and persistence. No wonder many miners say that gold-mining is not so easy as falling off a log.
An Adelaide syndicate at this time sent Messrs. W. G. Brookman and Pearce, with a capital of only £150, out of which passages, camels, and rations had to be found, to prospect around this marvellous new find, which they did with such success that they discovered a still more wonderful place 3 miles from Hannan’s Find, and now called the Boulder. Their find has since proved the greatest of all. The first claim was called the Great Boulder, and the property included two ironstone hills, one 100 yards long by 50 feet wide; the other twice that size. These hills were covered with rich stones, the prospectors picking them up from all parts, and Mr. Pearce picked up several large slugs (nuggets) at the foot of the hill. They afterwards took up several more claims, and soon found these to contain enormous gold-bearing reefs. Messrs. Brookman and Pearce, by keeping to the old adage, that “a still tongue makes a wise head,” remained undisturbed, and were able to take up all the ground they wanted. Lake View Consols, Ivanhoe Associated, and other rich mines were taken up by this little syndicate, and are now valued at £21,000,000. Mr. Brookman, as you may suppose, is now one of the millionaires of Western Australia.
The next great find was the Londonderry, in May 1894, when thousands of ounces were dollied out from the surface. Lord Fingall bought out the claim for an interest and £180,000 cash. Then followed the Wealth of Nations, from whose first find was taken an enormous quantity of gold and specimens worth £20,000. This claim was soon bought up for £150,000. The inevitable rush to both these places followed. The men all seemed to run mad in their thirst for gold. It was at this time that almost everything showing gold was snapped up and put on the London market. Stories savouring of the Arabian Nights were in free circulation, and thousands of people from all parts of the world began to flock to Western Australia, which from comparative obscurity has now become the greatest gold-mining country the world has ever seen, and, no doubt, the interior of this vast country holds an almost inexhaustible quantity of gold-bearing quartz, which in years to come, when railways and other appliances have made it easier to reach the far-off fields, will be discovered and used. We may see such marvellous discoveries of gold that “Golden Western Australia” will be the fitting name for the once neglected Cinderella of the colonies.
Bayley Street, Coolgardie, 1897
CHAPTER XV
Coolgardie—The Camels are Coming—The Landlord’s Record—Meeting a Friend—A Goldfields Camp—“Nap”—The Reward Mine—Bonnie Vale—Londonderry—Nearly Lost—King Solomon’s Mine—Hampton Plains.
At 9 o’clock in the morning after my arrival in the Golden City, I stood gazing in amazement at a string of 135 camels, with numerous baby camels, such funny-looking creatures, walking by their mothers! The Afghan leaders came crying “Hoostah,” and their Indian dresses and huge turbans made a most picturesque sight for eyes that had before only seen the like in pictures, or, yes, one, I think, at the Melbourne “Zoo.” Then another camel came trotting or galloping with a European on its back, who seemed as much at home as on a horse. I am told camel-riding gives one a sea-sick feeling. I have never tried the experiment of a ride, though several ladies on the fields have done so. To look at the camel you would think a step-ladder required to mount one, but it is not so, as the camel kneels down and allows you to get on his back; you then cling on tight, while he proceeds to get up, which he does with an awful jerk, at the same time making a peculiar bellowing noise, which sent me away to a good distance. When I tell you that a camel’s hind legs will reach any part of him, over his head, round his chest, and on to his hump, and that he has the unpleasant habit of shooting out his legs without warning, and also that his neck is of the same pliancy, you will not wonder that the “ship of the desert” has no charm for me. The camel is the great beast of burden of Western Australia; the first were brought as an experiment to the West by two Hindoo traders; these animals quickly came into favour in the waterless districts, and now there are thousands of them carrying supplies to the different parts of the colony. They are very obedient to their Afghan masters, but it is difficult for a white man ever to obtain great influence over them; they never seem to take kindly to white people. A string of these useful but ungainly animals is led by one of their own species, a string passing through a peg in the nose of every camel in the train, and keeping them in a line. The headgear of a leading camel is a gay affair; a network of fancy coloured wool with many a bright-hued tassel and white shells, finished off with blue and red beads. The Afghans are very careful and proud of their “leading gentleman.”