Central Boulder Mines and Manager’s House
There are two large and splendidly furnished clubs here, namely, Hannan’s and Kalgoorlie for the well-to-do, and several institutes, affording opportunities for reading and recreation to the miners. I must not forget to mention the fine park, cricket ground, and racecourse.
Having finished my journey round the wonderful mines, I feel how poor has been my description of them. It has been almost impossible even to mention half the important discoveries that have been made in these marvellous chambers of the earth. I have tried to explain some of the developments that stand out most strikingly. The rapid progress that is being made in all ways makes it quite safe to say that what has already been done is as nothing to what will be done in the future, and that by the time the new century is a few years old, and all the latest processes of extracting gold from the ores are in full swing, we may hear of such great returns as will amaze the most incredulous. As I go along the three miles between Boulder City and Kalgoorlie, and think of the wonders I have seen, it seems quite safe to say that very soon the whole three miles will be covered with buildings and the predicted population of 300,000 an actual fact.
The scale of wages on the field is as follows:—
MINE MANAGERS’ ASSOCIATION SCALE.
| Occupation. | Rate per Day. | |
|---|---|---|
| s. | d. | |
| Timbermen | 13 | 4 |
| Rock-drill men | 13 | 4 |
| Miners (wet) | 13 | 4 |
| Bracemen | 11 | 0 |
| Truckers | 10 | 6 |
| Blacksmiths | 15 | 0 |
| Labourers | 10 | 0 |
| Carpenters | 15 | 0 |
| Millmen | 13 | 0 |
| Batterymen | 11 | 8 |
| Battery boys | 8 | 4 |
| Engine drivers, 1st | 13 | 4 |
| Pitmen | 16 | 8 |
| Assistants | 12 | 6 |
| Miners (dry) | 11 | 8 |
| Plattmen | 11 | 0 |
| Tool sharpeners | 13 | 4 |
| Strikers | 11 | 0 |
| Draymen | 11 | 8 |
| Fitters | 15 | 0 |
| Masons | 15 | 0 |
| Feeders | 10 | 0 |
| Cranide labourers | 11 | 8 |
| Engine drivers, 2nd | 11 | 8 |
There are more than 6500 men working in the Kalgoorlie mines, and over £28,000 weekly is paid in wages. The cable from the Government to the Agent-General for Western Australia, London, October 1901, gave the crushing returns of the colony for that year as 1,580,950 ounces, valued at £6,007,610, making a total gold production of £27,726,233 sterling. Several millions of money have been paid to the shareholders of the various mines in dividends since the Adelaide and Coolgardie Syndicate took up the ground at the Boulder, and that ground, which was chaffingly alluded to by the prospector’s friends as a “sheep farm,” has certainly produced many “golden fleeces.”
The Kalgoorlie field has yielded in its short life over thirty-one tons of gold, Western Australia’s total output since it first entered the world’s list as a gold-producer in 1886 is sixty-two tons of solid gold; now, with the new machinery that is being erected, with the latest methods for extracting gold from ore, it will not be surprising if the output from each of our golden giant mines should shortly be doubled. In all the mines I have been down there is enough amazingly rich ore at sight to keep the crushing stamps going for years. Miners should be proud of having brought Western Australia into the position of the greatest gold-producing country in the world.
The Witwatersrand, South Africa, has but a narrow belt of gold-producing country, thirty miles long. In Western Australia the auriferous belt is over one thousand miles in length, and three hundred miles in width, and out of a territory of 975,920 square miles, the area of the goldfields is 324,111 square miles. Bear raids and slumps may come and go, unscrupulous speculators may cause depression in the share market through bad reports for their own gain, “but the gold is here,” and energy, pluck, and perseverance, will overcome all the difficulties there may be to obtain it, in this truly golden West.