CHAPTER XXIV

Off by the Coach to LawlersCHAPTER XXIVLawlers—Splendid Vegetables—Waiting for a Samaritan—Mount Sir Samuel—While the Billy boils—The Kangaroo—Lake Way—Across the Country—The “Back-blocks”—Camping out—Arrival at Nannine—Bed once More—Splendid Mines of the Murchison—Peak Hill—The Gold Patch—An Old Friend—A Hearty Welcome.

Off by the Coach to Lawlers

Lawlers—Splendid Vegetables—Waiting for a Samaritan—Mount Sir Samuel—While the Billy boils—The Kangaroo—Lake Way—Across the Country—The “Back-blocks”—Camping out—Arrival at Nannine—Bed once More—Splendid Mines of the Murchison—Peak Hill—The Gold Patch—An Old Friend—A Hearty Welcome.

Another coach journey of 50 miles brought me to Lawlers. I was now out of the Mount Malcolm and Mount Margaret districts, and in the East Murchison. Mount Magnet, which is on the Cue railway line, is almost in a direct line with Lawlers, and it is 130 miles from Lawlers to Menzies. Lawlers is a nice little town; all the people so friendly and pleased to see a strange lady on the field that many of them came into the hotel to see me. The buildings are creditable, and a great amount of business seemed to be doing. The gold output is steadily increasing, but although much good ore is realised, there is great difficulty experienced in getting it crushed, the batteries being too small. The people seem unusually healthy. They say no one is ever sick at Lawlers, and the soil is magnificent for growing fruit and vegetables, despite the small rainfall. Mr. Homann has a very fine garden, watered by the surplus water from the Great Western Mine, and from a well with a windmill. Melons, tomatoes, and cabbages are fully equal to any I have seen. There are also some vines that have borne beautiful grapes. If there were only a plentiful fall ofrain, which unfortunately seldom happens, Lawlers could compete with any place in the matters of agriculture and viticulture. Everything has to be carted to the place by team or camel-train, consequently things of all kinds are very dear, the actual cost of carriage from Mount Magnet being £12 per ton by team and £8 by camel-train. The coach fare to that place from Lawlers, 192 miles, is £5, and to Menzies, 130 miles, £4. Until the railway went to Menzies from Kalgoorlie, most of the supplies came from Mount Magnet, but now that the traffic of Lawlers is going to Menzies, since the train service commenced, instead of Magnet, it increases daily. This, of course, will naturally benefit both places, since Menzies will now also obtain some of the splendid vegetables grown in Lawlers. Previously there were only tinned vegetables to be had there. The people of Menzies have no desire to see a railway line extended past that place, but as the Government has now decided to build a railway speedily to Leonora, the Lawlers people are hoping that at no distant time the line may be extended to their town also; Lawlers will then be the pivot between the Murchison (Cue line) and East Murchison goldfields, and with its excellent soil, its richmines, the Great Eastern for instance, will probably become one of the principal towns in the goldfields. When the railway reaches Lawlers there will be only 192 miles of this part without train service, through which a railway could soon be made to Mount Magnet, completing a belt of rails from Perth right round the Yilgarn, Coolgardie, Mount Malcolm, Margaret, East Murchison, Murchison, and Yalgoo goldfields.

Lake Way Gold Mine

I next prepared for a long journey through the Western Australian Bush. My destination was Lake Way and Wiluna. How I was to get there I did not know, as there were no coaches even for the mails, which were only taken once a week, and then by bicycle, over a distance of 120 miles, a journey too long and too lonely for me to take alone. However, I was cheered by the news that some miners were expected at Lawlers in a day or two for whom horses were waiting. So, never doubting that they would be gallant enough to offer me a seat, I rested quietly and waited for their arrival. When they came they proved to have two friends with them, who proposed to travel on what is called the “buckboard,” that is the kind of ledge, about three feet long, for carrying luggage at the back of the buggy, and as there was only room for two persons in front there seemed to be a difficulty about conveying the whole party. However, the pleasure of having a lady to drive with them for 120 miles was great enough to make the party alter all their arrangements. One of them borrowed a bicycle, and two of us in front of the buggy, a lad and other friend on the buckboard, and four brumbies in hand, we gaily started off one fine morning. We reached the first stopping-place, Mount Sir Samuel, 31 miles off, at 4 o’clock, and put up there, as I wished to see this little place, where there are some very good mines—one, the Bellevue, being a first-rate property. Another, called the Sulphide King, is very promising. Mining here is not so hard as in some places, owing to the softness of the ground and the plentiful supply of water.

Lake Darlot is about 20 miles from here, and there is now a very promising goldfields township in the district. A wild rushoccurred a few years ago. This was one of the places where great hardships were endured by the diggers on account of the terrible scarcity of provisions; the price of flour, when procurable, was at that time £5 for a small bag!

Every one at Mount Sir Samuel was very kind and hospitable, and I felt quite sorry to leave next morning, as we did at daybreak, for we wished to make a long journey that day. We should have, we knew, to camp out. I looked forward to this unusual experience with great eagerness.

As I was watching the camp making I heard “Coo-e-e! Coo-e-e!” the Australian bush cry, and presently a party of four miners rode up. They had just sold their mines for £17,000, and were on their way to Melbourne,en routefor New Zealand to see their parents. They told me that, five years ago, they landed in the West with £200 between the four of them, and are now leaving with the above-mentioned sum; but they hope to come back to the Golden West after a six-months holiday. As you may imagine, they were very jolly; they took off their kits (bags), which contained provisions, we combined forces, and made a very pleasant meal under the shade of some pretty kurrajong-trees. At night, attracted by our fires, some natives appeared, but I felt quite safe with so many protectors. They made up a bed of bushes for me under the buggy, and put branches all around it. I felt as if I was in a Mia Mia (native hut), and was as comfortable as possible. I heard the natives saying, “Mimi lubra,” which means, “Woman in a tent.” They thought the men would not trouble to make a place like it for themselves, and their conjectures were right; they are not such a stupid race after all!

Early in the morning we parted company and started off again. An adventure shortly after stirred us up. A kangaroo, pursued by an emu, came on the scene, but, being so fleet, both were soon out of sight. After the excitement was over the boy on the buckboard repeated to us an essay he said he wrote at school, on the kangaroo, which struck me as being so funny that I give it you verbatim:

“The kangaroo is a quadruped, but two of his feet is only hands. He is closely related to the flea family, an’ jumps like him, an’ has the same kind of resemblance. He is Australian by birth an’ has a watch-pocket to carry his children in. There is two or more kinds of kang’roos, but they are mostly male an’ female, and live on grass, cabbage, and curren buns. The kang’roo’s tale is his chief support; it is thick at one end, and runs to the other end; it is good to jump with, and the kang’roo when it’s cut off don’t know his way home, and has to walk on his hands. The kang’roo is good for makin’ soup and bootlaces and putting in zoos, and sometimes he is presented to the roil Family to represent Australia.”

We reached Wiluna, the township of Lake Way, next day, and found it a very nice little place. There are three hotels and stores, and I was surprised to find everything so nice away up in the wilds of the West. There is plenty of fresh water in this district and several nice gardens. Watermelons grow splendidly, and, with the thermometer at 114°, are very welcome. Tomatoes also grow in profusion, and several people are growing fruit and vegetables as a business, so that Lake Way is not a bad place in which to find oneself. There are many good mines, turning out handsome yields, and companies have recently been floated in London to take over several properties here. The chief characteristics of the reefs are evenness of quality, great wealth, and permanency. A very nice cake of gold, weighing 145 ounces, from one of the claims was shown me; it came from a claim called The Brothers.

The people about Wiluna are, in spite of the heat of the climate, very fond of dancing. It really is almost their only amusement. The evening of our arrival a ball was held; it might truly be termed a Bachelors’ Ball, for so few of the opposite sex are in the district; however, the boys, as they are termed, arrived in great force, their dancing costumes being riding breeches and coloured shirts, with turned down collars and broad hats, real “back blocks” costume. As it was a very hot and bright moonlight night, they danced on the open plain, and seemed to enjoy themselves thoroughly. At about 9 o’clock a terrific shouting and native yabber, yabber (talk) from a partof the Bush, where a tribe of aborigines were encamped, gave token of rival amusement. The natives were holding a Corroboree. They had camped at Wiluna, but were travelling to some particular part of the country, where a favourite large grub, which they used for food, was to be found in quantities. Natives always travel from place to place in search of food, and they know the parts in which the different kinds will be plentiful or in season.

KANGAROOCopyright—Gambier Bolton

KANGAROO

Wishing to see a Corroboree dance, I, with some of the onlookers of the Bachelors’ Ball, migrated to the camp. The black fellows, who had ornamented their heads and kangaroo-skin garment with what feathers and tufts of grass they could obtain and coloured their faces and bodies with wilgey, were leaping up in the air, with a spear in one hand and a shield in the other, and contorting their bodies in most grotesque fashion to the accompaniment of native music supplied by some of the men of the tribe, who squatted on the ground chanting strange sounds and beating sticks, while the lubras (wives), gins (girls), and pickaninnies (children) sat or lay around, making a fearful noise and clapping their hands vigorously. In the light of the camp fire it was a novel and weird sight, but a little of it sufficed me. Before leaving, the head man of the tribe threw the boomerang, which is a native weapon shaped like a quarter-moon, and so constructed that it assumes a return motion at the will of the native who throws it. It really was wonderful to hear it whirr as it started through the air to a great distance and height, and then come back to exactly the same place it started from. The boomerang is not so unique as many people think; a weapon almost the same was used by the Abyssinians hundreds of years ago, and still earlier by the people of ancient Egypt.

The journey from Lake Way to Nannine, over 120 miles of rather barren country, was one to be remembered. No coach having yet been started on this route, I was fortunate in being able to join a party of people, including two ladies, who were going there in their own conveyances; they had been in the“back-blocks” for four years, and thought it time to take a holiday, especially as their husbands had made over £6000 each from their mines, and had given them £500 each to go to Victoria, see their friends, and have a good time, as I have no doubt they did. We camped out for four nights, but the weather was fine, and it was very pleasant to be under a canopy of stars, although towards morning it got pretty cold. The two ladies took it in turn to do the cooking, and would not hear of my doing anything, saying it would be a pity to roughen my hands, which, by the way, were becoming almost as brown as theirs. I quite enjoyed the bush-cooking. Johnny cake or “damper,” as it is called here, cooked in the wood-ashes, is very nice, especially with good butter, which we had in tins. Then there were plenty of wild turkeys about, some of which were shot for us. My companions had brought some tinned asparagus also, so, taking it altogether, our manna in the desert was not to be despised. We met a few aborigines during our journey, but they were generally very quiet and only asked for bacca and food. The lubras were carrying their pickaninnies in a coota (bag) on their backs (this is their usual custom except in the colder parts of the colony, where they are supplied with blankets and also with rations); they were also carrying sticks and some freshly killed birds. The women always have to carry all the burdens, their lords and masters stalking on ahead with their spears, no doubt on the look-out for game.

A Well near Lake Way

One night, as we were sitting round the camp-fire, several of them again appeared and demanded more bacca and food, which was given them, and they were told to go away, but they would not do so until the men of our party fired off severalshots, which soon caused them to disappear, as they are very much afraid of fire-arms.

LUBRA AND PICKANINNY

Another night we camped in company with two teams. Each team had ten horses and splendid large waggons, one of which the teamster gave up to us three ladies, and we had quite a luxurious bed on sacks of chaff that night. The teamsters were educated men; one had received a college education, but had been eight years in the “back-blocks.” He said he had not been in a lady’s company for years, and the poor fellow seemed delighted to talk to me about his mother and sisters, who, he said, were in dear old England, but he never wrote home, as he was the black sheep of the family. I made him promise that when he got to Nannine he would write to his mother, who, no doubt, in her heart was thinking, “Where is my wandering boy to-night?” I do hope he kept his promise. On our arrival at Nannine I bade a reluctant farewell to the party, who took the coach to Cue,en routefor Fremantle, there to take the steamer to Victoria to spend their well-earned holiday.

We were now in the Murchison district. Nannine is a nice little place, and everything seemed to be flourishing. The people form a very happy, lively community. Several good buildings adorn the town, and I considered myself fortunate in getting very comfortable quarters, for I was really tired after my journey and late camping-out experiences. It was delightful to rest on a nice soft bed and to have my breakfast brought me in the morning. There are two good hotels at Nannine, which do a splendid business. There are over 80 mines in the district—the first in which gold was discovered in Western Australia. This first discovery dates from 1854, when Robert Austin was sent by Governor Fitzgerald to explore the country in the Gascoyne district above Peak Hill for agricultural and pastoral land for settlement. Mr. Austin was accompanied by the sons of some of the early settlers, and the little band of explorers underwent many hardships. Most of their horses were poisoned by the Bri-gastrolobium plant, and the party had to travel on foot formany weary months. It was owing to this circumstance that the gold discovery was made, for while reconnoitring for grass and water Mr. Austin came across some likely looking stone, which he broke, and found it contained gold. The only prospecting tools available (except a tomahawk, a small hatchet always carried by explorers and prospectors), being a knife and a pannikin, much progress could not be made. On Mr. Austin’s return to Perth from the expedition he informed the Government, who did not think it worth while to make further inquiries. Had they done so, the colony’s prosperity might have dated 35 years earlier than it has done, as Mr. Austin correctly described the auriferous nature of the belt of country around Mount Magnet, Lake Austin, and Mount Kenneth, and also predicted that the Murchison would become one of the greatest goldfields in the world. The little party were the first white men who ever set foot in that part of the colony, and I do not think that their efforts were ever recognised. Mr. Austin is now a very old gentleman, and last year was mining surveyor at the Mines Department, Hodgkinson Goldfields, Queensland, from which place he wrote to the papers in Perth asking that his claims as the first discoverer of gold should be recognised by the present Parliament, and giving interesting particulars of his travels. In 1856 gold was discovered at Kojânup, but little attention was paid to gold in Western Australia in those days. It was not until 1884 that Mr. Hardman, the Government geologist, discovered rich gold at Kimberley in the far north of Western Australia, and this was followed in 1887 by the find of gold at Mugakine while a man was digging a well. Golden Valley and Southern Cross followed, and an era of prosperity for the colony opened which I hope will never be closed.

At the Aberfoyle Mine, to which I went from Nannine, I saw some beautiful quartz thickly encrusted with gold. Twenty-two pounds of this stone contained over 62 ounces of gold, valued at £230. This rich piece of quartz has been secured for the Glasgow Exhibition. There are seven shafts on this really amazing mine, from each of which the ore taken is so marvellously richthat they are watched at night. Splendid machinery is being put up, but sufficient masons cannot be got to do the work, consequently the progress is slow. The Nannine Mine has shown wonderful results during the year. In six weeks 1371 ounces were crushed from 285 tons of stone. The chute (opening) from which this was taken improves still richer as the mine opens up. The Champion is another group of mines, from which excellent returns have been taken. At the Royalist, another mine owned by the oldest mining resident of Nannine, as much as 300 ounces in two weeks have recently been obtained. There are many other mines, but I cannot specify them all. Mount Yagahong is also a rich part of the field, and Meekatharra, 25 miles away, is rapidly forging ahead as a gold producer. Then 14 miles from Nannine is Burnakura, from which place 71 lb. of specimens, containing 700 ounces of gold, some of the pieces being nearly pure gold, were recently brought into Nannine and lodged in the Western Australian Bank. Previous to this, £2000 worth of gold was taken from the same claim, called Jewett’s United Lease, and still more recently a Perth paper records that “A small parcel of stone, weighing 4¾ cwt., from Jewett’s Union Mine at Burnakura, and crushed at the Nannine battery, yielded 494½ ounces of gold. Nine hundred tons of stone lie at grass—that is, on the top waiting to be crushed—on the property.” This magnificent mine is owned by a local syndicate of seven people. Gabanuntha is a rich mine near Nannine, and Star of the East another. A leasehold with a peculiar name is “After Many Years,” which gives every indication of turning out rich. This district, and Peak Hill, owing to their remoteness, have not attracted speculators much, but must eventually become prominent, for they are as rich as any part of Western Australia, and after many years will, no doubt, fully verify Robert Austin’s prediction.

To drive another 120 miles through the Bush to Peak Hill did not seem to me a very agreeable undertaking, but the advent one day of a spanking four-in-hand at Nannine, bringing threegentlemen, one of whom I was fortunate enough to know, and who gallantly offered to take me to Peak Hill, altered the case completely. One of the party was an Englishman inspecting Western Australian mines with a view to large investments. Relays of horses had been sent on to the different stages along the road and sleeping accommodation arranged for. I am afraid I put out these arrangements considerably, but the gentlemen did not seem to mind giving up the best to me, gallantly saying that my company compensated for any discomfort. I felt at first that, as they were on mining business, they did not want womenfolk around, but they soon found out that I took as much interest in mining matters as themselves, and we becamebon camarades. Knowing that themenuat these places would not be of the best, the party had sent ahead supplies of everything necessary for table comfort, also a man cook and waiter, so you may well understand that the journey to Peak Hill was a most enjoyable one to me.

As we approached the famous Peak Hill, which is a nice little mining town, endowed with wonders of which you will presently hear, we passed several dry-blowers working. These men fossick (look) over the old workings, and by aid of a tin dish, in which they place any earth they think contains gold, and a coarse riddle with which to sift it, afterwards blowing away the fine dirt, they frequently find gold at the bottom of the dish. The ground is remarkably rich in gold, and I find it impossible to describe the magnitude of this golden country, which, like other fields, seems only to have been tested in a few places, those places being so rich that one wonders what the country will be when the hundreds of miles of good ground that I have passed have been opened out by miners. We were now far, far away from Perth, and the country looked different from any I had seen before in Western Australia. Peak Hill lies very high, 2000 feet above the sea-level. The ascent is steep and very rocky, four miles of it going through the Robinson Ranges. An interesting sight is found at the top,which has the appearance of a wide plain, with shafts and dumps of the thrown-up earth all over it. The manager of the principal mine here has a very comfortable residence, and the miners’ camps give the place the usual prosperous appearance. There are over 600 men on this field. The whole of the leases of Peak Hill have been taken over by a syndicate, which has formed a company in London. The finds have been marvellously rich. I went down one shaft, and saw some very interesting specimens being dug out. The gold is in a kaolin formation, and in some parts the kaolin is of all kinds of colours, and with the gold shining through looks really lovely. In other parts of the mine the kaolin is quite white, and the deposit easy to dig out. The results from the Peak Hill reef have been as high as 2621 ounces 15 dwts. of gold from 331 tons of this ore. Some of the mines have given as much as 21 ounces of gold to the ton, which is a wonderful record. The Christmas Gift is a rich mine, and many others have had such phenomenal crushings that the Peak Hill district is unsurpassed in wealth of gold. When Sir Gerard Smith, late Governor of Western Australia, visited Peak Hill, the mine-owners had a solid gold plate and a cup, to use at dinner, cast for him.

DRY-BLOWING IN THE GOLDEN STEW

There are some really fine public buildings, and the hotels, especially the Peak, are very comfortable. A nice Miners’ Institute, for meetings, entertainments, &c., has recently been finished. Land for building sites realises splendid prices, nearly £1000 having been paid for different allotments. The private houses seem very comfortable habitations. Many of the people have made fortunes, and everything seems prosperous about the place.

A very original character, called “Tom the Rager,” sold his interest in one of the leases some time ago for £15,000. This man, an old Irishman, made a memorable journey from Kimberley, in the North-West, across the greater part of Western Australia, accompanied only by his faithful dog “Paddy,” and subsequently got an interest in some of therichest claims at Peak Hill, as the sale mentioned may testify. The Golden Patch, as it is called, in which all the rich mines are, covers about a square mile of ground of quite a different nature from that in other parts. This mile of ground is formed by a mass of rich veins of quartz, and the wealth contained there is unsurpassed in any part of Western Australia. Were Peak Hill not such a tremendous distance away from the capital, its growth would, no doubt, be as quick as that of Kalgoorlie, which it so much resembles. Some of the wonderful crushings from a few of the golden mines may interest you. The Peak Hill Reef, from 331 tons of stone crushed 2621 ounces of gold; Daisy Bell, 82 tons, gave 1245 ounces; Golden Chimes, 195 tons, gave 1402 ounces. The Horseshoe and the Golden Patch are supposed to be the two richest spots in the colony. Some of the specimens taken from the Patch are not only rich but vastly interesting in other ways, some of the pieces being not gold held together by quartz, butvice versâ; the small pieces of quartz, if tapped by a hard substance, vibrate like a tuning-fork. The gold is very brilliant, and positively sparkles in the light.

I drove out to the Horseshoe Mines, a distance of about 20 miles. There were over 50 men working there, and getting a great deal of gold; some of them gave me some pretty pieces. I have now got enough nuggets to make any other collectors envious. While there I met a young man who knew me in Melbourne when he was quite a boy. I did not recognise him, as he had grown up and had a moustache; but he came to me almost with tears in his eyes, so pleased was he to see me so far away from home. For the moment I could hardly realise that I was nearly 800 miles in the interior of Western Australia, and felt inclined to cry with sympathy. He gave me a very pretty little nugget, which cheered me considerably. Alluvial gold often takes most singular forms; it is usually found on the surface, or not far below, while reef-gold is got in a quartz lode, or vein, at some depth underground. Some magnificent nuggets have been found in this part; one weighing 132 ounces, worth over £500, was found in one of thegullies which we passed when driving to this spot. The name of Horseshoe is taken from the long range of hills shaped almost like a horseshoe, and the gullies between them have made many of the miners wealthy. There are two very rich reefs here, which have been proved for six or seven miles. The specimens are very massive, gold predominating to a large extent in the quartz, and the ironstone fairly glistening with richness. I was now getting so much accustomed to looking at and handling gold that I began to fear I should look coldly on the common articles of everyday life. The miners, with the usual hospitality of their class, would boil the billy and give me tea, and all the best that their “back-block” larder afforded. Times are much changed now, since the early days of the fields, and the miners can live very comfortably. I said good-bye to them all with regret, wishing I could stay longer in this grand part of the country, the scenic beauty of which is also great. I enjoyed the drive back very much, and could not help thinking what store of wealth must lie beneath the ground we were driving over. The great bulk of this part of the country must contain untold gold.

Revelstone is another rich mining camp a few miles from Peak Hill, where a public crushing plant has been erected, at which the miners of the neighbourhood can have their ore crushed as soon as they raise it.

Farther on still is that wonderful Nor’-West country, to which I hope some day to go. The biggest nuggets the colony has produced have been found there. “The Bobby Dazzler,” which I was fortunate enough to see, and tried to lift, before I left Perth, and which is to be shown at the Glasgow Exhibition, came from Marble Bar, Nor’-West. It weighs over 400 ounces of gold, and is worth over £1600. Another large nugget was found in that district a few years ago, which weighed 334 ounces; so that people wishing to pick up the precious metal in large lumps had better try their luck in the far North.

After spending some days at Peak Hill, I started, with my kind friends, on my return to Nannine, and passed throughacres and acres of the finest everlasting flowers I have ever seen. The beautiful cream-coloured starry flowers were as large as a florin; the country looked like a foamy sea. Then, in other parts, bright-coloured flowers surrounded us, like patterns in a huge kaleidoscope.

We came to Abbot’s Find, some miles before reaching Nannine; the locality is very rich; it was near here that last year a lucky prospector, named Campbell, found some splendid specimens. The stone was creamy-white, thickly permeated with gold, and was obtained from near the surface. The place is full of outcrops (likely places for gold), leaders, and reefs, it is wonderful that no rush has yet begun; but the rich spots are so many, and the men comparatively so few, that they cannot prospect them all. There are several important mines at Abbot’s, notably the New Murchison King, White Horse, Abbot’s, and others, which have all given good returns.

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