Fabulous Kalgoorlie

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30586, 31 October 1964, Page 4

Fabulous Kalgoorlie

The Mile That Midas Touched: The Story <m Kalgoorlie. By Gavin Casey and Ted Mayman. Rigby. Adelaide. 235 pp.

Not only miners and those associated with mining will be interested in this book, which has many illustrations, maps of the areas discussed, and a bibliography. Its topic is gold and the winning of it, something that has inflamed adventure in man in every age.

The authors, both born in fabulous Kalgoorlie, obviously know and relish their subject, and here, after wide researches, they have set down the trials and fortunes of early and later goldseekers magnetised in their thousands to West Australia from the eastern States and from th» nations of the world. From the alluvial fields at Southern Cross they moved on to Coolgardie and presently from there to Kalgoorlie, a city which, with its “Golden Mile,” has defied the fate of most mining settlements, and lived and prospered into today. This book is history told in ■ living way. Roaming almost waterless country hundreds of miles eastwards of Perth, last century's prospectors survived mighty hardships in search of alluvial gold. Some failed: some found unbelievable pockets of wealth—and spent it, for living was costly in those distant parts and temptations were ever near.

Coolgardie came into being after Arthur Bayley’s discovery started a “rush” from far and wide; and later, 24 miles to the north-east, Kalgoorlie sprang up around Hannan’s Reward claim. Today, in the middle of one of the city’s broad streets, is the bronze statue of a seated, bearded miner, a grateful memorial to friendly, restless Paddy Hannan. He it was who discovered the world's richest goldfield, and, finding the press of the crowd too great, moved on to quieter places, leaving the Midas rewards to others.

Kalgoorlie grew in the wild way that mining towns do, but it always had fierce independence and confidence in its destiny. And, without realising it then, it had the “richest square mile of gold-bearing ground in the world.” Other claims were worked in a wide wide area of country round-about, but Kalgoorlie established itself as the centre. There was, for instance, the Londonderry claim, a dismal failure for

six disillusioned young Queenslanders with an enormous store account they could not pay. While they sat sadly talking about their bad luck, John Mills idly tapped at a piece of loose quartz between his legs, but it would not come away—not until a pick moved it to reveal that it had been held to the parent rock by stringers of gold! In a few weeks these men dollied 10,000 ounces from a hole five-feet long and fourfeet deep. Near-by Coolgardie was staggered by the rich nuggets. One stone of 2501 b yielded 1001 b of gold! The Queenslanders took £60,000 worth of gold from the shaft before selling the lease. Faraway London became excited. Companies were formed. The bulls and the bears indulged in disreputable transactions. Many people lost money to a few unscrupulous operators. Such names as Horatio Bottomley crop up in the sorry aspects of the story. Herbert Hoover, who died recently as a former

President of the United States, was sent to Kalgoorlie as a young mining engineer and consultant to find out the real situation. In the meantime and later Kalgoorlie was distrustful of the Government in Perth. Although the goldfields provided the otherwise struggling State with wealth, the miners felt themselves neglected and unfairly treated. At one stage, indeed, such was the feeling against Perth and its Forrest Government that when the question of federation with the newly-for-med Commonwealth arose there was serious talk of seceding to South Australia or of forming a new State and calling it Auralia. There have been many other contentions, but Kalgoorlie has survived them all and prospered with the introduction of modern mining methods. From the ‘nineties to the year 1962, 80,000,000 tons of ore from the “Golden Mile” had produced 1100 tons of gold worth in excess of £260,000,000.