 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
dried meat, a hammer, a large prospector's pan. Some rode bicycles. The better-off rode
horses, most walked. Among them were the barrowmen and swampers: the former pushed or
pulled home-made barrows (known as Irish locomotives) and one-wheeled carts, laden with
bedding equipment, food and water. Swampers paid for their gear to be carried on a dray; they
walked ahead of the wagons to avoid the dust. At the day's end, men sat in such shade there
was, their lips cracked and parched, too thirsty to speak, tenderly rubbing fat or vaseline into
their sore and blistered feet.
Flies and dust were the first plagues of Coolgardie. Living conditions were primitive; men slept
in makeshift shacks and tents made from boughs and poles draped with hessian or canvas;
some slept in packing cases. They lived on tea brewed in their billy-cans, and ate johnny cakes
or 'damper' (campfire bread made from flour, baking powder, salt and water). Canned food
was commonplace, especially tinned meat known as 'tinned dog'. Tin cans, and later empty beer
bottles, littered every gold-field for miles around.
As trees were cut down and the earth scoured, dust blew everywhere, especially on a windy
day when 'winnowing' was best. This was the simplest way in waterless country to find gold:
pouring earth from one pan to another, and letting the wind blow the lighter soil away, leaving
pieces of gravel and stone and maybe a golden nugget. An alternative method was "dry-
blowing1, when dirt was slid down a tilted sieve and the loose soil blown away by a bellows.
When both methods were employed by hundreds of men daily, the result was a semi-permanent
dust haze. Men's eyes suffered from this and from a disease spread by flies called sandy-blight.
Their bodies suffered from boils, scurvy and dysentery. No-one ever washed.
Among these diggers were two middle-aged Irishmen, Paddy Hannan and Tom Flanagan. They
had recently walked to Southern Cross from Parker's Range, a distance of 140 miles.
The first women to arrive at Coolgardie, the wife and daughter of Felix Murphy, appeared on
the gold-field in November. The arrival of other women prompted the authorities to urge the
naked aborigines to cover themselves and
254
wear 'at least one garment when in town'. Sometimes this turned out to be just a paper collar or
female stockings.
In December, Lord Percy Douglas and the Hon David Carnegie, en route for Sydney, left their
ship at Albany to try their luck at Coolgardie. Another young man, a Quaker, who arrived on
the scene a few years later as a mining engineer - he managed the long used and famous Sons of
Gwalia mine at Leonora for a time - was Herbert Hoover, who became President of the United
States in 1928.
At the end of 1892 typhoid struck at the Coolgardie diggings, the waterholes dried up and there
was a general retreat to Southern Cross - until thunderstorms sent some determined diggers
rushing back. Temporarily, as the waterholes gave out again. But in March 1893, there was
heavy and consistent rain, and a permanent water supply was established when a bore-hole was
drilled and water found northwest of Coolgardie. Some wells were also sunk, and made money
for their owners. Norma King reports that a certain Martin Walsh 'charged ten cents for a horse
and 15 cents for a camel to drink at his trough.' Water was also sold in Hannan St from a
condenser at a shilling a gallon.
The tented township became a more settled community as tradesmen set up store-huts and
supply lines improved. There were butchers, blacksmiths, bakers and hotels, and a place to get
 |