 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
In 1894 gold production in Western Australia topped £1 million. Hundreds of mining companies
were floated in London, peaking at just under 800 in 1896. After five years of frenzied
speculation, bogus dealing and fraud, the boom went bust, and the companies were reduced to
140.
There were about 6,000 people in Kalgoorlie in 1896 and over a thousand in Boulder. The
following year, Paddy Hannan returned to Kalgoorlie, and a tree was planted at the spot where
he said he had first found gold. Years later it died
258
of drought and vandalism; and a new one was planted in 1974. Hannan himself retired to
Melbourne, where he lived with a widowed sister until his death, aged 82, in November 1925.
A less than life-size copper statue of him, seated and holding a waterbag, was erected outside
the Town Hall in September 1929. It became a target for New Year revellers, who rejoiced in
painting it. Constant scrubbing, the climate and rough children damaged it; drunks abused it: one
smashed a beer bottle over its head, saying - 'You old bastard! If it wasn't for you I wouldn't be
here!'
In 19.. a tough bronze replica took its place. The original statue, restored, now stands safely
inside the Town Hall foyer.
The Town Hall would not be completed until 1908. The railway station, with one of the longest
(313m) platforms in Australia, was built ten years earlier, and the Post Office and its clock
tower in 1901. One of the first hotels to be built, in 1897 on the site of the tent hospital, was the
Palace Hotel, on the corner of Hannan St and Maritana St. The Palace, built of local ashlar
stone, became a fashionable establishment, the temporary home of visiting VIPs, and a second
home to John Honeycombe.
It was also the birthplace of one of Kalgoorlie's most famous sons, Walter Undrum, who was
born there in August 1989. The manager of the Palace, Wallace Brownlow, was his godfather,
who had leased the hotel's billiard room, with its two tables, to a professional player, Fred
Lindrum, Walter's father. The Lindrums moved to Donnybrook soon afterwards, but were back
in Kalgoorlie in 1906, when Fred was briefly the manager of the Great Boulder Hotel in
Maritana Street, where he also arranged billiard competitions and displays, which John
Honeycombe may have seen. By this time Walter was eight. Small for his age even then, he was
not thought by his father to have any great potential as a billiard player. One day, however, he
would be regarded as the best in the world.
Another famous son, AB Facey, who wrote A Fortunate Life, came to Kalgoorlie in October
1899, when he was 5.
Bert Facey and his brothers and sister stayed with their Aunt Alice, her husband, Archie
McCall, and their five daughters and one son near Boulder. They all lived in a large hut: 'It
consisted of bush poles for uprights with hessian pulled tight around the poles." The exterior was
white washed, and the interior, 36 feet long, was divided into three rooms; the kitchen was in a
separate hut. Water was brought in buckets from the condenser a mile away; it cost 2 shillings a
gallon. Condensers converted the salty underground water from bores and wells into something
that was drinkable.
Archie McCall's job was to chop wood for the condensers and mines at Boulder. He was away
for several weeks at a time and used to take Bert Facey's older brothers with him, Eric (13) and
Roy (10). Meanwhile, Aunt Alice made a few extra shillings by taking in washing, and ironing.
 |