THE Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, the present Secretary for the Colonies, recently expressed the opinion that, given the substantial truthfulness of the reports of gold discoveries, Western Australia would, for many years, be the most prosperous of any part of the British Empire. Gold, he inferred, was the best of beginnings; it attracted enormous accessions of population which, eventually tiring of the uncertain quest for minerals, would obey an inward impulse, settle on the land, build homes, and till the soil.
Australians have been intermittently cast into inordinate emotion by the rumours of discoveries in this colony which, if true, would quickly yield wealth enough to pay off the national debt of the whole world. That the emotion was really existent has been proved by the rapid inflow to Western Australia of people representing every civilised country. News of almost every kind is like the rivulet starting from the mountain top, the farther it goes the more swollen it becomes, and the louder it roars. In news of goldfields, as of any extraordinary wealth, the mind loves to be partial, and pictures gold where there may be only a hot desert waste.
But notwithstanding that the reports concerning Western Australia have been sometimes greatly exaggerated, the actual results of labour, systematically applied, justify the expectations of many cautious men who say that this is one of the richest goldbearing countries in the world. The increasing output, when the physical obstacles are taken into consideration, is tending to prove the correctness of the prediction of the Secretary for the Colonies. After the first disillusion of those who expected to pick up gold under every thicket, to find a yellow slug in every quartz reef, came the resolution to struggle, and attempt, and win. Our goldfields caused Australians, as an entity, to sigh with relief at a time when the outlook was exceedingly gloomy. And the discovery of gold has acted on Western Australian industry as the finding of a cool spring has often done on the prospector suffering from the exquisite pangs of thirst. Men of brain and muscle have vitalised the community, and though these newcomers are still wanderers, they may yet become stationary, and supply that virile quality so much needed where there are great resources to be developed.
In compiling a narrative of the last few years, there is so much of sensationalism in the records that it is difficult to discriminate between the true and the untrue. Indeed, it is almost impossible to obtain thoroughly reliable data of the consecutive remarkable discoveries. The mind has been so constantly and fulsomely occupied by new and startling developments that past events grow dim before the glamour of the present. We do not, therefore, pretend to offer a complete narrative. So as not to mislead anyone in the resources of the goldfields, we append articles contributed by gentlemen whose judgment thereon is widely respected.
The discovery of Coolgardie by Bayley and Ford in August, 1892, transcending in importance all that had preceded it, gave a momentum to prospecting. Men waited in the settled districts until the winter of 1893 would enable them to go into the desert. People in other colonies, New Zealand, and South Africa, were prepared to migrate hither as soon as the reports were confirmed, and it was proved that the wealth of the somnolent and dreary interior was not concentrated in a few acres. During the first weeks of the new year there were but few men at Coolgardie, and these had extreme difficulty in obtaining sufficient water to sustain them. It was believed that this question of water supply would militate against a rapid development of the quartz reefs. It was also thought that it would prevent prospecting in the dry areas, which stretched for hundreds of miles north, east, and south of Bayley's; but men searching for gold seem to live on hope, and endure hardships impossible under any other circumstances. Many of them paid a dread penalty for their hardihood, and subsequent travellers have found their bodies rotting in the bush. It might be said that they went out to seek riches, and in the midst of torture became rich in death.
In January, Warden Finnerty importuned the Government to excavate large tanks on the track to Coolgardie, and at that centre, so as to conserve water during the winter rains. He anticipated that a tremendous rush would soon take place. Showers fell in the eastern districts in March, and within a few days there were nearly 300 men at Coolgardie. The roads from the settled districts, principally from York, were thenceforth dotted here and there with mining pilgrims. The influx continued throughout the year, and increased when fresh finds were recorded. The journey was made with camels, horses, and all sorts of vehicles—waggons, drays, carts, buggies, drags, handcarts, wheelbarrows, and beer barrels. Some men walked from Perth to Coolgardie, over hundreds of miles of abandoned plains, with all their belongings on their backs. How they accomplished the journey in face of the terrible obstacles is difficult to understand. One man manipulated a beer barrel to make it resemble a miniature road roller; he placed his goods on a platform at the top, and himself in the shafts, and pushed the quaint contrivance before him. Others constructed a one wheel cart. The body was roughly put together, and was square as a box. Beneath, a single wheel was fixed; the "swags" were placed in the cart, a man stood at each of the four corners, and pushed or pulled the clumsy thing over the soft sand waste. A few adventurers toiled through sand and heat with ordinary wheelbarrows. Numbers paid teamsters fixed sums to carry their swags, and trudged along in the dust of the waggons. Those who were rich enough purchased or hired vehicles, and they were enviably situated in comparison with the wheelbarrow men. In the inrush, 1,492 persons came to the colony during the three months ending on the 30th June. For some years camels had been largely introduced for use on the goldfields, and in 1893 there were 673 of them in Western Australia. They were of inestimable service in the transport of supplies, or in enabling prospectors to penetrate the arid back country.
In April and May desultory discoveries were made around Coolgardie, and life in the mining camp was electrical. A small find here and there excited the men beyond measure, and one and all hurried away to the locality. A shaft was sunk on Bayley's Reward claim, and men arriving in the district without funds usually obtained employment there as miners, and cautiously saved their wages until they had sufficient to essay prospecting on their own behalf. Camel caravans, and courageous teamsters opened regular carrying businesses between Southern Cross and Coolgardie, while coaches began to run over the desert. Primitive stables were erected near the granite soaks on Hunt's old track, and there the coaching syndicate kept changes of horses. The historical name of Cobb and Co. was painted on these coaches. A few crude buildings were quickly erected at Coolgardie; some of galvanised iron, most of canvas, and some modest shelters were composed of boughs plucked from the bush. By June there were several stores, two butchers, two bakers, two blacksmiths, one
