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Updated: June 13, 2025
Coolgardie lay almost due south, 220 miles on the chart, but nearly 300 miles by the track, which deviated from water to water. Speed being an object, I decided to strike through the bush to George Withers' hole. Here, by the way, poor Alec Kellis had just been murdered by the blacks not the pleasantest of news to hear, as I started on my solitary journey.
Ask the brothers of these very fighters Calgoorlie or Coolgardie miners to do one quarter the work and to run one hundredth the risk on a wages basis instanter there would be a riot. But here, not a murmur, not a question; only a radiant force of camaraderie in action. The Turks have heaps of cartridges and more shells, anyway, than we have.
Coolgardie, a district then unnamed, had been discovered, and Arthur Bayley, a persevering and lucky prospector, had returned to civilised parts from the "bush," his packhorses loaded with golden specimens from the famous mine which bears his name.
Leaving the range the country to the East underwent a distinct change for the worse; and midday of July 31st found us on the borders of an unmistakable desert, the North-West corner of the Great Victoria Desert. We had so far travelled 110 miles from Cutmore's Well, only some 250 in a direct line from Coolgardie and were already in the desert!
"I'm afraid it spells disaster. I am a working engineer from the Mount Magdalena district of Coolgardie. I don't want to take up your time with outside details, so I will only say that about two years ago I had an opportunity of acquiring a share in a very promising claim gold, you understand, both reef and alluvial.
It can be fairly sultry around Coolgardie, but never before have I experienced such scorching heat; the sun rose like a ball of fire, and in two hours' time had as great power as at any period during the day. How one prayed for it to set, and how thankful one was when in due course it did so, sinking below the horizon as suddenly as it had risen!
Before long the solitude of our camp was disturbed by the constant passing of travellers to and from this newly discovered "Ninety Mile" so named from its distance from Coolgardie.
Coolgardie once boasted of having the "biggest condensing plant in the world," with rows on rows of enormous cylindrical corrugated iron tanks lying on their sides, over acres of ground, with all the pumps and boilers and steam pipes to keep these tanks supplied. Water was cheap there, only twelve or fifteen shillings the hundred gallons.
Nearly every week I would ride into Coolgardie for stores, and walk out again leading the loaded packhorse, our faithful little chestnut "brumby," i.e., half-wild pony, of which there are large herds running in the bush near the settled parts of the coast. A splendid little fellow this, a true type of his breed, fit for any amount of work and hardship.
Arriving one Sunday morning from our camp at the "Twenty-five," I was astonished to find Coolgardie almost deserted, not even the usual "Sunday School" going on.
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