| Coolgardie History |
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A decade earlier, the State Government had established a 5000 pound reward for anyone finding a goldfield within 300 miles of a port. Bayley had hoped to lay claim to that prize when he returned on the 17th September 1892. Unfortunately, the find was judged to be included in the Yilgarn district and this had already been the site of successful discoveries around Southern Cross. The size of Bayley's find, and the excitement it generated, was enough for Yilgarn magistrate and mining warden, JM Finnerty to relocate his office to the new field. On his way there, Finnerty asked an Aboriginal man for the name of the area, and wrote the reply as Coolgardie.
Life in early Coolgardie was extremely harsh with the shortage of fresh water resulting in outbreaks of typhoid, scurvy and dysentery. Perishable goods such as meat were kept in a "Coolgardie safe", a kerosene tin covered in hessian with a water tray on top that dripped down the sides to provide cooling and protection from flies. By the early years of the twentieth century, the rugged humpies of the original mine site had been replaced by the solid structures of the third largest town in Western Australia with a population of sixteen thousand. JM Finnerty's residence, built in 1895 and currently open to the public, symbolises the rapid development of civilisation. Less than two years before, the warden had dispensed his administrative and judicial decisions in a basic corrugated iron shed. |
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The town of Coolgardie was founded in 1882. Prospectors Arthur Bayley and
William Ford, discovered
over 500 ounces of alluvial gold in the area. They were not the first to find gold, but
they were the first to survive - nearby their claim were two skeletons and other earlier claim pegs. Bayley and
Ford had first met seven years earlier on Queensland's Croyden
Goldfield. They had both prospected in the Murchison, and at the time
of their reunion were working at the Southern
Cross mines. These experienced prospectors left Southern Cross to follow the track established by Charles Hunt in
the 1860s, and left little to chance by taking five pack horses loaded with stores for the journey.
Distance from Perth (km)
Coolgardie Photo Gallery