| Southern Cross History |
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In 1887, gold was discovered in an area called Golden Valley to the north west of Southern Cross, this was the first significant find in the area later known as the Western Australian Goldfieds. Charles Crossland, a government surveyor, later claimed to have directed prospectors Tom Risely and Mick Toomey, (on the basis of information he had received from the local aborigines) to explore an area a few degrees east of Golden Valley. Risely and Toomey returned to report success in January 14,1888, and named their site Southern Cross, after the constellation. The new site was poor in alluvial gold, but by 1892 it supported three large mines, employing several hundred men. Like the town of Boulder in the Golden mile, Southern Cross was a town of wage earners. Most of the prospectors who pegged claims lacked the capital to investigate the reefs of quartz in the area, and so deserted the field. By 1890 'the Cross' had only 270 inhabitants. When Anglican Bishop of Perth, Dr C.O.L. Riley, visited Southern Cross, he reported that in one year there were 65 deaths in the field, and the tents which served as a hospital were overcrowded. The only available water was condensed and sold for 4d-6d. However, the government yearbook of 1902 mentioned the state of health at Southern Cross by saying: "it compare(s) favourably with any other mining town" - a statement which indicated no personal experience of the appaling conditions that prevailed in the Goldfields. The following year a touring government health inspector made a more honest appraisal of the situation when he noted that over 40 premises had unsanitary backyard accumulations of refuse and that stables and toilets of The Southern Cross Hotel were, "a dangerous nuisance". Infant mortality was especially high in this environment with 77 burials of children under the age of two occurring in the seven years between 1891 and 1898. Two famous names associated with The Cross in the early years were Arthur Bayley, who was a mine supervisor during its formative year, and Paddy Hannan, who left the town after hearing of Bayley's find at Coolgardie. The news of greater riches to be found to the north east put an end to the town's brief prominence as a goldfield. According to Warden Finnerty, the road traffic to Southern Cross in 1890 amounted to 233 wagons carrying an average of one and a half tons of freight. With the extension of the railway to the Eastern Goldfields in 1896, Southern Cross became the provision centre for the Eastern Goldfields. The cost of bringing supplies from York was greatly reduced because of the railway. The town was proclaimed a municipality on 16 February 1892 and the municipal council assumed responsibility for public health along with its administrative duties. The new century found Southern Cross enjoying the prosperity of economic growth as residents found employment with Fraser's Gold Mining Company (the first company on the Eastern Goldfields to declare a dividend in 1889), the railways and woodcutting. While the more lucrative Eastern Goldfields attracted more miners and investors, Southern Cross was the only field in the state to be completely owned by Western Australian interests. By the time of the great depression, most of the farming community in the area were heavily in debt to the Agricultural Bank. The farmers had signed over absolute control of their harvests to the bank. In 1933, 39 farmers were brought before the courts on a charge of illegally selling wheat that was the property of the bank. The farmers were privately selling the wheat to cover debts owed to storekeepers in the town. The dominance of the Kalgoorlie field is shown by the production figures for the year of 1896 (September quarter):
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Southern Cross is a testing ground for all aspects of the Western
Australian mining industry: machinery, supplies, management and
transport of goods and services.
Kalgoorlie: 39, 867 ounces.
Southern Cross Photo Gallery