Author: Louise

Keen Family History researcher and writer.

Crime in Bowgada

For a small place, a lot went on in Bowgada (aka Chubble or Koolanooka), from the day-to-day activities of the CWA, football or cricket games and fancy dress parties to a very publicised murder in April of 1927.

The details given by witnesses, including the deceased’s son, add complex issues to the case. For those interested in criminal matters and family relationships, this sad occurrence out at Bowgada may prove an interesting study. The prison record of the accused (and the psychology of his behaviour) is also remarkable.

Convict No.12837 – Arthur Alfred Martin1

Arthur Albert Martin stood trial for the wilful murder of Bowgada farmer, Terbert (or Turbest and other variations) Horace Currell. 2 After two trials, Mr Martin was acquitted of murder. 3 However, he was back in Court the next year for horse stealing, and sentenced to three years hard labour, then to be detained at the Governors’ pleasure. It appears he was already in prison on other matters, when the horse stealing was revealed. Interestingly, Mr Martin asked for the trial to be adjourned, in order to obtain council, but this was refused, and so was his subsequent appeal to the High Court.

The Parole Board let him out – but took him back over a stolen car. In 1938 he made headlines again when he broke out of Fremantle Gaol’s reformatory section by scaling a wall and using smuggled hacksaw blade to cut through a bar in his cell. Not only that, but he was at large for at least two weeks, and fronted up to the ‘Daily News’ office with his story 4 – and at his request, the paper appears to have given him an hours’ start before informing the Police – this caused considerable comment. 5

Given parole again, he was returned for theft in Brookton 1941 (he asked to be able to join the Army). Then in 1942, Mr Martin was on the run again along with 16 others: this time escaping from Prison Camp Bartons Mill, apparently while drunk. He was found at Government Gardens sleeping and sentenced to six months extra on top of his indefinite sentence. In 1949 he escaped again and was returned.

And it was not the only death by shooting in the Bowgada either. Also in 1928, John Hyland was shot by Edward Patrick Minorgan over a dispute about a dog – and Mr Hyland died from gangrene as a result. 6 Mr Minorgan was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to three years imprisonment with hard labour.

Sources

  1. HUNTED MAN BREAKS HIS SILENCE (1938, February 4). The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 – 1955), p. 1 (CITY FINAL). Retrieved January 27, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article83425027 ↩︎
  2. BOWGADA TRAGEDY (1927, August 20). Truth (Perth, WA : 1903 – 1931), p. 2. Retrieved January 27, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article208710437 ↩︎
  3. The Bowgada Tragedy (1927, August 20). The Albany Advertiser (WA : 1897 – 1954), p. 3. Retrieved January 27, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70166798 ↩︎
  4. ibid. ↩︎
  5. Hypocrisy (1938, February 6). Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 – 1954), p. 2. Retrieved January 27, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58802258 ↩︎
  6. FATAL SHOOTING OF JOHN HYLAND (1928, February 11). Truth (Perth, WA : 1903 – 1931), p. 7. Retrieved January 27, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article208138001 ↩︎

Tough Conditions and Complicated Lives

Around 1900, regular information came filtering through on the Ularring District and its goldfields, claiming that they were likely to be ‘second to none’ in mining outcomes. Ularring was one of four districts of the North Coolgardie Goldfield, the others being Menzies, Niagara, and Yerilla. The area is now Ularring.

By 1902 a committee had formed to erect and maintain, by subscription for the Ularring District Hospital, including a Female Ward, four-roomed residence for the Doctor, kitchen and Nurses; residence, outbuildings, and medical supplies1.

A Doctor had been appointed, The Rev Dr Hunter Finlay, who would receive £400 per annum, and he was described as having ‘…high qualifications and extensive and varied experience’. Nurse Brown (no identifying information available) had the care of patients, and her salary increased to £100 per annum, and she was promoted to Matron. Praise was fulsome for the two holders of these positions, and everything appeared to be going swimmingly. The photo below, (1903) of the hospital, does not mention names, but it’s possible the two figures are that of Dr Finlay and Nurse Brown.

Ularring District Hospital, Mulwarrie (Ideal Studio, Boulder)2

By September of 1903 Dr Finlay had left, and it appears he had been removed from the governing Board of the Hospital but not before an inquiry into the management of the hospital was held. It was concluded that ‘friction between the Resident Medical Officer (Dr Hunter Finlay) and the nurse in charge’ had precipitated his departure. However there was some disquiet about him before this date, judging from various letters to newspapers.3 4

This was not the first time Dr Finlay had been removed from a position – or at least, asked to resign. He was originally both a qualified medical doctor and an ordained Church of England Clergyman who immigrated to Australia in about 1880 with his daughter, Sarah Craig Hunter Finlay. His wife, Sarah Paterson Craig was confined to an asylum in Glasgow, Scotland, and remained there until her death in 1925. For some 20 years prior to his arrival in Western Australia, Dr Finlay was in the news in Queensland – as a bankrupt, charged with fraud, and charged with performing an abortion (he was acquitted of this one) and also malpractice.5 6

Eventually Dr Finlay was disallowed to perform marriages, and dropped the ‘Rev.’ appellation before his name. His relationship with a woman 32 years younger may have raised eyebrows, and the fact that they had three children in Queensland. Careful examination of dates makes the possibility of a third lady being the ‘Mrs Hunter Finlay’ present at Dr Finlays’ funeral in Coolgardie. He had taken up further positions, and pursued his private medical practice specialising in treating women and children around the district before his sudden death in 1906 of a heart attack in his Coolgardie consulting rooms.7 

Sources
  1. MULWARRIE. (1902, September 25). The North Coolgardie Herald and Miners Daily News (Menzies, WA : 1899 – 1904), p. 2. Retrieved May 8, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article259859802 ↩︎
  2. No Title (1903, November 24). Kalgoorlie Western Argus (WA : 1896 – 1916), p. 22. Retrieved May 8, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article32736460 ↩︎
  3. CORRESPONDENCE. (1903, April 18). The North Coolgardie Herald and Miners Daily News (Menzies, WA : 1899 – 1904), p. 3. Retrieved May 8, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article259806982 ↩︎
  4. COUNTRY. (1903, June 17). The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 – 1954), p. 5. Retrieved May 8, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article24826299 ↩︎
  5. PETTY DEBTS COURT. (1899, April 26). Morning Post (Cairns, Qld. : 1897 – 1907), p. 3. Retrieved May 8, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article42938092 ↩︎
  6. TOWNSVILLE. (1892, March 8). Warwick Argus (Qld. : 1879 – 1901), p. 2. Retrieved May 8, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article76639366 ↩︎
  7. SUDDEN DEATH (1906, September 6). Coolgardie Miner (WA : 1894 – 1911), p. 3. Retrieved May 8, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article218125091 ↩︎

Symonds or Simounds?

A group of people posing for a photo Description automatically generated

This is a delightful wedding group, with the bride, Miss Maggie Symonds, wearing “…a pretty dress of white silk with point lace, a tulle veil, and a coronet of orange blossoms…the presents were both numerous and costly”. Some 80 guests partook of breakfast, then attended a ball in the evening at the Anaconda Hotel1, 2,3.

Less than a year before, Alfred Frederick Thompson, her new husband, the landlord at the Anaconda Hotel, was in custody, charged with unlawfully shooting and wounding John Clinton. He was acquitted – it was decided that he needed to protect himself with a revolver against some of his customers who were “attempting to take possession of the hotel”. This was definitely the Wild West, and one wonders if his bride was prepared for this behaviour, not uncommon, and including “outrages with dynamite” on the billiard hall and also the hotel4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

Over time, Anaconda has been known by various names, including Eulaminna, Murrin and Murrin Murrin. Lots were originally surveyed in 1900 to serve the nearby Murrin Murrin Copper Mine that was known as the Anaconda Copper Mine at the time. By 1903 there were 64 residential lots and a population of about 350. A Police Station was also established in 1903 and the town boasted two hotels, two stores a chemist and a newsagent. A mail receiver was in place but no telegraph station.

Researchers – if this is your family, the bride’s name is misspelled – she is really Margaret Robina (or Rosina) Simounds. If you know more about this family, please let us know at ghostswa@fhwa.org.au.

Sources

  1. Kalgoorlie Western Argus, 1903. District News. Published 29 Sep 1903, p.12. Retrieved 23 Oct 2024 from https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/32734679?searchTerm=Maggie%20Symonds ↩︎
  2. Kalgoorlie Miner, 1903. Wedding at Anaconda. Published 26 Sep 1903, p.4. Retrieved 23 Oct 2024 from https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/88873557?searchTerm=Maggie%20Symonds ↩︎
  3.  Kalgoorlie Western Argus (WA : 1896 – 1916),(1903, October 20) Wedding Group, Anaconda, Murrin Murrin. Thompson-Symnonds. p. 23. Retrieved October 25, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page4123379 ↩︎
  4. SHOOTING AFFRAY AT ANACONDA (1902, March 7). The Malcolm Chronicle and Leonora Advertiser (WA : 1897 – 1905), p. 3. Retrieved October 23, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article228044349 ↩︎
  5. Shooting Affray. (1902, March 13). The Evening Star (Boulder, WA : 1898 – 1921), p. 3. Retrieved October 23, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article203481548 ↩︎
  6. News of the Week. (1902, March 14). The Malcolm Chronicle and Leonora Advertiser (WA : 1897 – 1905), p. 2. Retrieved October 23, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article228044368 ↩︎
  7. MALCOLM POLICE COURT. (1902, March 21). The Malcolm Chronicle and Leonora Advertiser (WA : 1897 – 1905), p. 3. Retrieved October 23, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article228044382 ↩︎
  8. THE ANACONDA FRACAS. (1902, March 28). The Malcolm Chronicle and Leonora Advertiser (WA : 1897 – 1905), p. 2. Retrieved October 23, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article228044400 ↩︎
  9. THE ANACONDA FRACAS. (1902, June 27). The Malcolm Chronicle and Leonora Advertiser (WA : 1897 – 1905), p. 3. Retrieved October 23, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article228044723 ↩︎

Bernard Leslie – Mayor of Kalgoorlie

Bernard Patrick Leslie, Mayor of Kalgoorlie 1917 – 1920 & 1927 – 19331

When Mr Bernard Patrick Leslie, a former mayor of Kalgoorlie, died in 1933 at the age of 692, it came as a shock to the inhabitants of the goldfields. Reading his obituary, this tall, imposing man seemed indestructible.

One of his many adventures in the outback was recounted. In the late 1800s, after walking from Northam to Hannans Find (later Kalgoorlie), he proceeded to White Feather (Kanowna) and then headed to Broad Arrow seeking gold. On this trip, he and a mate ran out of water and were found, days later, nude and delirious and ‘very near dead’. Apparently, his jet black hair had turned white, and his body was severely burned by the sun. However, Mr Leslie recovered, and invested in mining in the Bardoc area, and on further to Mertondale, where he did not do so well, then Mount Higgins (Mulwarrie) where he was the founder, and first president of the Pioneer Progress Committee.

Mr Leslie married twice and had two sons. He is memorialised with his first wife, Jean, in Kalgoorlie Cemetery.

Sources
  1. City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder History and Heritage, 15 Nov 2017. Facebook post retrieved 20 Aug 2024 from https://www.facebook.com/CKBHistoryandHeritage/posts/a-story-from-the-mayors-parlourbernard-patrick-lesliemayor-of-kalgoorlie-1917-19/1942082316052998/ ↩︎
  2. DEATH OF MR. B. LESLIE (1933, February 11). Kalgoorlie Miner (WA : 1895 – 1954), p. 5. Retrieved August 21, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article95021902 ↩︎

The Lake Austin Librarian


A conference of librarians of Mechanics’ Institutes in all parts of the State was opened on Thursday afternoon, 3rd November 1904 at the Swan River Mechanics’ Institute, Hay St. By most accounts, this was an earnest affair, designed to enhance and promote the acquisition of knowledge in all areas of Western Australia, and to endeavour to ‘educate the Public Taste’: also, to ask for State funding for libraries. Mr J S Battye, Chief Librarian, was in the Chair. Papers were read – including one on ‘the Library Movement’. The photo I found shows the dignified gentlemen attending, amongst them Mr C E Hutton, of Lake Austin, a gold-mining town (now ghost town) near Cue, WA. He is the one, pictured on the right, with the whiskers.

Conference Delegates 12

However, one newspaper report gave a rather different slant on the proceedings, treating the subject of Mechanics Institutes and Libraries in a factious tone. The delegate for Lake Austin, Mr. C E Hutton, seems to have been disconcertingly frank in his report as written up in the Evening Star, Boulder, Wednesday 9th November 1904. Under a sub heading ‘Melancholy Meditations of the Bookworms’ Lake Austin was described as a ‘… weird, desolate (or maybe dissolute, the spelling is uncertain) township… on the Murchison…consisting of two stores, a pub, and the Institute.’

Mr. Hutton apparently reported during the conference: “I don’t care wot rules you make.” said the Austin librarian resignedly. “It can’t hurt our institoot. They ain’t scarcely no one there to roll up to it; and if they was. they wouldn’t see much, (and the) literatoor- ain’t too frequent. All I seen on tha table when I left was the “Day Dawn Chronicle.” …As fer books, everythings oot except (Encyclopedia) Brittannier, and they won’t take that ‘caus I got it bolted to the wall.”3

Sources
  1. SOME OF THE DELEGATES TO THE RECENT LIBRARIANS’ CONFERENCE. (1904, December 3). Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 – 1954), p. 27. Retrieved August 21, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article37804587 ↩︎
  2. The delegates in the photo are:
    Front Row: J Rushton (Victoria Park), W T Bray (Perth), J S Batty (Public Library, Perth), J L Nanson (Northampton), A S McClintock (Kalgoorlie), Rev J McPhee (Armadale),
    Middle Row: H S Ainsworth (Day Dawn), J S Armstrong Boulder, G N Clarke (Coolgardie), S Solomon (Northam), C E Hatton (Lake Austin)
    Back Row: R W Patrick (Cue), J Hansen (Bonnie Vale) ↩︎
  3. Librarians’ Conference (1904, November 9). The Evening Star (Boulder, WA : 1898 – 1921), p. 2. Retrieved August 21, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article204536689 ↩︎

The Rutherford Family of Ninghan

Searching for the ghost town/area Ninghan (occasionally spelled Ningan) I found a story which indicates the everyday dangers always present in outback Western Australia. When she was 11 years old, Hazel Rutherford, of Ninghan Station via Yalgoo wrote in to ‘Aunt Mary’ (children’s letters to the Silver Chain) about where she lived. She told of the spring near their homestead, the garden of poppy flowers, and her kitten. Hazel had five brothers and a sister. She also had a friend, Iris Vickery, and they went for long walks together. Ninghan Station still exists, and the descriptions of it are as picturesque now as they were in 1925.

Childrens Corner conducted by “Aunt Mary”1

A few years later, Hazel’s name was again in the newspaper, but this time the information was not so benign. She was listed as family mourning the death of her twin brother, Harold Arthur Rutherford, who had died riding home from his day’s work as a stockman – he was 17 and six months. Harold was laid to rest where he was found, at Ninghan Station, which at the time was owned by Tom Elder Barr Smith. By that time, the Rutherford family seem to have moved to Bungar Station, Paynes Find which is still in the area. This I could not find. Perhaps the name has changed, or the land is divided now.

Family Notices 2

A postscript to this story was a request for compensation for Harold’s death, put forward by his father, George Arthur Rutherford, to Tom Elder Barr Smith, heir to a fortune in pastoral properties and owner of Ninghan Station. £75 was awarded under the Workers Compensation Act, on the grounds that Harold had partially supported his father and the family by some of his wages at the time he died. Iris Vickery, a bookkeeper to Mr Barr Smith, corroborated the information.

Peeps at People 3

The Dalwallinu Register of Burials notes the grave, and also that the ashes of a relative, George Edward Rutherford, who died in 1990, were also interred there4. 

Sources
  1. Ginger and Fluffy. (1926, January 21). Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 – 1954), p. 29. Retrieved August 20, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article37644656 ↩︎
  2. Family Notices (1932, April 14). The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 – 1954), p. 1. Retrieved August 20, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article32643172 ↩︎
  3. Peeps at People (1932, April 10). Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 – 1954), p. 7 (First Section). Retrieved August 20, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58661172 ↩︎
  4. Shire of Dalwallinu Burial Register ↩︎