Population of the Northern Goldfields – 1905

Editors Note: This very informative article is reproduced from the Kookynie Press.¹

We [the newspaper] recently obtained fascinating population statistics for the North Coolgardie district, courtesy of Inspector Woods, detailing the population as compiled by the police up to June 30. These figures offer a crucial look at the shifting fortunes of the Northern Goldfields communities.

The Overall Trend: A Net Loss for the Region

Compared to the statistics compiled the previous year, the North Coolgardie district as a whole has experienced a loss of 256 people.

While some centers managed to hold steady or even grow, others saw significant decreases in population. Menzies, for instance, managed to remain the same.

The most substantial population losses were recorded in:

Kookynie, showing a significant drop of 559 residents.
Morgans, which lost 132 residents.
Malcolm, which saw a decrease of 125 residents.

However, the outlook was much brighter for several key towns, demonstrating that growth continues in specific pockets of the goldfields. Towns reporting major increases include:

Leonora, which gained 240 people.
Laverton, which grew by 230 people.
Gwalia, which added 100 people.

Substantial increases were also recorded in the areas of Murrin and Yundamindera.

Detailed Population Statistics by District

The following tables provide the detailed breakdown of the population in the North Coolgardie district as of June 30, 1905.

MENZIES DISTRICT

Location	Males	Females	Children	Total
Menzies	998	467	379	1,844
Woolgar	144	52	55	251
Comet Vale	11	3	7	21
Goongarrle	60	9	10	79
Mt Ida	94	15	15	124
TOTAL	1,307	546	466	2,314

KOOKYNIE DISTRICT

Location	Males	Females	Children	Total
Kookynie	1,020	220	175	1,415
Champion	50	15	18	83
Britannia	19	5	10	34
Puzzle	11	2	2	15
Niagara	150	31	22	203
Tampa	30	4	6	40
Yerilla	100	5	4	109
TOTAL	1,390	282	241	1,915

MALCOLM DISTRICT

Location	Males	Females	Children	Total
Malcolm	250	90	60	400
Webster’s Find	60	20	10	90
Mertondale	240	60	20	320
Dis. gen.	81	15	27	123
TOTAL	631	185	117	933

GWALIA DISTRICT

Location	Males	Females	Children	Total
Gwalia	585	185	160	930

LEONORA DISTRICT

Location	Males	Females	Children	Total
Leonora	395	196	140	731
Tower Hill	93	11	3	107
Dis. gen.	337	45	31	413
TOTAL	825	252	174	1,251

YUNDAMINDERA DISTRICT

Location	Males	Females	Children	Total
Yund’m’n’dra	167	45	48	260
Edjudina	115	23	24	162
Pingin	57	2	0	59
Dis. gen.	85	3	4	92
TOTAL	424	73	76	573

MURRIN DISTRICT

Location	Males	Females	Children	Total
Murrin	370	33	29	432

MORGANS DISTRICT

Location	Males	Females	Children	Total
Morgans	665	282	138	1,085
Dis gen.	103	11	8	122
TOTAL	768	293	146	1,207

LAVERTON DISTRICT

Location	Males	Females	Children	Total
Laverton	205	60	41	306
Euro	8	2	3	13
Craiggiemore	55	17	24	96
Lancefteld	160	20	36	216
Augusta	20	3	4	27
Ida H.	80	22	25	127
Hawke’s Nest	20	0	0	20
Erlston dis.	338	27	16	371
TOTAL	886	151	149	1,196

BURTVILLE DISTRICT

Location	Males	Females	Children	Total
Burtville	228	42	30	300

SIR SAMUEL DISTRICT

Location	Males	Females	Children	Total
Sir Samuel	413	100	69	582

LAWLERS DISTRICT

Location	Males	Females	Children	Total
Lawlers	430	130	110	670
Cue’s Patch	115	16	13	144
Darlot	140	22	14	176
Dis. gen.	308	41	17	366
TOTAL	993	209	154	1,356

BLACK RANGE DISTRICT

Location	Males	Females	Children	Total
Black Range	92	19	11	122
Dis. gen.	463	24	23	510
TOTAL	555	43	34	632

DAVYHURST DISTRICT

Location	Males	Females	Children	Total
Davyhurst	625	98	125	848
Callion	10	1	2	13
Siberia Soak	6	1	2	9
Mulwarrie	47	12	13	72
Ullaring	19	2	0	21
Mulline	130	24	22	176
Riverina	48	5	10	63
TOTAL	885	143	180	1,208

Sources

Population of the Northern Goldfields. (1905, July 15). Kookynie Press (WA : 1903 – 1911), p. 1. Retrieved December 15, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article251123991 ↩︎

Three Decades

In May 2011, The Weekend West‘s Rod Moran published an article under the banner “The Way We Were”.¹ The short article reads:

August 4, 1898

In three decades Goongarrie grew from a camp to a thriving town and finally a ghost town.

This lighthearted snap shows a picnic gathering at Goongarrie, a flourishing gold-mining site in the back-blocks between Menzies and Kalgoorlie. The first gold discoveries in the area were mde in 1893. The hamlet was also called the Roaring Gimlet, due to the thundering noise of icy desert winds through the gimlet trees. More prosaically, early on it was simply called the 90 Mile camp, its approximate distance from Coolgardie.

Despite its isolation, Goongarrie developed into a thriving little town. By the 1890s it boasted two pubs, as well a other essential services such as a post and telegraph office. In 1898 the Cobb and Co coach from Coolgardie was boosted from a bi-weekly to a daily run. The government rail line opened in the same year. The town also boasted a blacksmith, a carpenter, two butchers, a baker two restaurants and a cool drink manufacturer. But the citizens depicted here at play also had some weighty concerns on their minds in its August 4, 1889 [sic] edition The West Australian reported “Considerable dissatisfaction is expressed in this district at the failure of the Education Department to establish a school at Goongarrie. From 15 to 30 children are now resident here, and…not having any educational facilities whatever, are to a great extent running wild about the country…growing up in almost total ignorance.”

In 1904 the district’s electoral roll listed 109 names. But by 1921 the postal directory had only 21 people on it. even if a school had been built, Goongarrie’s fortunes would have waned as alluvial gold petered out.

The information and accompanying image were said to be taken from the archives of The West Australian. However, a search of Trove for the period in question has not located the original photo. The quoted comment about the lack of a school in Goongarrie can be found in the Kalgoorlie Western Argus ² along with further details on the issue.

In September 1898, Cyril Jackson, the Inspector General of Schools, responded to a letter from the local Board of Health in which an offer of a suitable building (the Miners’ Institute) was made to house a school free of charge. He said “…the Minister is very anxious indeed to extend education to as many children as possible. It seems impossible, however, in the present state of the funds to establish a school at Goongarrie.”³

Some things, it seems, never change.

Source

Rod Moran, 2011. The Weekend West : The Way We Were. Published 28-29 May, 2011 by The West Australian Newspapers. ↩︎
GOONGARRIE. (1898, August 4). Kalgoorlie Western Argus (WA : 1896 – 1916), p. 9. Retrieved June 28, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article32194286 ↩︎
Public School at Goongarrie. (1898, October 1). The Menzies Miner (WA : 1896 – 1901), p. 5. Retrieved June 28, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article233058760 ↩︎

Search Party

I just came across this article in the Sunday Chronicle of 12 Dec 1897¹. It struck my funny bone and so I wanted to share it with you!! Perhaps, given the sombre nature of the background to the article, that says something rather dark about my sense of humour?

Steps are being taken (says the Morning Herald’s Menzies correspondent) to organise another search party to look for the man M’Innes, who was lost 12 months ago while journeying from Menzies to Donkey Rocks. He is supposed to have perished between Menzies and Goongarrie Lake.

This reads very curiously to us. There were search parties organised about the time that the man was lost and they were unsuccessful. Have the Menzies people become so thoroughly embued with the West Australian spirit that after 12 months they must institute another search? What use would it be, anyhow? If M’Innes perished, which we sincerely hpe he did not, the part could only find his bleaching bones – what earthly use would that do them? Now if they put a record in the archives of Menzies that in the year 3000 a.d., the mayor and councillors of the town are requested to institute a search for a certain man named M’Innes, who was believed to have been lost in the year 1896, they would possibly be doing future generations a certain amount of good, for the suppositionary bleaching bones by that time might have become interesting fossils, that is unless Menzies has fallen neck and crop into the background of oblivion, which does not seem at all unlikely as the world wags.

At the time of the disappearance, The North Coolgardie Herald and Menzies Times reported that Constable Sampson of Bardoc and a black tracker were searching unsuccessfully for the publican John M’Innes². Mr M’Innes had made the trek through trackless and waterless country successfully on a number of previous occasions, but no trace was found of him after he left for Donkey Rocks in late December.

“THE WEEKLY WHIRL.” Sunday Chronicle (Perth, WA : 1897 – 1899) 12 December 1897: 3. Web. 17 Feb 2024 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article257697205>. ↩︎
“LOST IN THE BUSH.” The North Coolgardie Herald and Menzies Times (WA : 1896 – 1898) 30 December 1896: 2. Web. 17 Feb 2024 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article259770978>. ↩︎

Billy Frost

The following article was published on page 1 of The Sun newspaper on Sunday, 21 November 1909. I first stumbled across the name of Billy Frost while researching Siberia where he, along with Bob Bonner, discovered gold in 1893.

That well-known prospector, Billy Frost, the discoverer of Goongarrie, Siberia and Burtville, and the pegger out of the Premier at Kunanalling, the third lease applied for on the Coolgardie goldficlds, is again amongst us after prospecting in pretty nearly every goldfield in the world. After a long experience and many hairbreadth escapes, in which his death has been duly chronicled many times, Frost has returned, and is of opinion that Australia is “God’s own country”. Anyhow he is going to have one more try. A syndicate is being formed of 40 shares of £25 each to fix up matters. Frost gets nothing, either in cash or wages, but takes 10 fully paid up shares, which are a pure gamble. Ten further shares are held in reserve for contingencies, while 20 contributing shares, £12 10/ to be called up, are being issued. Of the latter half have been placed in Perth, and goldfielders have now an opportunity to apply for the balance, five of which have already been placed. The Government is backing the venture with camels, and all that Frost requires is tucker for a six to twelve mouths’ trip, which, in the early days he could have got in the twinkling of a star. Frost is staying with Jerry McAuliffe, prospector of the White Feather, Yerilla and other shows, but is rather diffident of being interviewed by members of the fourth, or any other, estate. He starts outback almost immediately.
BILLY FROST. (1909 November 21). The Sun (Kalgoorlie, WA : 1898 – 1929), p.1.¹

It seems like Billy was a bit of a lad, and here I may be reading too much into it, but the tone of the article suggests that investing your hard earned in his new venture might be a little risky?

In 1926, in Mackinlay, Queensland, Billy was shot by Mick Ford during an argument. He is buried at Cloncurry².

Sources

Trove. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article211133656 Accessed 16 Nov 2023 ↩︎
Moya Sharp, 2023. Billy Frost – the seeker of shadows. Outback Family History https://www.outbackfamilyhistoryblog.com/billy-frost-the-seeker-of-shadows/. Access 16 Nov 2023 ↩︎