Then began the battle of the routes, with Newcastle, Northam and York each laying claim to be at the start of the best route to the fields. Almost immediately the discovery was announced the Toodyay Road Board allocated £100 to the improvement of the Newcastle route, while the York Road Board voted £300 to improving the ever important water supplies on the route from York.
All three routes, after passing through either Mangowine or Yarragin, converged at Barbalin before proceeding via Wattoning or Wilgoyne to the fields.
In a letter to The Western Mail of 15 November 1887 Mr J. P. Dempster told of a route from Newcastle to the fields through Comaling (sic), Wyalcatching (sic), Trayning where the declared road ended and the road made and used by the sheep farmers continued. He suggested going via Mujakine (Glass), Yarrogin (sic), Barbatlia (sic) after which there were two alternatives—to go straight to George Lukin’s Willgoon (sic), (Wattoning) which was shorter. On this last route after leaving Barbalin Pool it was ten miles to Calyanbuding (sic), six miles to Wadoing (sic), six miles to Dalcooling (sic), fourteen miles to De-eranning then Willgoon (sic), then twenty miles to Elachbutting. There was then possibly water at Walyamunding* (eight miles) thence twenty-two miles to the fields at the Yilgarn Hills.
This route was in fact a fairly circuitous one but perhaps Dempster had good reason to promote it, for although James Ward did indeed live at Wattoning he worked for the Dempsters and the surrounding country was under lease to them.
In The Inquirer of 7 December George Lukin recommended the 185 mile route from Newcastle: ‘as a good plain road all the way’, and one on which travellers would not get lost, although he urged them not to venture out at that time as water was very scarce. He further asserted that he had used the route for twelve years
‘this is the one we(…) one and all use(…) on this line a three horse team with cart can take three tons weight at any time of the year’
(a claim hotly disputed by a rival for an alternative route the following week).
Lukin’s former partner B. D. Clarkson added his support to the Newcastle route and told of Lukin leaving for the fields with two tons on a four horse waggon.
Prospector Colreavy had found the route from Northam ‘as level as a billiard board’, to which a reply asserted that the Newcastle route beat the Northam one ‘into a cocked hat’, while Craig and Seabrook favoured the road from York.
All of these routes would have brought trade to the homesteads on the way, where the station owners were able to sell general rations, meat, milk, bread, eggs, fruit, water, chaff—in fact almost everything consumable by men and horses.
C. Adams was reported to have visited Fremantle to purchase goods to sell to prospecting parties and was accused of vested interests in promoting the track to Mangoyne.
The Inquirer of 21 December 1887 mentioned Lukin supplying sheep
‘at the reasonable rate of 16/- per head delivered on the ground and other supplies(…) obtained from him at reasonable rates’,
but intending prospectors were advised to bring out general stores
‘as Lukin may run out’.
Soon however, water, not stores, was the problem and Lukin made it known that he could no longer supply water to the prospectors as there was only sufficient left to last his sheep for a few weeks, and he recommended waiting until the rainy season. By December those reckless enough to venture out were advised to bring fodder for their horses as feed too was in short supply. One party of four left Northam optimistically armed with a hickory stick to be used to divine water.
To determine the best route and ascertain water supplies Mr H. E. Parry was sent out by the Surveyor General’s office to map the various routes to the field, and he, accompanied by Mr J. Mills the Sheep Inspector and an aboriginal guide, left Northam early in December 1887.
The upshot of Parry’s investigations was a map issued in January 1888* showing the three routes to the Yilgarn Hills, and carefully pinpointing the locations of feed and water and the distances between watering points—an important consideration for both men and horses.
This map showed the routes from Newcastle and Northam meeting at Goomalling, then it was ten miles to Beeanding Soakage (permanent water and good feed), ten miles to Bengyberring (good feed), seven miles to Wyalcatching, then on to Corrologging, seventeen miles to Yelburning well, then to Trayning (good feed), four miles to Mugakine, six miles to Yarraging (Butterly’s homestead), fourteen miles to Babalin (permanent water and good feed), thirteen miles to Dandyarning (Danjinning), six miles to Calculling, ten miles to Wilgoyne (Lukin’s homestead), sixteen miles to Ellachbudding, twelve miles to Wilyhamonning then eighteen miles to Ennuin and Anstey’s Reef.
On his map the route from York came through Youndegin, Tamin and Cotchcotching to Mangoyne (Adams’ homestead) then on twenty-one miles to meet the former track between Babalin and Dandyarning. All these routes passed through Barbalin where the excellent water was on the 100 acre tillage leased owned by Adams.
The same map showed a road suggested by Charles Adams from Mangoyne to Dandannie then to Cootaning (permanent water and good feed), Gilaken, Gutawalken, Barcooting and Ennuin.**
This route through Gilakin later came to be well used enroute to the Golden Valley and Southern Cross, while the route via Wilgoyne was the preferred track to Mount Jackson (after gold was discovered there in 1891) after going from Barbalin to Wattoning then to Wilgoyne.
Teamsters with wagons earned an excellent livelihood in these pre railway times carting provisions and mining equipment to the fields, and sometimes carting back wool and sandalwood from the homesteads. The Clamps from Golden Valley were prospectors and sandlwood men in these times and later became farmers in the Mukinbudin District.
The route from Newcastle past Mangowine and Wilgoyne was so well used that before long there were complaints of the track being deeply rutted and almost impassable.
The leaseholders at the homesteads too were smitten with gold fever and spent much time after 1887 prospecting but with varied success.
The Ennuin find did not turn out as profitable as had been hoped. Greaves, Payne, Anstey and Lukin were to work it and shortly after Lukin was offered £1,000 for his share, refused, only to lose £400-£500 through the venture.
With the development of the more successful find at Golden Valley, water was carted the fourteen miles from Lukin’s tanks at Ennuin to the head of the Lake and from there across to the Valley by means of pack horses. The water was vital as by March 1888 there were about 100 men on the fields (twenty at Ennuin, eighty at the Golden Valley) and as many horses.
A. Woodward, the government geologist, visited the Yilgarn fields in March 1888 with Mr J. Mills the sheep inspector, and found the water at ‘Ennuing’ fast drying up with only a fortnight’s supply left there, and not much more than a month’s supply left at Barcooting another of Lukin’s runs (they had been replenished by heavy thunderstorms early in December 1887 after Lukin proclaiming them nearly dry in November). Woodward felt that Lukin would not have benefited greatly from selling water to the prospectors, at what he felt to be the moderate charge of 5/- per week per horse, for as a result he had been forced to send almost all his stock back to Wilgoyne. The Ennuin well was seventyfive links deep (49’6″ or 15.2 metres) and dry again by February 1889 as H. S. King recorded on the first page of his Field Book 9.
Another writer to the Eastern District’s Chronicle of 24 March 1888, claimed Lukin’s water charges were ‘pretty heavy’ and the supplies failing fast.
Shortage of water had indeed caused the deaths of two prospectors, Tim Shea and H. Beadles. These two men had been placed in charge of the Ennuin field while Payne, Greaves, Anstey and Lukin were absent. Shea had been working for Lukin and other pastoralists in the vicinity for about eight years and was reckoned to know the country. The two men had left Ennuin and gone off searching for the Cordelia—which Greaves had located some miles south—became lost and perished. George Lukin, guided by aboriginal trackers, found Shea a few days after his death and it was evident he had gone mad for he had torn off his clothing in small pieces and the ground around was dug up for 100 yards. Lukin and Mr Mills, the sheep inspector, buried the unfortunate man. Poor Beadles was within a mile of the water at Ennuin when he died in a fashion completely in contrast with Shea—his arms were folded, his hat and boots placed neatly under his head. His body was found by two aboriginals, Benmal and Paddy, who buried him.
It was in 1889 that Charles Adams built the inn and applied for the wayside licence at Mangowine on the route to the fields from Newcastle that passed through Mangowine and Wilgoyne. The licence was addressed c/- A. H. Rason of Rason, Webster and Company who had at this time taken over many of Adams’ leases.
In January 1888 Adams applied to lease 20,000 acres including Muckenbooding for twenty years until 31 December 1907, and this lease was eight miles north east of his 40,000 acres around Lake Brown, Mangowine and Barbalin. Adams probably sank the well at the Muckenbooding Rock, and as late as 1910 when H. J. Shadbolt came to his block there were the remains of an old sheep yard near the well.
The history of the leases became very confusing after 1887 as Perth business men, as well as genuine pastoralists, took up leases in the hope of finding gold or profiting from the passing trade. However from a Lands & Surveys map of Western Australia showing the areas leased for pastoral purposes at 31 December 1888, it is seen that almost the entire area of what became the Shire of Mukinbudin was taken up.
In 1888 many of Adams’ leases, including part of the Mangowine lease, Kalcaling, Kalyanbudding, Cundeing and Coonerknubing, were taken over by the business firm of Rason, Webster and Co who had quite an interest in the goldfields as advertisements in the Inquirer showed. In the issue of 16 November 1887 their advertisement claimed:
‘the best route is from Newcastle and parties proceeding to the fields can obtain horses, saddles, stores and all necessaries at reasonable prices from Rason, Webster & Co. Newcastle. N.B. Orders can be wired in advance from Perth Office in Hay St.’
A base actually en route would have been no disadvantage.
Adams continued to live at Mangowine doubtless working on some sort of arrangement, spending a deal of time prospecting and after 1889 running his wayside Inn. Others of Adams’ leases were paid by the National Bank at this time.
The gold discoveries made it essential for the Lands Department to have more accurate maps, as the old pastoral lease maps were only approximate as to acreage and distances.
For this purpose H. S. King was sent out in January 1889 to carry out trigonometrical surveys in the Eastern Districts and marked all the notable features and wells in the area. The stone lined wells generally located near granite outcrops, sunk over the years by the pastoralists, were a great benefit to the prospectors and King noted their size and holding capacity.
Go to Henry Sandford King
- 1 link = 7.92 inches
- [* Place names left as in Dempster’s letter.]
[* The author has an original copy of this map.] [** All places as spelt on the 1888 map.]
Excerpts from page 36-42, On The Line by Jocelyn Maddock