Day 33 - Last day in Kalgoorlie
Wednesday, June 27, 2012 at 07:23AM Hello people, last day in Kalgoorlie today, I worked this morning at a different mine site that is owned by the same company, Barrick…..They are one of the world’s largest gold mining companies. And they have several sites in WA & in NSW.
Do any of you know the story of the discovery of gold over here? Here is what I found out from the museum yesterday. Paddy Hannan was an Irishman, he came to Australia on a boat in 1862, he went up to Ballarat & worked in the goldfields up there for 5 years before heading to NZ. He came back to Australia in 1873 & worked in Victoria before heading across to WA. He worked at Southern Cross (we were just near there the other day).
Him & his mate Tom Flannigan decided they would go to Mount Youle where gold had been found, this is 30km north east of where Kalgoorlie is today.
On the way to Mount Youle Tom Flannigan saw some gold nuggets just lying on a sandy bed, but he knew if he stopped to pick them up the people ahead of them would see them & come back to see what they had found. So he threw a bush over the spot where they were and returned later when the coast was clear.
Paddy & Tom decided to ask another mate Dan Shea (who had loaned them the horses to get up there) to join them and between the three of them they picked up 109 ounces of gold in just 2 days!
Once word got out the rush was on & in a very short time there were over 50,000 people here all looking for gold.
Now I have a bit of a dilemma here…. We all know that Paddy Hannan is credited with discovering gold here & there are monuments to Paddy & streets named after him, pictures of him etc. But what about his buddies? Tom & Dan? Where do they get credit? Can any of you remember in high school history classes being taught about Dan Shea & Tom Flannigan? It’s just not right! I’m going to start a campaign to recognise Tom & Dan…. Now if only I could use Facebook!
The golden pipeline. Another interesting thing is the history of the pipeline from Perth to the goldfields. It required 50000 pipes 762mm in diameter & 8.5m long! Imagine going to the local hardware store and saying “Mate can I get 50,000 pipes 8.5m long for a job I gotta do!” the initial pipeline was completed in 1903. I just can’t imagine laying that much pipe using horse & cart & shovel, because there was not much else around in those days.
And you know I have a bit of a sentimental attachment to the pipeline? When we first came to Australia we ended up living in Kambalda which is just near Kalgoorlie. Mum & Dad bought me & my brother second hand bikes and we used to go riding along the pipeline tracks. When we got too hot we used to sit in the shady part of the pipe line & touch the pipe as it was always cool from the water!
Ok I have a challenge for you. Tonight when you get home get comfortable & even have a drink or two and then at roughly 630pm turn your TV to ABC2/4 and find a program called “In The Night Garden” Watch it & see if you can make any sense of it! It has creations called higgle piggle, upsa daisy, Makka Pakka, tumbley boos. I mean I have a great imagination but I wanna meet the person who created this show! They must be on drugs!
Reader’s Replies
Anne & Gary sent us an email that didn’t come through a while ago, no idea why it came back to you? But glad you sent it again.
Pete finally messaged on the blog, great to hear from you mate…..Any luck with a current Michelin Truck Atlas? The old one is being used as toilet paper it is so wrong & out of date! But seriously Pete, I was going to do the Gibb River Road on this trip, but I was told “Wait until Mary & Pete are with us!” so we better start looking at dates!
Nikki said that “A childhood is not complete until you have had a bath in a sink” wow Nik, that is so prophetic , sounds like something you would see on a greeting card!
And Flick tells us she is happily still stuck in Exmouth (by choice) say hi to Emma & Matt from us Flick.
Annie’s Blog
Oh I’m so over this blog thing, Dad asks me every night for my thoughts for the day and you know what….Sometimes I just don’t have thoughts & if I do they are my thoughts, maybe I don’t want to share them with other people! Who says that you have to share things that are made up inside your own head? I mean if I could speak I would tell people what I thought, but because I can’t I just think things & they are my thinkings not anyone elses! So that’s what I think today. Maybe I’ll share my thoughts with you all tomorrow.
Have a Wice sleep
AnnieInAVan…XXXX
Reader Comments (3)
My granny, Jean, who is 92 absolutely loves the show! She thinks it is hilarious ! It cracks her up completely. What do they say about getting older and moving closer back to being a child...
Loving reading the blog, Annie is such an advanced child or her age - you must be so proud of her reading and writing skills. What a great part of her history and life story for her to look back on. I am sure in her teenage years she might be embarrassed by it all, but she'll come round once she is out of her terrible teens.
Love to youse three adventurerers!!!! X and yes I realise it is work too x
Hi All,
Yes I've finally blogged up to date! Love a good Paddy story, sounds like a good joke... Paddy went bush looking for GOLD, on his way he met Tom and Dan, they walked the sandy creek bed on there way to who knows where.... Along the way Paddy found a funny gold nugget, Tom and Dan pondered on what strange animals would leave such wonders..... OK soo I'm not much of a story teller!!!
Hope your all well and if you can find me some gold I would really appreciate it :-)
Take care
T
Being the devoted Grandma have been through the "in the night garden" with Brock when he was younger. However, he used to tell me that Makka Pakka name was was Buggar Bugga - I think Danni's Greg might be the culprit there.!!!!
Love the blog and instead of being late for work now I wait till I get there and read it then. Especially love the history lessons - sure find out a lot of stuff I had now idea about - obviously didn't pay that much attention when I went to school or may it is because I am so old I have forgotten it.
love to you all and special cuddles for Annie. Liz xxx