472 I. D. HEPPINGSTONE ness of two months. Th, voyage itself continued for another thm and a 1 half years, making four and a half in total, and it yielded 255 barrels of sperm oil, 2,700 barrels of whale oil (sometimes known as black oil) and 43,000 pounds of whalebone. This cargo had a value of$1O,934. In 1876, the Wing brothers of New Bedford built another ship, the Fleet­ wing, for Captain Heppingstone and he sailed her the following year out of San Francisco. This port was favoured by many whalemen as a base for John Forrest and the refitting. This time, he was gone for five years, making a successful voyage Western Australian Goldrushes* which returned about $5,000 each year. On his return home, in 1882, John Heppingstone retired from the sea, at the age of fifty-one. MARTYN WEBB As has been recounted, the Heppingstone family had a strong interest in whaling, which led many of its members to travel widely in pursuit of this fascinating, if dangerous, livelihood. Others remained here in Western John Forrest was a giant of a man both physically and mentally. He stood Australia, working the land and helping to create the new country to which head and shoulders above his contemporaries. As the State's first Premier their ancestors Robert and his wife Ann had come in 1830, at a time when from 1890 to 1901 he used his undoubted skills and knowledge to lay the economic privation and social upheavals associated with industrialisation foundations of the modern State of Western Australia. He was, however, and urbanisation led many to leave their homelands in search of a better fortunate in that he came to office at almost the precise moment at which life. gold was found in what was Australia's most impoverished and backward colony, left behind by those in eastern Australia, which had already devel­ oped economies on the basis of wool exports and, from the 1850s, the REFERENCES benefits of gold, first discovered in New South Wales and Victoria and 1. J.W. Turner to T. Salkild, written from Augusta,S July 1839 (Battye Library). later in Queensland. Western Australia was thus, on the eve of its great 2. Journal of the Meneor, 1840 (Battye Library). gold rushes of the 1890s, a land of despondency and despair waiting, 3. ibid. 4. ibid. Micawber-like, for something better to turn up. 5. ibid. John Forrest was himself a product of that past and, born in 1847, only 6. ibid. eighteen years after the founding of the Swan River Colony, knew at first 7. ibid. hand of the warping effects which widespread poverty and distress had on 8. ibid. the hearts and minds of West Australians. 9. Inquirer,S February 1851. 10. Inquirer, 25 November 1846. With a lesser spirit than Forrest, modern Western Australia might have 11. Inquirer, 28 March 1849. been laid on quite different foundations. Part of his success as Premier was 12. Inquirer, 24 September 1851. due to his having grown up and developed his character and learned his 13. Inquirer, 2 April 1856. skills as an administrator before self-government came to Western Aus­ 14. N. C. Haley, Whale Hunt - The Narrative of a Long Voyage (New York, 1948). tralia and in the days prior to the emergence of the modern disciplined 15. Journal of the Triton, 24 March 1872 (Battye Library). 16. ibid. ideologically-based political party. His was probably the most remarkable non-political apprenticeship for high political office of anyone in Australia. He was Western Australia's greatest explorer-geographer. He rose from the ranks to become, first, Sur­ veyor General of Western Australia, and then, at a time when it was, prac­ tically speaking, the most important public office short of the governor, Commissioner of Crown Lands. As an appointed member of Western Aus­ tralia's Legislative Council immediately prior to self-government, he had already gained invaluable experience of the inner workings of government

• Due to limitations of space, Professor Webb's interpretation of the reasons for the suicide of C. Y. O'Connor given in the original paper have been omitted. It is anticipated that this will form the substance of another paper to be given at a later date. 473 474 MARTYN WEBB Forrest and the Goldrushes 475 and the uses of power, before taking office as Premier. He was also the most widely travelled and knowledgeable of his contemporaries. John Forrest was, however, fortunate in that he was appointed Premier at the very beginning of the great Western Australian gold rush, and early enough in his life (he was forty-three years of age when he assumed the premiership) to make full use of all his skills and hard-won knowledge. Forrest, both literally and figuratively, grew into the office of premier and by the time he came to resign as Premier in 190I his appearance and bear­ ing were regal and, whether consciously or not, as though he had modelled himselfon Edward, Prince of Wales. Professor Frank Crowley, Forrest's biographer, painted this word pic­ ture of him at the height of his political power and influence:

Forrest was a big man, titanic in energy, massive in personality, and massive in physique-he stood nearly six feet in height and weighed nearly twenty stone when at the age of fifty three he joined the first federal government .... In the later years of his middle-age he was a tall big-framed, balding, rather obese figure, with a 541f2 inch waist and a rather ungainly walk. He wore a moustache and a full stubby black beard tinged with grey, a medallioned waistcoat which strug­ gled to encompass its occupant, trousers that had not an obvious suspension device, a derby brown out-of-doors and a rolled umbrella that seemed to be needed for stability rather than to cope with Perth's summer heat, or Melbourne's winter drizzle. He always ate and en­ joyed very large meals, slept well, occasionally smoked a pipe or cigar, had a sound digestion, rarely declined alcohol on medical or any other grounds, and kept most of his teeth until he was seventy. He wore reading glasses only in his sixties, and was seldom ill, except for winter colds and the occasional troubles of the elderly. He was gener­ ally full of bluff geniality, with a twinkle in his eye, a crushing hand­ shake, a wealth of good nature and breezy optimism. 1

Forrest in his early days was known mainly as a surveyor and explorer. There is no doubt that his skills as a surveyor stood him in good stead throughout all of his travels. But since most explorers of his day had to have at least a smattering of knowledge about position-finding, there was nothing unusual about him being a surveyor. Indeed, in this regard he was merely following in the footsteps of his predecessors, Septimus Roe, Augustus and Frank Gregory and Austin-all of whom were members of the Western Australian survey. Similarly, there was nothing special about him being an explorer at a time of widespread inland exploration in Africa, Asia and the Americas, as well as in Australia, except for the fact that he was among the first rank of world explorers. What made Forrest different from virtually all other Australian SirJohn Forrest explorers, apart from Major Mitchell in New South Wales, was that he was, by the tokens of his time, one of Australia's leading geographers. Forrest and the Goldrushes 477 476 MARTYN WEBB By 'geographer' I mean someone with an ability to integrate and general­ an administrator, but also, guided in his thinking by the application of ise about the world viewed as phenomena in space in much the same firm geographical principles. This is nowhere better illustrated than in his 4 manner as historians generalise about events in time. Like all good geog­ address to the electors ofBunbury on 22 November 1890. raphers, Forrest regarded reality as a complex of diff~rent elements. ,!,his His Bunbury election speech, probably one of the most important enabled him not only to grasp and understand an amazing range of subjects speeches ever made in Western Australia, was a moving and a masterly but also to deduce from them fresh ideas about the future. His abilities as a depiction ofWestern Australia as it was in times past, and as it could be in geographer were widely recognised by fellow geographers in Australia and times future. It was made when mining was in its infancy, ye::rs before the overseas in England, Italy and Russia and Vienna. He was also a gold discovery of either Coolgardie or Kalgoorlie. Had the speech been from medallist of the British Royal Geographical Society. In 1887, while visit­ anyone other than Forrest, it would have been of no more than academic ing England with his wife to participate in the celebration of Queen Vic­ interest. But as it came from the man who was shortly to preside over the toria's Golden Jubilee, he gave, at the invitation of British geographers, a momentous events which were about to unfold, and the arbiter between lecture to Section E, Geography, of the British Association for the Advance­ the competing interests of the Swan River colonists, the soon-to-arrive ment of Science. hordes of't'othersiders' (as eastern Australians were called at that time) On his way back to Western Australia, Forrest toured extensively in the and British-owned mining companies, his words hold a special place in the United States and Canada. What he saw in both countries with regard to formulation and development of Western Australia as we know it today. the economic advantages of federation, and the importance of railways in They establish beyond any shadow of a doubt that, from the very begin­ advancing agricultural settlement, greatly influenced his thinking on his ning of his premiership, John Forrest had a grand plan which, until he resigned eleven years later, he systematically implemented step by step. return to Australia. His pre-eminent position among Australian geographers was recognised Forrest began his Bunbury speech by calling upon the people to seek in the following year when he was appointed the first President of Section new ways of looking at themselves and their posterity. As he put it, 'In E, Geography, at the inaugural meeting of the Ausuaiasian ~ssocia~ion ~or days past, the colony had been under the control, more or less of the Im­ the Advancement of Science in Sydney in 1888. In his presidential perial Government; now it finds itselfits own master'. Therefore, with the address, he demonstrated that he was far ahead of his time in his breadth of granting of self-government, they must realise that they were 'no longer vision as a geographer, as well as in his understanding of the aims and scope tenants at will or tenants for years, but are freeholders of this immense of modern scientific geography, and ofthe value ofscientific research. territory'. That being so, they should ask themselves 'How are we to use He ended his speech with these little-known words in support of federa- the great privileges; the great opportunities?'. They could, as Forrest then explained, either go on as they had done in the past hoping for the best, or, tion: with the aid ofcheap British loan money: One of the charms of visiting the United States, or Canada, is the feel­ ing that you are under one flag and one law, and after visiting these boldly make an effort to improve the state ofwhich we are freeholders countries, as I have recently, the fact that Australia is divided into five and should do our best to make it attractive-to make it a place divisions is forcibly brought before me. Our tariffs wage war against worthy ofcoming to-and to do all in our power to improve our prop­ one another, and even our laws are dissimilar, and in many respects erty, in the same way as if it were our own personal estate .... I we are to one another people of foreign nations.' regard the public estate in the same light as ifit were my own, and the question is whether I should try to develop it with my own resources Forrest's appointment in 1883 as Surveyor General and Commissioner or borrow money to improve it. I see very little difference between of Crown Lands with a seat in both the Executive and Legislative Councils that and being intrusted with the management of the public estate had already taken him to the topmost branches of the Western Australia~ .... The colony is now known to the world. Thousands are looking at ruling establishment. As Commissioner, John Forrest assumed responsi­ it and it is necessary that the colony should make known that we have bility for administering the laws and regulations governi~g mining. It was something to offer those whose eyes are cast towards us. 5 under his direction that some of the first goldfield regulations were formu­ lated and the earliest goldfields proclaimed; the Kimberley (1886), Pilbara These were still early days. The entire population of the colony was less (1888) and Yilgarn (1888). than 50,000 and although Coolgardie (1892) and Kalgoorlie (1893) were Thus, when he was called upon to form a government following his elec­ still to be discovered, Forrest's eyes were already focused, even at that tion unopposed to the newly created Legislative Assembly as the member early stage, upon securing a settled population. To him, a settled popula­ for Bunbury, he was not only well prepared by training and experience as tion was an agricultural population, but, realising that the quickest way to 478 MARTYN WEBB Forrest and the Goldrushes 479 attract people to come to Western Australia was through mmmg-as mentary representation. Although the concentration of the franchised transient as that industry might be-he reminded his listeners that the population in the pre-1890 urban settlements was to be expected, the miner was 'the best friend of agriculture. Because the miner is a consumer major settlements, with 73 per cent of the votes, had only fourteen out of of all the products of the agriculturalist, you ought not, therefore, come the thirty seats in the newly-created Legislative Assembly. Eight seats were into conflict but work together hand in hand and thus be productive of held by rural constituencies with less than 100 persons on their electoral great good to the colony.' rolls. Murchison, the smallest constituency, had only twenty-four electors. His prediction that the scarcity of water was going to be, as he called it, During the course of this remarkable tour of the horizon, Forrest dwelt 'a drawback ... and it will be the duty of the new Government to try and at length on the credit-worthiness ofWestern Australia and the part cheap provide a water supply for the tin fields", on the road to the fields and on overseas loan money could play in a well-thought-out programme of public the gold fields' was to prove only too true as tens of thousands of men works. He also talked about federation and how Western Australia should struggling along the 120 miles of barren track east of Southern Cross on follow British Columbia's example and make a railway connection with the their way to Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie were to discover in the years rest ofAustralia a pre-condition upon its entering the proposed federation. 1892-1894. He linked this idea with the importance of opening up Western Australia Although Forrest's views on the future of mining were remarkably to the world's shipping and, arguing that the real terminus of the recently prescient, at the time he made his Bunbury speech he knew about the completed Great Southern Railway was Fremantle and not Albany, said possibilities of agricultural development from the evidence collected by that dredging and harbour works there would make Fremantle a port of Governor Broome's Agricultural Commission appointed three years call for mail steamers. He also wanted to see the existing telegraph system before." He argued that a beginning could be made by replacing the extended, and, to speed up agricultural development, the introduction of £ 150,000 worth of annual food imports by Western Australian grown food. survey before selection and, to help the infant mining industry, a geologi­ But this was only a beginning as there were difficulties to surmount before cal survey. the land could be fully developed. Among these. he identified the time it Although Forrest was immensely practical in everything he said about took to clear a farm, the amount ofland still 'locked up by earlier and un­ his plans for Western Australia's future development, his words were often productive land grants', a lack ofland and sea transport to connect farms to charged with emotion as, for example, in his peroration: distant markets, the absence of accurate land surveys, and the paucity of capital. I am sure thatwe have only one object in view-the welfare and pros­ In putting forward his plans for agricultural development, Forrest was perity ofthe colony. The day ofsmall things is passing away-I trust using his North American experience to stress the need to open up the land for ever [for those of] us who have laboured honestly and nobly in the by making it accessible to markets by building railways. As he put it: face of great difficulties for many a long year ... the gloom of the early days is passing away, the dark cloud is being dispelled, and a If they looked at all the civilised countries of Europe, the centre of brighter day is, I trust, about to dawn upon us. In that future I trust civilisation, they saw a network of railways all over the country, we will always remember with honour the names ofthose early colon­ whether the country was good or bad. They were the means of com­ ists, the founders ofthe district. I pray to God that those ofus who are munication if they crossed the Atlantic and came to America .... their descendants, would ever hold up our heads with pride and with With such examples before them, they could arrive at no other con­ honour, and prove ourselves worthy sons of those who for many long clusion except that the lack of railway communication was a death years, in the face of great difficulties and great adventures, kept the blow to all prosperity. Why should Western Australia be an exception even tenor of their way and, by their own industry and self denial, had to the other parts of Australia, and the other parts of the civilised laid the foundations ofthis district. world? Forrest's November 1890 blueprint for Western Australia was eventu­ In this regard he was then in support of land grant and government­ ally fulfilled almost to the letter, and there was hardly a matter to which he owned railway development. alluded in that speech which did not, in one way or another, come to pass His wide-ranging speech included references to the newly granted con­ during the course ofhis eleven-year premiership. But at that time the Mur­ stitution which he thought should be left unaltered, at least for the present. chison, the first major goldfield to be discovered, was still nine months This he knew would continue to keep the balance of power in the hands of away, Coolgardie's gold two years, Kalgoorlie and the Golden Mile three a few tiny rural and pastoral electorates, and thereby, should they come in years away. their thousands, deprive incoming miners of a commensurate parlia- Forrest was, as were most West Australians at that time, apprehensive 480 MARTYN WEBB Forrest and the Goldrushes 481 about Western Australia being swamped by thousands of invading new­ Lastly, there was a small but growing farming lobby whose power rested comers should gold be found in large quantities. This is exactly what ha~­ largely upon agriculture's central position in Forrest's scheme of things. pened after 1894 when tens of thousands poured into Western Australia The farmers, like the pastoralists, favoured tariffs on imports of foreign from eastern Australia and the United Kingdom. The peak year occurred and inter-colonial foodstuffs. These tariffs raised the ire of the miners for in 1896 when 55,000 immigrants arrived: 10,000 persons more t~an the whom practically everything had to be imported. To add insult to injury, entire population of Western Australia in 1890. The world r~shed In, and the farmers not only competed with the goldfielders for railway construc­ in the ten years between 1894 and 1903 Western Australia had a net tion, but also, at least for a time, managed to secure lower on-rail freight increase of population through migration of some 139,000 persons-three charges than did the miners. times the inhabitants of Western Australia in 1890, or very close to the All three lobbies were to benefit greatly from the gold rushes and the total immigration into the rest of Australia, principally Victoria, over the gold mining industry ofthe 1890s. same periodl'' . The mining lobby was divided into diggers (prospectors, alluvial miners The effects of this sudden and massive influx of people were dramatic, and wage earners) on the one hand, and the mine owners and managers on This was especially so hundreds of miles inland in the ~esert lands ?f the the other. For the first few years, the diggers were grateful for whatever Eastern Goldfield. The miners formed a large unfranchised population, a was done for them by the Western Australian dominated colonial govern­ large proportion ofwhom had come from Victoria, one of the world's most ment which, under Forrest's energetic leadership, responded remarkably advanced democracies. The Victorians were used to the secret ballot and, well to the mining industry's needs. Railways were constructed to both the as the result of the 1854 Eureka Stockade affair, deeply conscious of their Murchison and Eastern Goldfields, and among other numerous public civil rights. .. works on the goldfields was the greatest of them all, and the wonder ofthe Forrest always had his mind on the longer term objective of a stable British Empire, almost 400 miles of pipeline to carry water to the Eastern population. This could only be achieved through agriculture, by settling Goldfields." people on the land and by developing Perth as' the metropolis. Thus, Although new goldfields constituencies began to be created (albeit everything he did to help the miners by such projects as the Eastern Gold­ slowly), the miners' lack of a fair parliamentary representation was a con­ fields Railway, the Coolgardie Water Scheme, and the lan~-b~cked port of stant source of resentment among the thousands of vociferous and politi­ Frernantle, was done with an eye to this longer term objective. Further­ cally active and increasingly disgruntled alluvial miners and their trade­ more Forrest had realised that, unlike Victoria, financing the development unionist wage-worker allies who quickly realised that Forrest was not at all of mining and agriculture in Western Australia was going to be heavily anxious to alter the balance of power in their favour: especially since there dependent on securing a flow ofoverseas capital; initially from South ~us­ were estimated to be 65,000 persons on the fields, most ofthem young and tralia and Victoria (both of which had greatly benefited from previous male. mineral discoveries) and later in quantities beyond Australia's resources, Between 1890 and 1901 the population of Western Australia increased from Britain via the London stock exchange and money market. threefold, from less than 50,000 persons to more than 184,000: but only Consequently, once mining became a fully fledged industry in ~hich the 53,000 were Western Australian born. The most disgruntled, noisiest and newcomers began rapidly to outnumber the old Swan River colonists, For­ largest group ofmigrants were the 40,000 Victorians who imagined them­ rest found himself faced with a fearsome set of competing lobbies. On the selves to be far superior to West Australian 'sand-gropers' whom they one hand he had the old West Australians who, as a group, formed a lobby regarded as backward in every respect. which, throughout his premiership, held a parliamentary majority. The Although a somewhat less noisy and more gentlemanly lot, the 16,000 or West Australian lobby was really three competing groups. The first, com­ so South Australians took a leading role in initiating a separatist movement prised the old town electorates concentrated principally on Perth, Fre­ to join the Eastern Goldfields to South Australia less than two years after mantle and Bunbury (often referred to as 'Perth-mantle-bury' by the gol~­ Bailey and Ford's discovery of gold at Fly Flat in 1892. By then the Cool­ fielders). Albany, which one would have expected to have been part of this gardie Miner newspaper was already seriously discussing the possibility of group, was so incensed by Forrest's support for improving the port of Fre­ separating the Eastern Goldfields from Western Australia and joining it to mantle, that it began to side with the goldfielders. The second gr.oup co~­ South Australia. The port of Esperance, which was at least 600 miles by prised the pastoralists, whose tiny constituencies were on a par wl.th the In­ sea nearer to eastern Australia and 100 miles closer to the Eastern Gold­ famous 'pocket boroughs' ofearly nineteenth century England. Since mo~t fields than Fremantle, was regarded by the secessionists as their natural pastoralists had homes in Perth, they had sufficient l~isure to pursue th~lr outlet, deserving of urgent and immediate railway and port development. own interests and, at a time when members of parliament were unpaid, The goldfielders were particularly incensed by the geopolitics of Forrest's were prepared to take on ministerial responsibilities. decision to focus everything on Perth, Frernantle and Bunbury-the 482 MARTYN WEBB Forrest and the Goldrushes 483 mythical Perth-mantle-bury-s-and Forrest's resolute opposition to "'y- I lease oflife and began to enter mining leases to claim their rights. In mid­ thing which might threaten his grand plan. As the prospect of federation December 1897 Daniel Daly, using a provision under the Mining Act became more likely, the separatist movement became associated with the which all~wed dual occupancy of the same ground by both alluvial and cry 'Separation for Federation' and the creation of a full-blown separate ree~ng mme~s,. pegged an .alluvial claim on the Ivanhoe Venture syndi­ state. cate s gold-mining lease which was situated roughly mid-way between the The largest group of migrants, 42,000, came from the British Isles. towns ofKalgoorlie and Boulder. They seem to have quietly gone about their lives, melting into the popula­ Dual titles, as they were known, had been originally introduced by none tion without either the fuss or the bother occasioned by the numerically other than John Forrest while Commissioner for Lands as a means of equal Victorians. On the other hand, the British made themselves felt in speeding up t.h~ introductio~ o.fleasehold company-controlled reefmining, other ways, so far as Forrest and the goldfields were concerned, through without depriving the alluvialists of their right to fossick for alluvial gold their capital and their control of more than 1,000 British-owned mining on the same ground. companies, nearly all ofwhich had been floated on the London Stock Ex­ ~he matte~ is too co.m.plex to treat in detail here, but put simply, the change. Thus, in his dealings with the diggers, Forrest could never shake Acting Pr~mler and Minister for Mines, Edward Wittenoom, got cabinet offthe feeling that a wrong decision could badly affect Western Australia's to agre~-m the absence ofJohn Forrest, who was in Melbourne attending standing as a place in which to invest: nor the accusation that he was in the a meeting of the Federal Constitutional Convention-to limit alluvial pockets of the mining company directors and shareholders. mining to a depth often feet. This measure effectively nullified any further Another powerful force, and one which Forrest, having explored the area attempt t~ ~efine geologicall~ the depth to which alluvialists might go. some twenty years before, was always conscious of, was the influence of The alluvialists, angry and highly incensed by the amended regulation geography. This had its roots in the way in which so-called alluvial gold promptly nick-named Wittenoom 'Ten-foot Ned'. ' was distributed over nearly 20,000 square miles in a belt stretching almost Meanwhil.e, Forrest, who was about to board ship in Adelaide for 300 miles from north to south and 60 miles from east to west. Such a wide­ ~lbany, ~av:ng a.lread! publicly, but ~erhaps unwisely, supported the Act­ spread distribution gave the initial impression ofeasy pickings to men who mg Premier s edict, did at least promise that he would meet the miners to needed only the simplest of implements to find alluvial gold either on the hear their. com~laint on the day following his attendance at the opening of surface (by 'specking') or within a few feet of the surface (by dry-blowing). the Menzies railway on 23 March 1898, only a few days after his return to As this gold could be exchanged, as it was found, in hotels and stores, or Western Australia. sold to banks for cash, the Western Australian goldrushes coincidentally Minutes after his arrival in Kalgoorlie from Menzies on Thursday 24 offered the prospect of instant riches to thousands of Victorians who were March 1898, and. while w~lkin~ from the railway station to the Railway suffering from the effects of the disastrous collapse ofthe Melbourne banks Hotel to speak :-"lth the millers delegates, Forrest (much to his surprise) 10 in 1893. was booed and Jostled by part of a crowd estimated in all to total 10 000 The exact amount of gold taken by alluvialists in Western Australia is persons: After his meeting with the delegates, and while on his way backto not known, but according to Maitland's estimates the alluvialists and the ~he station, Forrest and his escorting dignitaries were manhandled and battlers among the dry-blowers and fossickers were responsible for only Insulted by an angry mob, many of whom were the worse for drink. about one per cent of Western Australia's total production of gold up to News of the 'riot' was flashed by telegraph around Australia. The old 1918 of31 million ounces. 11 West Australians in Perth were so incensed that their hero should have The peak production of alluvial gold was probably in 1898, but even been treated so outrageously that the miners and their cause lost a great then it only amounted to 67,000 ounces out of a total production of deal ofsympathy as a result. 12 860,000 ounces. Thereafter, as production fell, the alluvialists might have Two questions arise out ofthis incident. The first concerns the cause or quietly faded away but for the discovery (strictly rediscovery) of gold­ causes ofthe 'riot', and the second whether or not it was as serious as was bearing 'cement' deposits, often at some depth, buried among the highly­ generally made out at the time. compacted alluvium of ancient water courses. The largest ofthese deposits As.to the causes, it is generally assumed, even today, that the incident were situated at Kanowna and were developed from the end of 1896 was in large measure due to Forrest's refusal to speak to the men: such onwards. Other deposits were found at Kintore and on the Murchison at would fit the explanation that the real deputation was the crowd, and not Peak Hill. the delegates who actually met the Premier in private. However, a closer Once cement was officially recognised as alluvial, its discovery, or more exammatlon of ~h~ event shows this to be a convenient way of putting the accurately, rediscovery, gave new heart to the alluvialists who, knowing blame on the victim. Forrest was not asked by the miners' delegates to they were on the way out, welcomed what seemed to them to be a new speak to the assembled crowd and since none of the delegates acting on 484 MARTYN WEBB Forrest and the Goldrushes 485 behalfof the miners had the wit to report to the crowd from the balcony of The Irish people in 1798 had even more reason for resorting to arms the Railway Hotel on what had transpired, the crowd was left in the dark. to redress grievances that they otherwise failed to rectify than had the Others claimed that the trouble was started by Forrest's supporters whose American colonies when they declared their independence. The only cheering and clapping at the station incited the angry miners to boo and difference is that Washington and his compatriots were successful in catcall, which in turn encouraged the rowdier element to jostle Forrest as founding a great nation, whereas most of the United Irishmen were he made his way to the hotel. But this explanation ignores the fact that either shot or hanged. 13 hitherto Forrest had always been greeted with applause whenever he ap­ peared in public. To overcome this difficulty, others claimed that the jost­ Furthermore, to ram home the parallel, the editorial commented that the ling was started by a bunch of drunks hanging around the Railway Hotel. 'outbreak was simply the last resort of an oppressed and cruelly wronged This could be true as the police had some trouble in stopping them from nation bravely struggling to be free'. Thus, while preaching caution and invading the hotel. Thus, while it may be that drunks began the riot, it the need for constitutional action on the one hand, J( irwan was delivering ended with a rush of angry miners invading the station and pushing John another quite different message on the other in quoting Sir John Harring­ Forrest, along with John Kirwan (the editor of the Kalgoorlie Miner), off ton's (1561-1612) Epigram on treason: the platform and onto the track below. Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason? Part of the blame must be also attached to the unusual choice of venue. Why [For], ifit prosper, none dare call it treason. 14 The Railway Hotel may have been the closest to the railway station, but the Australia Hotel, with its deep balcony overlooking the wide Maritana­ But there is worse. Five weeks before the riot, in its issue of 15 February, Hannan Street junction, was traditionally the place from which to address the Kalgoorlie Miner, in discussing the possibility of the use offorce by the a crowd, and about the only place from which to address a crowd of such a miners and the Kalgoorlie Miner's supposed editorial opposition to its use magnitude as was assembled on that day. Was, therefore, the Railway as a weapon against the government, commented: Hotel chosen in order to give Forrest a quick exit away'from such an im­ mense crowd? If so, by whom? ... but if, in order to alter this state of affairs, the people rise in their Whichever of these or similar explanations for the riot is chosen, it is might and employ physical force, they are but carrying out the prin­ obvious, as it was to Charles Moran MLA (the member for East Cool­ ciples of their opponents [i.e. the government]-that brute force gardie), that the miners were themselves very much to blame for what had should prevail. happened by not keeping their own men in order. Although 'roll-ups' were a common occurrence, one suspects that the miners' leaders were, on this For its part, the Kalgoorlie Miner, denying that it had any part in causing occasion, taken by surprise, having expected the men, despite the size of the riot, added its support to those who blamed Forrest's supporters for the crowd, to behave with their usual respect for the Premier. starting the riot by claiming that their applause was a 'bomb-shell fired by The men were obviously angry, 'Ten-foot Ned' had seen to that, but one well-meaning though silly persons, and the populace, hitherto silent, is inclined to the view that their anger had been thoroughly inflamed by a answered with groans and hoots,.15 Or, as an alternative, claimed that it series of fire-brand editorials in the Kalgoorlie Miner written by John Kir­ was begun by rowdies and drunks. wan attacking the government and its ten-foot regulation and supporting The alluvial disputes turned the Kalgoorlie Miner's editorial policy com­ the 'monster deputation' of 10,000. The Kalgoorlie Miner's new-found pletely against Forrest and from then on until his departure for pastures opposition to Forrest had a lot to do with the Kalgoorlie Mining Warden's new on the federal scene in 1901, the Kalgoorlie Miner could be relied imprisoning of alluvial miners for disobeying court injunctions to stop upon to attack Forrest whenever it had the opportunity. working on the Ivanhoe Venture lease. But there was more to it than that. Because of Forrest's direct involvement, the 24 March 1898 riot is better Thirteen days prior to the 24 March riot, the Kalgoorlie Miner had pub­ known than the more serious Adeline lease dispute in the July of the fol­ lished a fiery and inflammatory editorial accusing the government (in these lowing year. Encouraged by the Western Australian Supreme Court's words) of lawbreaking, inciting the men to riot and contempt ofcourt, and judgement in their favour in the matter ofthe Ivanhoe Venture case, large calling upon the men to muster in their thousands to protest to the Premier numbers of alluvial miners began mining cement on the Adeline leases in on his arrival from Menzies. early July 1899; at the same time, other miners threatened to move onto Furthermore, Kirwan, as an Irishman, must have known full-well that the Golden Mile itselfin search of cement. Once again miners were sent to his 17 March editorial calling upon Kalgoorlie's predominantly Irish Fremantle gaol for defying court orders to desist. mining population to remember the Rebellion of 1798 and the Battle of However, the government was now better prepared, and, taking a Vinegar Hill would worsen an already sorry state of affairs: stronger line, dispatched a fully armed contingent of nearly 100 foot and 486 MARTYN WEBB Forrest and the Goldrushes 487 mounted policemen to Kalgoorlie. Shortly after their arrival, the police Australia, and, to boot, seen at first hand the rapidly opening lands of began to drill and generally behave as an occupying military force. The Canada and the United States ofAmerica, was better equipped to visualise miners were also well armed and had either side fired a shot, or the miners Western Australia's future in its all-important and all-encompassing spatial exploded dynamite as some said they would, the result could quite possibly and environmental dimensions. have been far worse than the Eureka Stockade affair of some forty-five Thus, there is no doubt that Forrest saw agricultural development, years before. As it was, with the police lined up in front of the police mining, transport and communications, and federation within a geopoliti­ station ready to fire on the crowd, it was a close-run thing. Fortunately, cal framework of environment, location and spatial interaction. He after trading insults, the crowd withdrew; the only casualty being a police­ emerges as a planner, 'architect' and organiser. These qualities enabled man with a broken jaw. him to communicate with, and work so well with, C. Y. O'Connor, On this occasion, the Kalgoorlie Miner took a new line and began com­ Western Australia's first and greatest Chief Engineer, who, having turned paring the position of the aggrieved eastern Australian immigrants or Forrest's designs into reality, was to kill himselfin 1902 for the sake ofhis 't'othersiders' with the 'downtrodden' English-speaking 'uitlanders' in the honour on the eve ofhis greatest triumph: the completion ofthe pipeline. Transvaal Boer Republic, both ofwhom were supposedly fighting for their There is no doubt that without Sir John Forrest the goldfielders would civil rights. The Kalgoorlie Miner, likening Forrest to President Kruger, have fared far worse than they did. His realisation that gold offered accused him of 'Krugerism' and, comparing what it called the 'Perth­ Western Australia its first real chance after sixty years of struggle con­ mantlebury oligarchy' to the Transvaal Boers, suggested that just as the vinced him that he should do everything he could to assist the mining British government had invaded the Transvaal in defence of people's industry, not just for its own sake, but as a means to an end. He was not, rights, so might it invade Western Australia! however, prepared to cede the goldfielders the political power that they so With separatism already in the air, Forrest's maneouvres to obtain better insistently demanded-this would have given away the plot. The gold­ terms for Western Australia were then used by the Kalgoorlie Miner to fielders resented the attention he gave to the older pastoral districts and make it appear that Forrest was an anti-federalist-e-which, of course, he their needs, as well as to the still-embryonic farming communities that was not. And in support of its own cry of 'Separation for Federation' went were springing up beside government-financed railways. to great lengths to attack Forrest to such an extent that Kirwan, as editor, Thus, Sir John Forrest's falling out with the goldfielders lies in the in­ seems to have used the newspaper's editorials as a means of venting his evitability ofa clash between his long-term aims for Western Australia as a personal animosity towards Forrest. whole, and the often short-term and frequently selfish demands of gold­ There is no doubt that Irish nationalism was one of the root causes of a fielders. Forrest regarded the gold industry as a foundation on which to breakdown ofrelations between Forrest and the goldfielders, at least so far build an alternative future based on agriculture and closer settlement. To as the Kalgoorlie Miner was concerned. However, the main cause may be this end he used, as collateral, the tens of thousands of migrants attracted traced to Forrest's geopolitic that all communications by land, sea and tele­ to Western Australia by gold, to obtain loan funds from overseas because, graph should eventually centre on Perth, the capital city. The denial of as he had also realised, the vast 'empty' acres of Western Australia were railway and port access to the sea via Esperance was particularly galling to worthless without population. The 1890s goldrushes having at long last the goldfielders. And, as if to add insult to injury, Forrest highly central­ provided that population, Forrest was determined that it stay in Western ised his administration on Perth. Thus, although mining wardens and Australia.l'' Sir John Forrest served the goldfields well, but one suspects district or resident magistrates were given great powers, they were always that the goldfielders resented the fact they were only part ofa wider plan. kept under a tight rein by what the Kalgoorlie Miner constantly referred to as the 'Perth government'. This lack of local control greatly rankled with the miners who, with their Victorian experience of local mining boards, REFERENCES felt strongly about their lack of direct influence over their own affairs: I. Frank Crowley, 'Sir John Forrest', The John Murtagh Macrossan Lecture, 1967, Univer­ feelings which were exacerbated by their comparative lack of representa­ sity of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1968. 2. Now known as the Australia and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of tion in the Western Australian parliament. Science. Much more could be said about Forrest and the Western Australian 3. J. Forrest, 'Presidential Address', Transactions, Report of the First Meeting of the Austra­ goldrushes: for example, about Forrest's contribution to the instigation of lasian Association for the Advancement of Science:1888, Sydney, 1889, pp. 352-9. the Goldfields Water Scheme. Nevertheless enough has been said to 4. West Australian, 22 November 1890. The speech was also reported in the Daily News of the same date. For a more accessible account of Forrest's Bunbury election speech and a emphasise the underlying thesis of this article that Forrest saw things as a fuller explanation of his role in goldfields' history, see Martyn and Audrey Webb, geographer who, having either explored or travelled over more of Western Golden Destiny: A Centenary History of the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia, City Australia than possibly any ofhis contemporaries and seen more ofeastern of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Boulder, 1993. 488 MARTYN WEBB

5. West Australian, 22 November 1890. All quotations which in the original were in indirect speech have been changed to the first person. 6. This was a reference to the recent discovery of tin at Greenbushes. 7. The Agriculrural Commission did not report until April 1891. See Legislative Assem­ bly, Votes & Proceedings, W.A., 1891-92, Paper No. I. 8. Population data from Malcolm A. C. Fraser, Western Australian Yearbook for 1902-04, Government Printer, Perth, W.A., 1906. 9. This was not completed until 1903, two years after Forrest had resigned as Premier. A Fair Place: 10. Edward Shann, An Economic History of Australia, Cambridge University Press, Cam­ bridge, 1930, pp. 328-48. See also Geoffrey Blainey, Our Side of the Country~ Methuen Christ Church, Claremont, Haynes, Sydney, 1984, esp. pp. 139-55; and his A Land Half Won, Macmillan, Mel­ bourne, rev. edn 1982. The sequence of events in the 1890s which followed the boom of the 1880s bears an uncanny resemblance to those which are developing following the 1892-1993 Australian boom of the 1980s. 11. A. Gibb Maitland, 'The Gold Deposits of Western Australia', in The Mining Handbook, PATSY SHARP Geological Survey Memoir No.1, Government Printer, Perth, 1919, p. 3. .' 12. The events during and after the so-called riots were fully treated in the Kalgoorlie Miner issues between 24 and 31 March 1898. After the main Easter Day service of 1993 in the 'pretty little stone church' 13. Kalgoorlie Miner, 17 March 1898. There was an insurrection oflrish convicts in Aus­ of Christ Church, Claremont, the congregation partook of a chicken-and­ tralia in March 1804 which culminated in the battle of Vinegar Hill, named after a sirm­ lar but much larger battle in Ireland during the 1798 rebellion. See Lynette Ramsay chablis luncheon in the Parish Hall and then followed the Rector, who was Silver, The Battle of Vinegar Hill: Australia's Irish Rebellion, 1804, Doubleday, Sydney, pushing a wheelbarrow ofsand, back into the Church. 1989. The reason for this celebratory repast and the Rector's unecclesiastical 14. ibid. activity was that artifacts were about to be buried in the Church's founda­ 15. KalgoorlieMiner, 31 March 1898. . tions beneath some removed floorboards in the aisle. Everyone present, 16. The extent of the backflow that was already taking place (1898) was already consider­ able. It is estimated that 500,000 persons travelled back and forth between eastern and especially the children who knelt there transfixed, craned to look down Western Australia between 1893 and 1903. into the exposed archaic earth. The Rector spoke a few words and then ceremoniously dropped a steel canister into the hole. He and the children and others who wished to participate shovelled in sand from the wheel­ barrow to bury it. We have the Rector's.word for it that the canister con­ tained a newspaper ofthe day's date, a parish magazine, the day's sermon, a pew sheet, and various other contemporary items which mayor may nor beof interest to posterity ifit chooses to stand in that same place to dig into the foundations and recover them in another hundred year's time. The canister was a time capsule, and the items within were preserved from the corrupting moth and rust of ages by inert gases and hermetic seal. This scientific feat was accomplished by Neil Kenworthy, a vestryman and parishioner who has family connections with two of the earliest rectors at Christ Church. The excitement and celebration on Easter Day 1993 was occasioned because it was exactly 100 years since Christ Church had been named and consecrated. The festivities marked the culmination ofthe centenary com­ memorations which began on the Church's l Outh birthday, its foundation day, in November 1992. The Centenary Prayer, repeated at every service over the months, includes the words 'We did not choose to be born or to live in such an age, but let its problems challenge us, its discoveries exhilarate us, its injustices anger us, its possibilities inspire us'. In similar vein, the Christ Church founding fathers and mothers of a hundred years ago did not choose to be born in their age either. They too could have prayed to be challenged, 489