A Social History of Music in Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie and Boulder 1892 to 1908 by Jean E Farrant BA MusB (Hons) Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Music Department, University of Western Australia February 1992 Resume The Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia developed very rapidly from the time that gold was first discovered at Coolgardie in 1892. Many of the townships which sprang up so quickly all over the region had a very short life, while others continued to thrive for some years. Kalgoorlie, which was soon to become the centre for the goldfields, is still a city today with a sizeable population, although its fortunes have waxed and waned over the years. This study traces the growth of musical activities in three of the towns of the area from their earliest beginnings to the peak of their prosperity. (In the case of Coolgardie, its rapid decline at the beginning of the century will also be noted.) The survey finishes in 1908, the year that imressive town hall buildings were opened in Boulder and Kalgoorlie respectively. Music was part of nearly every social acitivity of the day and there were attempts to establish the same types of musical organisations in each town. However, it will be demonstrated that certain musical groups flourished more successfully than others in the three townships selected for study, reflecting differences in background and interests of the local inhabitants. There was a strong community spirit in these townships clearly shown in the large sums of money raised for charity through music and the notion of a special goldfields ethos kept alive, in part, in organisations such as the Coolgardie Liedertafel, which held reunions long after its members had left the town. Conversely it was the generosity of the local people which helped groups such as the brass bands to travel to the eastern states, and win acclaim at the national level for their standard of performance. Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie and Boulder residents derived great pleasure from their music making which was remembered with pride by those who moved away or stayed in the area. This thesis is also an interesting social study, helping to create a vibrant picture of music generally in Australia at this time. It is indeed fortunate when a chosen area of study proves to be totally absorbing and fascinating, providing many hours of enjoyment, and I am therefore most grateful to Professor David Tunley for his initial suggestion that the history of music in Kalgoorlie might be an interesting subject to explore as a thesis topic. Throughout this project Professor Tunley has been most supportive and encouraging and I thank him most sincerely for his sound advice and wise counsel. The primary source of reference for the thesis was the Battye Library Perth where the assistants were able to help me find many newspapers, articles and out of print books. The librarians at the Mount Lawley Campus of the Edith Cowan University and Reid Library at the University of Western Australia provided access to further written material while the staff of the Goldfields Museum in Kalgoorlie were able to show me photographs and other memorabilia of interest. Nigel Rideout acted on my behalf in obtaining useful newspaper cuttings from Ivan King, archivist for the Perth Theatre Trust. My sincere appreciation is expressed to all of these people for their assistance. Other people have given generously of their time to talk to me in informal interviews or pass on valuable information and I would like to thank George Deason, Muriel Cullen, Blanche Robinson, Peter Moore, Trent Hutchinson, Margaret Bull, John McKenzie, Hon. Sir Charles Court, Sr. Margaret Mary (Lowry), Stephanie Coleman, Stephen Dornan, Yvonne Blyth, Jack Stevens, Margery Tanner, Olive Pell, Chris Osborne, Gwen Darrow, Betty Barker, Nancy Blown, Carmel Hynes, Merrilees Salter and family, Thelma Rocchi and Frank Dawson. Special thanks are due to Moya Tamblyn in Boulder who arranged for me to meet Norma King, Dorothy Cadlolo, Alice Duddy, Ethel Wilkins, Nell McMahon and Queenie Back. A most sincere debt of gratitude is owed to Kay Wright who so painstakingly and efficiently dealt with the details of transforming a handwritten text into a printed format. Stephanie Coleman was of great assistance in proof reading the final draft of the thesis as were Neil and Brett Vague who helped to check footnotes. In the background, my mother, Jean Farrant, was as supportive as always. Table of Contents Page Number Introduction 1 Chapter One 1892-1896 The Coolgardie Goldfields Discovered ]\ Chapter Two 1896-1897 Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie - A Society in Transition 33 Chapter Three 1897-1900 Kalgoorlie, the New Centre for the Goldfields: Coolgardie and its Indian Summer 64 Chapter Four 1901 -1903 - A Time of Consolidation in Kalgoorlie and Boulder 98 Chapter Five 1904-1908 - The Halcyon Years in 136 Kalgoorlie and Boulder Conclusion 188 Bibliography 195 Appendices Appendix One Tables and Maps Appendix Two Local Concerts in Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie Appendix Three Visiting Theatrical Companies to Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie Appendix Four Names of Members of Different Appendix Five Musical Organisations Appendix Six Biographies of Musicians Photocopies for Programmes Listed in Appendices Two and Three 1 Introduction. The very name of one of Kalgooriie's main thoroughfares, Maritana Street, evokes memories of a bygone era when the tuneful airs of this once popular Victorian Age opera were sung and enjoyed by thousands throughout the British Isles and in colonies across the sea, even in this most distant of outposts of the mighty Empire. Today the music is largely forgotten but the street that carries its name is a busy road in a mining city three hundred and eighty miles east of Perth, the capital of Western Australia. Kalgoorlie has recently experienced yet another 'boom', one of many in a history of fortunes which have waxed and waned since the veteran of many gold rushes, Paddy Hannan, stumbled on his rich find near the present site of the Mount Charlotte Mine in June 1893. This was not the first gold discovery in Western Australia, for as early as 1882 ever- optimistic prospectors were scouring the rugged terrain in the far north of the state in search of the elusive nugget and its promise of a golden treasure. By 1886 there was a 'rush' to the Kimberieys and in 1891 'gold was being mined on four main fronts in Western Australia',! the Kimberieys, the Pilbara, the Murchison and the latest of the gold 'finds', the Yilgarn. It was from Southern Cross, the centre for this latter discovery, that men ventured further eastwards, when the weather was right, to open up the Coolgardie Goldfields, thereby completely transforming a struggling Western seaboard colony and allowing it to catch up with those on the eastern side of the continent. Oeoffrey Blainey, The Rush That Never Ended (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1978), p 171. 2 When Anthony Trollope visited Perth in 1871 he observed, "It is admitted in all hands that Western Australia cannot be made to thrive until her population ( a mere 25,353 at the time)2 shall be increased by newcomers'.3 In 1888 there were still only 42,137 people in the colony and it would have been difficult to believe then that by 1892 the population would have doubled (to 58,569), doubled again by 1896 (to 136,816) and be twice that number (276,832) by 1910. (See Appendix One, Page i). It now seems extraordinary that so many people would be prepared to tolerate the rigours of a harsh physical environment so far removed from any centre of civilization. Three factors which interacted almost simultaneously can be advanced to explain their motivation. The first was that a band of seasoned prospectors who had slowly worked their way through Northern Queensland, across the top of Australia and then down the west coast, constantly fossicking along the way, found themselves in Southern Cross in 1892. Fit and tough, they were adept at the technique of dry blowing and were excellent bushmen, who often enlisted the aid of aborigines to help them find food and water. Only men with such backgrounds and skills, Blainey suggests, could act as 'trail blazers'4 by venturing into the arid country east of Southern Cross which pastoralists considered too dangerous to settle, as there was little water, a fact which had nearly cost the few explorers of the region their lives. The second factor was that the eastern colonies at this time were plunging into a deep depression as artificially inflated land prices 2 Anthony Trollope, Australia (Edited by PD Edwards and RB Joyce) (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1967), p 588. 3 Trollope. Australia, p 615. 4 Blainey, The Rush That Never Ended, pp 172-3. 3 suddenly plummeted, over-extended building societies and banks collapsed, and an affluent middle class made bankrupt caused unemployment at all levels of society. A general slump in world prices for wool, wheat and silver affected the important pastoral industry, which was further ruined by the worst drought on record and a series of crippling strikes. Stannage estimates that between 1891 and 1901 81,292 people left the colonies of Victoria (63,978), South Australia (16,660) and Tasmania (654) for other colonies. Of this number 69,657 or 86 per cent came to Western Australia. In the decade 1901 -1911 60,688 people left the eastern colonies - Victoria (38,589), South Australia (11,149) and Tasmania (10,950); 34,248 or 56 per cent embarked for Fremantle or Albany. This was the largest permanent internal migration in Australian history.5 As it was the discovery of minerals such as gold in Victoria, copper in South Australia, silver at Broken Hill, tin, gold and silver in Tasmania which had resulted in the very buoyant economies in the eastern colonies by the middle to late 1880s, many of the currently unemployed had a mining background and provided just the type of manpower needed to develop the Western Australian goldfields.