NOTES FROM WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 29, 13 October 1894, Page 9

NOTES FROM WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

COOLGARDIE NOT A “ POOR MAN’S DIGGING'S.”

We have been permitted to make the following extracts from a letter received in Invercargill by a friend of the writer, who writes from Perth (West Australia) under date I9th September. He says : There was a great crowd on the wharf at Melbourne to witness our steamer’s departure. Two and a half days later we reached Port Adelaide, where our passenger-list received accessions which brought the total up to close on 350, about 150 of whom had to be accommodated in the hold. I noticed an old acquaintance here that I had seen at Sydney and Brisbane — the prison ship Success, 104 years old, and which brought out convicts to Botany Bay in the last century. She is a novel and dreary specimen of naval architecture, presenting a forlorn and miserable appearance. The vessel is open to inspection, and all

the irons, chains, and instruments of torture formerly in use are to be seen, with wax figures manacled as in the convict days. There is also shown below a barred enclosure called the “ Tiger’s Den,” where the worst characters were confined ; alongside it are other dungeons and black holes, the whole lot of exhibits forming a peculiarly repulsive sight. We reached Albany (W.A.) early one Saturday morning, but only stayed long enough to land a contingent of passengers who took the overland railway to within 120 miles of the goldfield. There is a grand well-sheltered harbour hei’e, and the passengers were enraptured with the little town embowered amongst low hills. Its situation is charming. Fine aurum lilies grow in profusion over the place. Two more days’ steaming brought us to Freemantle, where they are trying to make a harbour by building a couple of moles One of the

steerage passengers, whose boxes had been left behind at Melbourne, shot himself dead the evening we landed, leaving a widow and two children in Victoria to mourn his fate. All the houses in Fremantle and at Perth are of brick or stone, mutely testifying to the- scarcity of building timber in this part of Australia. The distance from Fremantle to Perth is 12 miles fare, Is. The intervening country is sandy and unfit for cultivation. Most of this colony appears to be well-supplied with sand, and there is 300 miles of it to cover en route to Coolgardie, which must be unpleasant for poor swagger’s. The streets of Freemantle and Perth are disgustingly narrow, and the footpaths ditto, while the price of all articles, particularly fruit, are 25 per cent, higher than in New Zealand. Apples and pears are unobtainable at any price, their importation being strictly forbidden. Furniture, too, is outrageously dear, and for land in and about the city fabulous sums are asked. The bottom will, however, soon be knocked out of this land boom, as in Melbourne. There are over 1,000 persons coming to this colony weekly, but there is no earthly reason for such a wild rush. The city is full of men looking for work, the bulk of whom will have to clear out shortly, as there is little or no opening for them about Perth. It is no use going to Coolgardie, either, as it is not a poor man’s diggings —£100 to £2OO being required to get machinery, etc. Two diggers who had been at Coolgardie for a couple of months have just come back here sick of it. They are stopping at my camp, waiting for money from Melbourne to take them back again. Their statement is that they have given the place a fair trial, and are fully convinced that without water nothing can be done, although there is a little gold in the field. With water 6d a gallon, meat Is per lb., and bread lOd per small loaf (Is on the road) it needs a lot of money to keep even two men while waiting for water. Coolgardie is 370 miles due east from Perth. There is a railway to Southern Cross, 250 miles distant, fare 35s ; then 120 miles to the field, to which you can either swag it, pay a teamster 15s to carry it for you, or go by coach for £5. No will-o’-the-wisp hunt after gold, no “ distance lends enchantment to the view ” notion enticed me hither. I have come simply and solely to get work. I will probably get it shortly, but I do not want low wage billets yet, until I find out if 1 cannot get a good paying one. Fancy me during the past 18 months going from Sydney to Queensland, 900 miles, then back again to New Zealand 2,000 miles, then to Western Australia over 3,000 miles, in search of work. I have now done all the colonies of Australasia. It will only require me to visit the Fiji Islands, and I will then have exhausted this part of the globe. . . . Fully a dozen miners came down from Coolgardie this morning, going right through to the port to ship back to the east, _