Sunday Times 11 December 1932
ON THE GOLD TRAIL
‘Paddy’ – Whelan’s Claims
Not Borne Out by Lugg Party
A Warning That Was Justified
Excitement and hopes sprung from the faith of many Australians in the stories of the famous ‘ Lasseter’s Reef,’ but faded away with the failures of several expeditions through the Western Australian deserts. Now the hopes have been revived. Prospectors are setting out and company promoters are active as the result of the reported discovery of the mysterious reef, or one as good, by Patrick Whelan, of Kalgoorlie.
When ‘Paddy’ Whelan, four and a half months ago, set the local mining world agog with his account of an El Dorado at the Livesey Range (400 miles east of Laverton) in Central Australia, “The Sunday Times” urged that some confirmation of important points in his story was warranted before money was sunk into expeditions. Subsequent events have shown that that warning was justified.
Mining men in Perth are confident that Mr. Whelan has ‘struck it lucky.’ This sun-bronzed, weather-beaten man of about 50 years has made mining and prospecting his life’s study, and admits that he has had too many heartaches pursuing the elusive nugget to jump to hasty conclusions. Born in Pretoria, Transvaal (South Africa), ‘Paddy’ Whelan was mining with his father as a youngster. In 1893, they went to Western Australia together and tramped from Southern Cross to the new find, at Coolgardie. They went north to the boom at Siberia— so named because the pioneers considered the privations they endured there would have been more appropriate to Siberia. Except for a couple of years abroad with the 28th Battalion A.I.F., he has been in the gold country since, and his wife and two daughters are now living in Kalgoorlie. Mr. Whelan has always preferred to explore virgin country, with the result that few men, if any, know the interior of Western Australia better.
When he came to Perth last July, Whelan told a sensational story of his discovery of “staggering richness.” Receiving no small amount of encouragement, he added a little romance and adventure in the form of dangerous natives, spear wounds, a camel killed by native spears, an escape from death from thirst in the desert, etc. etc !!!
The Lugg party was one of quite a number encouraged to go into Central Australia by Whelan’s sensational reports. The above picture shows an Afghan and an Aboriginal preparing camel packs while Sam Hazlett (left) and R. Lugg look on.
