Outback Family History - Family and Local History of the Goldfields of Western Australia

DOYLES WELL
Originally called CUTMORE’S WELL

Located between Leonora and Agnew and near the Turkey and Wilson Creeks. A wayside inn and coaching stop. In 1903, there was a coach service from Leonora on three days a week. There were stockmen working for the stagecoach lines stationed there until at least about 1912.
The first reports of gold in the area were made in January 1893 by E. BOWDEN and L. SULLIVAN, but the well was probably dug as a water supply for William CUTMORE, Jack DOYLE and John LEYLAND, who were in the district prospecting for gold in what was known as the Diorite area in late 1894. By 1895 the name Doyles Well seems to have won out, and in December 1896 the 5,000-acre reserve for travellers and stock was created around the well to serve the traffic to the goldfields to the north. In December 1912, Jack DOYLE perished from thirst within thirteen kilometres of Doyles Well.

Doyles Hotel – Image courtesy Joan Pearce

It was a place for rest and recreation, but the date of establishment is not certain. Certainly in July 1896, Richard LEVINGE applied for a Wayside Inn licence, but this may not have been granted. The earliest known successful licence was for 1898 in the name of John HOLEHAN trading as the Doyles Well Hotel.

Mt. Leonora Miner 23 September 1899, page 3

The business continued trading under several managers until about 1944/45 when the licence was suspended. The licence was reissued in 1947, and the business continued trading until it was surrendered in 1950. At one time DOYLES WELL was apparently the source of supply for several illicit inns in the settlements to its north. The configuration of the original buildings is not certain, but by about the early 1900’s there was thought to have been a bar, six bedrooms, a sitting room, a dining room and a kitchen. The building was in a perilous state by about 1937, and the new manager, Angelo POLETTI, had it pulled down and erected a mud brick structure with a bar, four bedrooms a dining room, plus the managers rooms. Under his stewardship, which lasted until about 1943, there was a swimming pool, electric lighting plant, skating rink, four tennis courts, a bowling alley and a large bough shed added. There was also a big sports oval alongside and two large windmills for the water supply

COACH DAYS RELIC- 1934 DOYLE’S Well Hotel, on the road from Leonora to Wiluna, came into existence as a changing post for horses in the days when Lawlers, Sir Samuel. Kathleen Valley and Lake Way (now Wiluna) were thriving centres, and Cobb’s coaches were used to travel the route. The well was named after ‘Daddy’ Doyle, a veteran of the ’49ers’ rush to California, who was well known in the early nineties. The old house today (1934), which is the only building met with in many miles and at which ‘pots” are probably smaller and dearer than at any other licensed premises in the State, will soon entirely disappear, as white ants have got into the frame.