A House with a History –

HOUSE WITH A HISTORY – Never Inhabited
QUAINT RELIC OF BOOM DAYS
(By J. D. Costello)

Perched alone on the lip of a breakaway near the deserted townsite of Kintore on the road from Coolgardie to Carbine, is the skeleton of an imposing stone house. A landmark for a considerable distance, it is an arresting sight in such a spot. An old prospector who has roofed one of the rooms to make a camp can enlighten the curious as to the history of the house. It’s story dates back to 1896. In that year a company known as the Kintore Group, after Lord Kintore, its promoter, commenced operations on a number of leases extending south of the breakaway. Those were days in which the fabulous richness of Bayley’s, the Londonderry, the Wealth of Nations and other famous finds was fresh in the minds of English investors.

The House with a History

It was easy to get capital for any mining venture in Western Australia, and when the venture was sponsored by a peer of the realm who was able to show rich specimens from the leases, the share list was heavily oversubscribed. With plenty of money behind them the company started work with a flourish.

SHAFTS STILL A MARVEL

Their manager was a scion of a noble house with no experience but plenty of ideas about mining. He started a vigorous prospecting programme. His ‘prospecting’ shafts are still a marvel to prospectors. Some are almost large enough to be the main shaft of the Wiluna mine. Rich specimens continued to be produced. The erection of a battery was set in hand. The future of the mine was believed to be assured. Then the manager received word that a party of his directors proposed coming out, at the company’s charge, of course, to inspect the mine. He thought to himself that he had nowhere to receive his illustrious visitors, and immediately set to work to prepare a place that would be worthy of them, and a credit to the company and himself. I was said to be the most handsome and imposing house outside of Coolgardie or Kalgoorlie and that more money was spent on it than developing the mine.

Algernon Keith-Falconer, 9th Earl of Kintore & Governor of South Australia – Wikipedia

A site was selected at the top of the breakaway from which a view could be had of the whole of the leases and beyond them a great expanse of bush with purple hills in the distance. No less than 14 bricklayers, as well as stonemasons, carpenters and laborers, were employed. The foundations were of granite, the walls were 27 inches thick, of buff limestone quarried nearby, with the corners and parapets of best Coolgardie bricks.

There were seven rooms, an entrance hall, a big kitchen, a bathroom with a built-in bath, a centre court after the the style of Moorish houses, a pillared verandah in front, and a spacious cellar at the back. Dados and ceilings were of polished wood. It was a house to be proud of, and while it was being built the manager must often have pictured himself seated on the verandah, surveying his domain below and the beautiful view beyond. A curved driveway led up to the stone steps at the front entrance.

AND THEN—THE END

But before the house was finished the manager had other worries. The battery was erected and crushed all the rich stone available, but not enough of it could be found to keep the battery going. All the rich veins proved to be ‘squibs.’ Further crushing dirt was obtained from an alluvial deposit, but this was very limited. When no more payable ore was in sight, and no more investors money was left, the end came. Work ceased on all the shafts, the battery was silent, and the little township which had grown up about half a mile down the road disappeared. Some say the house was never inhabited. At all events it was abandoned soon after it was completed. Later the roof and woodwork were removed for use at more permanent centres and, until one of the rooms was lately converted into a camp by the aforementioned prospector, the stout stone walls with their blank windows and doorways have served only as a striking monument to folly.

Remains of the house in the 1930’s

NOTE: Does anyone know if the remains of the house are still there?