The following article is re produced with the kind permission of the author David Whiteford and the Light Railway Research Society of Australia Inc . The article first appeared in the publication, ‘Light Railways’ April 2010.
Map of Bulong showing surrounding Mining leases – From David Whiteford from the SRO
Contemporary map, showing the route of the tramway as surveyed. To aid legibility, the route has been overlaid in red. David Whiteford collection
Bulong’s battery – boom to bust – by David Whiteford
Bulong is a rather pretty little town on the North-East Coolgardie Goldfield. The streets and footways are well made and kept and ornamental trees are planted on both sides of the streets. The natural timber and bush surrounding the town have been well preserved, giving the place a rural rather than a mining appearance A group of gold-mining leases, situated about one mile West from the town are being worked. . . .The population of the municipality is 300. Just recently two prospectors, named Fogg and McLear, have discovered what appears to be a rich lode two miles north of the town.
So said the Western Australian Year Book 1902-1904, by which time Bulong had already peaked as a mining area. This article records some of the development and optimism of only some eight years earlier as well as the decline that came soon after. Bulong was first known as I.O.U., the first gold find at the town being in August 1893, and the actual I.O.U. claim registered in November. The first maps of the newly gazetted townsite in 1895 were headed Townsite of Bulong (I.O.U.). The change of name unfortunately did not change the fate of the centre and, indeed, I.O.U. came, within a few years, to be a most appropriate name.
Tramway proposal
The North-East Coolgardie Goldfield had only been declared by proclamation gazettal on 20 March 1896, with Kanowna, Bulong, and Kurnalpi as three administrative districts. The declaration took effect from 15 April and on the very day before, George Edmund Lane of Kalgoorlie signed a ‘Notice of Application to construct a tramline at Bulong’.
Lane owned a mining lease, water right and machinery area at Bulong. He proposed to erect a 40-head battery on the machinery area at Lake Bulong and connect it with Lease 426E ‘The Last Chance’ by a four mile long 2ft 6ins gauge tramline. Stone from his own and other mines would be crushed and the line used solely for mining purposes. The steepest grade along the route was 1 in 33, a £200 survey and plan having been prepared.
The Warden North East Coolgardie Goldfield wrote to the Under Secretary for Mines supporting the application and adding that every inducement should be afforded to lessees for treatment of their ore. Getting impatient, Lane wrote to the Minister of Mines on 3 July saying that since posting notice of the application at the Warden’s Court, Kanowna, no objection had been lodged against it.
Although Lane had stated he owned the various leases, it was the Mount Charlotte Gold Mining Company Ltd that was raising capital of £60,000 to complete the flotation of a new company to operate the battery and tram. A letter of 4 July 1896 from R D Thompson of the Company to the Minister of Mines, also seeking the tramway right, said that £36,000 had been subscribed to date. Approval of the Governor-in-Council for the tramway lease was advised to Mr Lane in a letter of 10 October. Later that month the Mines Department was asked to grant a transfer of the concession to the Bulong Mining Tramway and Ore Reduction Company of Western Australia Limited, a company formed in London with a registered office in Kalgoorlie, to acquire and work the concession in conjunction with various leases, the water right and machinery area. The new company also wanted an extended concession so that passengers and goods might be carried over the line. A document in the Department of Mines files for 1896 commented:
Passengers are not likely to be numerous and the power would probably be merely formal, but on the other hand it would be a great benefit to Bulong if backloading of wood and condensed salt water from Bulong Lake (now Lake Yindarlgooda) could be carried over the line thereby avoiding the expense attendant upon heavy haulage over a steep road.1
It was explained that there would be no competition with a possible government line from Kalgoorlie to Bulong, which would come in from the west, the lake being to the east. The concession does not appear to have been approved although the company seems to have been hopeful, as indicated later.
Construction and operation.
Construction began early in 1897, an April report stating that the . . . company have a large number of trucks and rails for the tramline here and are making good progress.2 In early June the line was within a quarter mile of the lake, with 40 head of stamps on their way to Bulong. On 24 June it was reported that the locomotives should be hauling stone to the mill well within three months.3
This proved a hasty prediction and also exaggerated the motive power on order. Also, from the likely identification of the single locomotive that worked the line (Krauss 2181 of 1889) the gauge of the line as constructed had been changed to 2ft from the intended 2ft 6ins.
Other major works were being completed in Bulong at the same time. The Bulong Water Supply Company had begun to deliver water to various mines. The Queen Margaret and Great Oversight mines both had batteries which would begin to work continuously and the Great Eastern and Great Oversight Extended were to erect expensive machinery. The Queen Margaret’s ten-head battery started up in March and a short tramway ran from the main shaft to the battery. This work, and the subsequent crushing power to arrive in Bulong, seems to have had a bearing on the fate of the Ore Reduction Company.
Newspaper reports tell of ‘The Last Chance’ raising good payable dirt with 24 extra men being put on. The Melbourne United was sending 200 tons per month to the Seabrook Battery near Northam pending completion of the Ore Reduction Company’s mills. The Company was arranging to run ten head of stamps continuously and solely on Melbourne United ore.
By July 1897 all the machinery for the battery was reported to be at Bulong, with the battery site selected and erection commencing at once. About 40 men were cutting out the foundations and a lot of blasting was required through solid rock. The railway had been surveyed and was being constructed over the various mines to be served. Some miners were anxious to be connected to this railway and even advocated an extension from Hannans Lake to enable Golden Ridge and Balagundi mines to send ore to the new crushing works (a steam locomotive powered mining railway was later to operate in this area). Such a railway, south-west from Bulong town, could have totaled between 15 and 20 kilometers. Major progress was noted in November when on 19 November 1897, the Western Argus reported:
a small locomotive . . . passed through Kalgoorlie Friday evening. Powerful and about ¼ size an ordinary engine, very similar to Tarrawingee quarries. The Carter who is carrying the locomotive . . . informed all and sundry who crowded about him in Hannan Street during a halt that the engine was intended for the 300ft level in the Queen Margaret to carry the ore to the shaft, but it is improbable that he found many who believed him.4
After a trial run late in October, the battery was started on 24 November 1897 with ten stamps crushing for The Last Chance, and with ore from Mount Craig and White Horse mines to be crushed soon after. The tramway had not yet been used as the locomotive was to be overhauled,5 the following report of 22 November showing the need of this work:
A Share Certificate, as issued by the Bulong Mining,Tramway & Ore Reduction Company of Western Australia. David Whiteford collection
a number of the prominent citizens of Bulong assembled at The Last Chance mine . . . with the object of tripping down to the lake battery per newly imported locomotive. . Unfortunately however, the wild Irishman on the rails did not answer to expectations – a loud toot toot then away down the lake in festive order at the wild rate of at least five miles an hour. About a dozen more or less expert advisers clustered around the engine and all manner of inducing methods were tried to get the necessary way on, but without avail. Some said the guilder-flaker was wrong, and others thought the flipper-flapper wanted readjusting; but whatever was right we narilly know, only that she wouldn’t go, and the result was that those who had taken box and other seats in the trucks had to give up the journey to the lake, and walk back to town instead. Here the disappointment of the unrealized trip was eliminated to some extent in liquid refreshment.6
A swift demise
Although it is presumed that the locomotive was soon hauling trains, the company’s operations were to be short-lived. The N.E. Coolgardie Goldfields Mining Registrar annual report for 1897 says that the: Company opened their works during the year with rolling stock of 48 trucks and an engine. It is stated that this Company has expended £70,000 in the district, and it is regretted that the works soon came to a standstill. The Company was in liquidation by the end of the year.
In early January, the Bulong Bulletin reported on a ‘recent’ Extraordinary Meeting in London of the Water Trust & Public Crushing Coy, now the parent company of the Bulong Mining Tramway and Ore Reduction Company.7 A resolution was passed that it is desirable to reconstruct the company, and that the company be accordingly wound up voluntarily; also that Anthony Stanley Rowe [of London] be appointed liquidator: . . . that the said liquidator be, & is hereby authorised to consent to the registration of a new company to be called the Northam Milling & Mining Co. Ltd. A week later the paper reported that the reorganisation was complete and that the Northam battery was being overhauled by Bewick Moreing & Co. The Golden Pig (Southern Cross) and Bonnie Vale (Bonnie Vale, near Coolgardie) mines were expected to supply ore to the battery. The parent company had been quickly dealt with but the local company lingered a little longer.
A petition to wind up the Bulong Mining Tramway and Ore Reduction Company of Western Australia Limited was presented to the Supreme Court in May 1898 and an order to wind up was issued on 8 June. On 27 June an order was issued appointing John Lee of Perth to be official liquidator and he called all creditors to send details to him by 2 August when a determination of allowance of debts and claims would occur. A public meeting in Bulong on 25 April 1898 had called for a public battery to be provided and recommended the government purchase the Ore Reduction Co. plant, it being expected to be sold at a low figure. Many holdings were being abandoned as men could not get their ore crushed. The Mines Department was already operating public batteries in some smaller mining centres throughout the state and would continue to do so for most of the 20th century. The Bulong Municipal Council further called on the Government to purchase the battery at its 8 August meeting and a special meeting on 3 September resolved that a deputation wait on the Minister for Mines to urge the necessity of the purchase. The council said that the price asked for the plant was only a quarter of what it cost twelve months ago and all the work it had done was to crush under 400 tons of ore.
Various issues of The West Australian newspaper in February 1899 advertised tenders, closing on 16 March, for the purchase of the assets mentioned hereunder, now in possession of the Official Liquidator of the Bulong Mining, Tramway and Ore Reduction Company of Western Australia, Ltd., in Liquidation, as the same now stands on the Tramway Rights of the Company, at or near Bulong; the Tramway Rights held by the company, and all privileges attaching hereto; the Plant and Machinery, consisting of: About 4 miles of 2ft gauge tramway, laid from near the Bulong Public Battery to or near the Last Chance Mine, constructed of 21 lb steel rails and iron sleepers, with points, sidings and appurtenances; a quantity of 21 lb steel rails and iron sleepers not laid, 1 locomotive (2ft gauge) with about 42 iron trucks. Pilkington & Hall, Kalgoorlie, were agents for the tender.8
Government intervention
David White, Superintendent of Public Batteries, reported on an August visit to Bulong.9 There was a well about 100 yards from the battery with a salt and surface condenser by Thompson & Co, Castlemaine, but these facilities were unable to provide suitable boiler fresh water. He reported on the tramline and rolling stock but did not ‘for the present’ advocate its purchase. Even if it were purchased, the Mines Department should not incur any working expenses on it but simply allow it to remain in the district as a cheaper means of cartage to those it would suit.
The battery plant was considered agreeable as was the likely output of the district for some considerable time to come and White recommended the purchase of the battery. The plant, machinery areas, tailings, and water rights were purchased by the end of the month and the watchman who had acted for the company was placed in charge. £800 was authorised for a proper condensing plant with £2500 for the existing assets, not including the tramway. The Bulong correspondent to The West Australian newspaper wrote . . . the tramway was not bought owing to the fact that, as constructed, it only tapped two mines namely the Esmerelda and Last Chance and was not suited to supply direct cartage to the battery from the majority of Bulong’s mines.10
The tramway was purchased by a syndicate that intended to cart ore to the Government Battery for the public.11 Some 1100 tons of stone had already been booked for the battery by 22 September but when it was still not in use by mid-November, there was talk of another private enterprise battery being started. The Mines Department was installing some new machinery in its battery that began to arrive in December. Among the work done was the lowering of the stone wall supporting the tramline on the west side [where ore was supplied to the battery] by three feet and the tramline removed out of the way.12 This indicates that the tramway syndicate had already failed and nothing more of it, including the removal of the line and stock, has been located in the press or official documents.
The Christmas 1898 issue of the Western Mail had a special report on Bulong as follows:
Two months ago most of the abandoned properties were taken up owing to the Government having purchased a 20 head battery, erected in the pristine days by the Bulong Tramway and Ore Reduction Co. on the edge of the lake three miles from the town. Here it is proposed to crush ore for the public at a rate which should convert many of the forfeited leases from worthless into payable properties.13
At the same time, the Warden of the N.E. Coolgardie Goldfield wrote in his 1898 annual report, that at the end of the year [the battery] was not in readiness to begin work; no doubt it will be kept fully employed when it gets started and will prove a great boon to the alluvial miner, and in a lesser degree to the reef miner also, Bulong’s total gold yield for 1898 was 16,145ozs 14dwts, with 51 claims being worked and approximately 1250 miners employed. There were three batteries with a total of 50 head of stamps on the field for the deep mines.
In January 1899, the major mining weekly newspaper, The Western Argus, had a very disparaging editorial on public batteries, apparently aimed at the Bulong plant:
It was pointed out [by this paper] that the public works when undertaken by the Government itself under direct Ministerial control, were heavily weighted from the start, and that failure, or partial failure, was almost certain to ensure . . . when these Public Batteries start, if they ever do start, which seems by no means certain. At Bulong there are many thousands of tons awaiting treatment. According to first arrangements the battery should have been ready some weeks ago and now the completion seems as far off as ever – further off perhaps.14
Bulong Townsite
A trial run of the battery finally occurred on 15 February 1899 and on 1 March public crushing commenced. Only ten head were in use, with some small further repair needed to allow 20 head to crush. Large supplies of stone were available for a month’s full time work at the battery. However there were many complaints about the very bad state of the road to the battery, some places reported as being almost impassable. The state of the road was making carting 40 per cent more costly than it otherwise would be and the N.E. Coolgardie Roads Board and Government were called on to repair the road. Near the end of February, carting to the battery had been almost entirely suspended owing to heavy rains rendering the tracks virtually unusable.
The siting of, and access to the battery, was problem enough but the ten-head Melbourne United’s battery had been purchased early in 1899 by Kanowna man Mr Holt and he was re-erecting it near the mines for public crushing. Holt’s Battery was trialed on 13 March and worked very smoothly. Large supplies of ore were on offer and the battery booked nearly three months ahead. Three days earlier, operations at the Government Battery had been entirely suspended pending the arrival of Mr D White, Superintended of State Batteries.
Almost every issue of local newspapers in February and March had further tales of woe on the Bulong Battery. Equipment failures, water shortages, strained management, client relations and transport problems were frequently aired. When Mr White arrived on 20 March he was met by a deputation of about 60 alluvial miners and leaseholders who told of their great losses due to the battery failures. Large parcels of ore were being sent to Kalgoorlie and Holt’s battery was now booked four months ahead. Within two days Mr White completed his investigations, the manager resigned, and a new manager was ready to take charge.
It was not until 17 April 1899, following installation of new pumping machinery for a regular water supply, that the Government Battery recommenced crushing. The plant worked trouble free for almost two weeks but in April the main driving wheel broke and, as there was no spare, a new wheel would need to come from Melbourne. During its brief April crushing period the battery crushed 250 tons of ore for 170ozs while Holts took 638 tons of ore for 645ozs in the month.
On 22 May the Government Battery recommenced and had 1200 tons of ore lying awaiting treatment. Within two weeks it had crushed 217 tons, but the recently created Bulong Roads Board and the miners continued to hold grievances over the state of the road and the crushing charges. Both matters received attention with the road considerably improved by August and a sliding scale of charges introduced at the battery to assist those crushing lower grade ore. In August 1899, 380 tons were crushed for 261ozs of gold but in December it was only 75 tons for 66ozs.
By comparison, Lennonville State Battery near Mount Magnet crushed 182tons for 235ozs and Mt Ida (west of Leonora) 525 tons for 705ozs. Superintendent White paid another visit to Bulong in February 1900 and crushing was suspended. At the end of the month it was reported that; both Holt’s and the Government batteries have been lying idle for some time past. The Government Battery will probably be shifted to some other district in the near future. Latterly the Queen Margaret having 10 head of stamp idle has done any public crushing required.15
Even in September 1898 White had recommended partial removal of the Bulong equipment. The promise made by the prospectors of this district have not been fulfilled and as I am informed that there seems no likelihood of keeping a ten head going the other ten head may be brought into service elsewhere.16 During 1899 Bulong battery had managed to crush 2059 tons of ore for 2136ozs of gold. This was the second highest tonnage and fourth highest yield of the nine State Batteries but the bulk of the crushing was in the first half of the year and, as noted earlier, tonnage had greatly decreased by December.
Aftermath
Dismantling of the State Battery had almost been completed by the end of June 1900. Ten head went to Widgiemooltha, ten to Mulline, and parts of the crushing gear and machinery went to Yerilla and Norseman batteries. The condensing plant and coolers were purchased by the local Queen Margaret G.M. Co. The Last Chance mine, which had been holder of the principal lease of the Bulong Mining Tramway & Ore Reduction Company, had continued to operate, being transferred to new owners at least twice, but it never proved to have a good reserve of gold. Bulong generally declined in the early years of the 20th century and the area lay almost undisturbed for many decades.
In more recent years Bulong, and in particular the Lake Yindarlgooda shores, has seen a huge nickel plant constructed but it is far enough from the former tramway line not to affect it. The tramway operated for less than two months but 100 years on, the Bulong Mining Tramway & Ore Reduction Company has left a fascinating railway legacy.
Although proposals for a WAGR branch to Bulong never gained favour, another railway did later operate through the town. The Westralia Timber and Firewood Company was established in 1902, first operating out of Kanowna and laying railways up to 40km distance into the bush. In September 1907 the company relocated to Kurramia, about 12km from Kalgoorlie on the Kanowna branch railway. The company’s main line ran south-east, through Bulong townsite, with various branches being laid to reach new cutting areas. Construction of the Trans-Australian Railway from 1913, blocked access to the company’s intended areas of expansion and although some lines were laid to the north-east away from the new railway, it could not reach sufficient good stands of timber. This together with a mining decline and a timber hewers’ strike in 1919 resulted in a merger with the Kalgoorlie & Boulder Firewood Company and a shift of all operations to Lakeside, south of Boulder. The last rails, including those through Bulong, were lifted in 1920. In 2005 there was still some evidence of the formation running through the centre of the former mining town.
The locomotive
The locomotive, so briefly reported in contemporary press, remained a mystery and some rail historians confused the Bulong operation with the Hampton Plains Company’s King Battery system. However, it seems certain it can now be identified as Krauss 2181 of 1889, imported into Australia for the Victoria Docks construction in Melbourne. It then was at the Happy Valley Reservoir in South Australia until 1896 when it ‘disappeared’ until recorded at the East Murchison United mine, Lawlers, WA, from 1906.
The locomotive must have awaited a buyer for some years following the Bulong closure, perhaps in a Kalgoorlie machinery dealer’s yard along with the track, but this must remain conjectural in the absence of any clear evidence. It was used at Lawlers until 1919 and then languished unused in the Goldfields until purchased by Lew Whiteman in 1963. It was later transferred to his Mussel Pool, Caversham, property which is now part of the government’s Whiteman Park. The locomotive is undergoing cosmetic restoration by members of the Western Australian Light Railway Preservation Association, operators of the Bennett Brook Railway at Whiteman Park, led by Charles DeBruin, one of the founding members of the Association.
The formation today.
LRRSA Kalgoorlie member Bernie Morris took Jeff Austin, Garry Howieson and the writer to Bulong in August 1983 and we walked along much of the remarkably well constructed and preserved formation of the tramway. In the intensely hilly country between the town and lake shore are high embankments, deep cuttings and many small bridges, some with extensive stone abutments. The lake terminus of the line was very high up on the cliff side, and ore would have dropped down to the crushing plant. A second visit was made in April 1988, and since then there has only been some slight erosion due to weathering to alter the condition of the formation. It was noticeable on both visits and previously to Bernie, that no dog spikes or other physical remains of track remained along the line. From the description of the track in the tender notice quoted earlier, the track must have been completely removed and probably went into storage with the locomotive, subsequently going to Lawlers where it is known such track was in use.
The mines terminus was not studied during the 1980s visits as there had been much prospecting over the area. Goldfields historian Scott Wilson has a current mining lease at Bulong, on former ‘Last Chance’ land and the formation of the tramway passes onto his lease, with the terminus believed to be located on it. The formation is not clear and there is no obvious run-around or sidings to be made out. However as it leaves the former Last Chance lease area, the formation is clear and elevated above ground level.
The brewery branch
Another mystery to the Bulong story is the existence of an apparent rail formation from the ‘main line’ to the site of Bulong’s brewery. No documentary proof has been located but the formation, about 150 meters in length, is clear. It is possible that the company laid in a formation under the belief that it was going to have the rights to haul other freight, with firewood to the brewery being a likely freight for trains returning from the battery, and possibly also kegs of beer to the town.
BA342/2300c – Bulong Brewery – c1900
The brewery was on an elevated site on the furthest eastern slope of the jumble of hills lying between the town and the flat country that separated these hills from the other hilly section leading to the lake edge. Steep up and down grades faced brewery products going to the town. The same grades faced firewood drays should they be coming from the direction of the town. If they were coming from the direction of the lake the haulage was much easier. Rails may never have been laid on the branch due to approval for general freight haulage not being given and the short operating life of the company, but as noted earlier there are no physical remains of rails, sleepers or spikes along the entire route.
Partly restored Krauss 0-4-0WT 2181 of 1889 displayed at Whiteman Junction station, Bennett Brook Railway, prior to the WA Light Railway Preservation Association dinner, 1 December 2007. Photo: Neil Blinco
Acknowledgements
My very great appreciation is expressed to Bernie Morris and Scott Wilson of Kalgoorlie who both guided me through Bulong and along its rail formations, and to John Browning for research assistance.
Bibliography
Rails through the Bush (Gunzburg & Austin), 2nd ed. Rail Heritage WA, 2008
Newspapers: Bulong Bulletin; Western Argus; West Australian; Kanowna Democrat; Kanowna Herald
Government Gazette of Western Australia
Bulong Municipal Council minutes (SRO Consignment 4575) Periodicals: Mining Journal & Investor’s Review; Colonial Goldfields Gazette
Mines Department Annual reports
Mines Department files: 3864/1896; 3703/1898; 4518/1899; 5498/1899 (SRO Consignment 964)
References
- Mines Dept. file 3864/1896 (SRO )
- Mining Journal and Investor’s Review, 4.1897
- Western Argus, 6.1897
- Western Argus, 11.1897
- Western Argus, 12.1897
- Bulong Bulletin, 11.1897
- Bulong Bulletin, 1.1898
- West Australian, 21.2.1899 and other
- Premiers Dept. file 1069/1898 (SRO )
- West Australian, 12.1898, p.5
- Premiers Dept. file 1069/1898 (SRO )
- Western Argus, 29.9.1898, p.21
- West Australian, 12.1898
- Western Argus, 1.1899
- Western Argus, 2.1900
- Mines Dept. file 5498/1899 (SRO )
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