Some time ago I received a request for assistance from Graeme Hughes in New Zealand. He was trying to find the burial of a relative, his Gt Gt Grandfather, George VOYSEY. He understood that he had died in 1896 at Niagara, but after looking at the burials for this cemetery on the Outback Family History site, he couldn’t find him listed.
I first tried to find his death registration, and found it registered in the Registrar General WA deaths incorrectly as: VAYSEY George – age 63yrs – Reg 465/1896, this is a state registration number so it didn’t give an indication of his place of death. As he wasn’t in any of the cemeteries around the Menzies area, I searched for him in the Lonely Graves book by Yvonne and Kevin Coate and found the following entry:-
“VOYSEY George died 26th April1896, aged 63yrs, – buried at Dingo Creek near Menzies. Witnesses present at the burial were N H Blevins and George Voysey (son), his death was certified in writing by George Voysey and H N Blevins, both miners at Dingo Creek. He was a prospector who died of an unknown ailment at Dingo Creek, he was born c 1836.”
Graeme said:- The other George VOYSEY that is mentioned on the death certificate is the son of George VOYSEY the elder. The son’s full name is George Henry VOYSEY and on the assumption that he accompanied his father to Australia, he would have been 16 years of age at the time. It appears that they went to Western Australia from New Zealand in about October 1894. There were also six daughters, Mary, Margaret, Elizabeth, Amy, Alice, and Annie, and another son William.
Coolgardie Mining Review 16 May 1896
I was then able to find the death certificate which although badly written confirms these details:-
Death Certificate of George VOYSEY
Graeme also sent me a copy of the following sad and final letter which George wrote to his wife Bridget in 1895 who lived in Palmerston North, New Zealand.
Last letter from George Voysey
Lake Darlot, April 27 1895
My Dear Wife
I suppose you will be wondering at not getting any letters from us but we are three hundred miles from a post office and it costs half a crown a letter each way and we have not any money to pay that, for gold is very scarce and tucker is mighty dear.
I had to buy some rice yesterday and had to pay 1s/6d per pound for it. It’s no use you bothering me about money for we have not got any – if we had you should have it, but you can’t get blood out of a stone. You will have to sell the sections in Young Street and get the money that way. I have been bad with dysentery since March and can’t get rid of it – have tried all sorts of remedies and they don’t do any good. I feel myself getting weaker every day and am satisfied that I shall soon go under, for I can’t stand it much longer, and the sooner the better then George will be able to make his way back to New Zealand. He is very good to me and saves me all he can but it’s pretty rough on him to be here with a sick father and no money and very little left in the tent and no money to buy anymore. We have had the worst luck in WA that ever I had in my life.
When this rush started I went to Coolgardie and bought a couple of horses and a cart and some tucker and a tank to carry water in – in fact, spent all the money I brought over with me and thinking that we would be sure to get gold when we got here but we can’t get any and are in a pretty tight fix and don’t know what to do. We can’t get back if we tried for we have lost the horses. They have been away a month now and George lost a fortnight looking for them and never could hear anything about them.
I don’t think they will turn up again. There is a chap going to Southern Cross for tucker and we are sending this letter by him. I expect this is the last letter you will ever get from me. I cant write to all the girls so you will have to let them know how things stand so goodbye from your affectionate husband,
(Sgd) G. Voysey.
Following receipt of that letter his wife Bridget Voysey (nee Cummins), immediately made a trip to Coolgardie from Palmerston North in New Zealand in an attempt to locate George and her son. This must have been a daunting and harrowing journey for a woman on her own in 1895. What a very sad story. A very brave lady indeed to come all the way to WA to look for her husband and child. She would have travelled here by ship probably to Albany or Fremantle and then by coach or rail to Coolgardie. A very arduous journey indeed.
She didn’t find him, and she never saw him again.
Her son George was one of eight children born to George and Bridget, he did return to New Zealand and died in Wellington in 1946.
Bridget Alice VOYSEY nee Cummins returned to New Zealand, she never remarried and died in Palmerston New Zealand in 1907, eleven years after her epic journey.
Moya Sharp
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