GOLD- that commodity was so powerful, but as a child, I played with it as a toy. It was a glass phial of specks and small nuggets in liquid and tightly corked. I remember shaking it and watching the dull yellow stuff glint in the light. I must have loved it as no accident ever happened to it. I still have it today eighty years later.
Fanny H Hunt
My parents, Albert Edwin Hunt and Fanny Hannah nee Lewis, just happened to be adventurous people who came to the Coolgardie Gold Rush in 1896. Fanny was only 20 years old when she married 21-year-old Albert in Coolgardie on the 20th September 1896 at the Bible Christian Manse, Coolgardie. It’s no known how father, a T’othersider from South Australia, made his way to the Goldfields but he went not as a prospector, but as a natural-born salesman. However, it wasn’t until 1897 that Fanny and Albert were able to make their first home together.
Fanny Hunt was a city girl and the middle child in a family of nine children. She was very spoilt by her father and was headstrong and a rebel to all authority. Although she didn’t excel in academic fields she loved cricket and rowed in the women four on the Swan River. She also ruled the family with her culinary prowess. Woe betide any family member who went against her as they would find themselves short in some meals. She was strong and healthy and a daredevil. To get to Coolgardie she travelled by rail to Borabbin where she continued on by horse and buggy to Coolgardie. She was then to see the palatial residence constructed for her by Albert on ‘Fly Flats’. It was one large whitewashed hessian room but what made it stand out from others, was that it has a hessian awning at the front to form a verandah. Furniture was none existent except for bedding, but boxes and packing cases provided tables chairs, and cupboards. Never once did I hear mother complain, she loved the freedom from organised housekeeping.
Albert was away all week and only came home at the weekends, he conducted a store/exchange mart out at Black Flag. He would buy any stores, tools, implements, harnesses, cooking utensils, or anything useful from the miners who were moving on or returning to the city. Business flourished, cash or kind flowed freely and a handsome profit was made on all transactions. Meanwhile, Fanny was managing back at Fly Flats. She never felt unsafe and her ability with a cricket bat and her tongue could dominate any situation. However, some of the old miners appointed themselves her guardians. She was never left alone at night and a roster was made so always someone slept on the hard earth outside her door through the night. She would always swear that their snores did more to disturb her sleep than being alone did.
Water was always a problem. It had to be purchased from private condensers and it was served scalding hot at 2s 6d per gallon. Many a poor horse had a blistered rump from water splashing on it from the tank he was pulling. The water had to be left to stand so the sediment would sink to the bottom. Bodily hygiene was cut to the minimum and as for laundry, imagine white sheets and other washing on the line which then had to be hoised high to stop the roaming goats making a feast of them. This same washing could be in a moment caught up in a thick red dust storm that sprung up without warning, it penetrated anywhere and everywhere so there was little use being house proud.
Business was good at Black Flag which allowed Albert to purchase a house in Varden Street, Kalgoorlie where the family lived for a few years. Perhaps living a civilised life and the monotony of keeping a house was too much for mother, so they returned to Perth where I was born in 1904. Mother had a beautiful wedding ring, 22ct gold so soft it scratched easily. It wasn’t her original ring, but one that was made from the nuggets given to her on her stay on ‘the fields’
.
Albert Edwin HUNT was the son of William Henry HUNT and Janet FOSTER. He was born in Laura, South Australia on the 24th of March 1875.
Fanny Hannah LEWIS was the daughter of John LEWIS and Ellen Mary VILE, she was born in Perth WA on the 15th October 1876.
One child was born to Albert and Fanny in Coolgardie – Alberty Dudley born 1897. When the family moved to Perth Elsie was born in 1904 and Percy in 1913. Albert died in 1936 and Fanny in 1962.
Ref:
Reminiscences of Elsie Kirkbride nee Hunt
Coolgardie Marriages
TROVE
Moya Sharp
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