If you were in want of a good story in the 1930’s, you only need to take a long walk up Cassidy Hill on the fringe of Kalgoorlie to see old Jimmy Long. He not only overflowed with reminiscences of colourful goldfields life, but he also was a link to Paddy Hannan. In fact he reached the area where Hannan made his historic find before Hannans picked up his first nugget.
Jimmy Long with his two ‘best mates’.
Jimmy lived in a one room corrugated iron shack which was clean and compact. He share this home with his two best friends, his two snowy white dogs which contested for his friendly pats. This one room served all their modest needs – eating, washing and resting. He wore a cotton shirt and grey worn serge trousers held up by a leather belt. His blue eyes twinkled out of a weathered faced and he was spry and lively for all his 85yrs.
When he had a visitor he woulds bring out two enamel mugs, a tin of condensed milk and a basin of sugar from a box he used as a cupboard. Striking a match he would light the primus and wait for the kettle to boil. If you were to look around you would see he had no clock. With a knowing laugh he would point to a nearby ant heap. “Thats me timepiece” he would say, “Don’t need to rely on clocks with a sundial, just on three o’clock isn’t it?” It was indeed that time.
Over a cup of tea he would tell how he met Paddy Hannan more than thirty years earlier. It was early June of 1893 and Coolgardie was packed with gold hungry prospectors eager to rush to any new find. When news came of a rich discovery at Mt Youle (21 kms from Kalgoorlie),
‘away out east’, the town was almost deserted.
Jimmy said he joined one of Reedy’s wagons – Reedy was the discoverer of Kurnalpi and was one of the men in the first team. Other teams followed and among those in the tracks of the leaders were Hannan and his Mates Flanagan and Shea, who were independent of the teams by having pack horses of their own.
“We all left Coolgardie the same day, but it was like a funeral procession with its snake-like line of pack horses and men making for ‘El Dorardo’ ” Jimmy would say. “After travelling about 25 miles to the North East we camped on a hill near to where Maritana bridge now stands. On the next morning a chap named Morris and his nephew found a few specks of gold. Then we rushed on to Mt Youle”. Jimmy added that on the journey out Morris referred to the specks of gold he found and said “if we don’t find anything out here I’m going back”.
On reaching a dry soak, the party was informed that the Mt Youle report was a myth, but that plenty of alluvial gold was to be found further back (this was to be knows as Hannans Find). “When we got back” said Jimmy, “half of Coolgardie was there. Its the luck of the game” said Jimmy, “if Morris had stayed behind when he specked the gold instead of going on to Mt Youle, his name and not Hannans may have gone down in history”. Jimmy said that on his return to the find made by Hannan he camped at a spot near Monte Cristo Hill and while he was away to cut a new tent pole, a group of diggers took over the area and on his return he was told that the land had been pegged and to remove his tent. They had been pulling up spinifex to stuff their mattresses and had found ‘shotty’ gold (Small granular pieces of gold resembling shot.)
After tea Jimmy would leave his shack and point to a spot about 15 minutes walk away where a tree was planted. Thats where Hannan found his first bit of gold, he was a modest little chap, I knew him well. Waving his arm to encompass all the mining plants with their giant chimney stacks, he said he could have pegged the lot. He was fossicking weeks before Sam Pierce and Brookman camped there and started pegging leases. The leases they pegged were to become ‘The Golden Mile’
“just the luck uv th’ game”
No regrets said Jimmy, “just the luck uv th’ game” This had been Jimmy’s experience through a lifetime of prospecting. He had been part of the rushes to Coolgardie, Kurnalpi, Bulong, Kanowna and a host of others, but he had always been among the ‘also rans’.
He was happy to end his days in his little tin shack, with his few friends, his two dogs and his memories.
Ref: The Glittering Years by Arthur L Bennett
Sunday Times 29 June 1941
James ‘Jimmy’ Long was laid to rest in the Kalgoorlie Cemetery on the 23rd March 1944.
Sunday Times 26 March 1944
Moya Sharp
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