Joe the Shifter –

‘JOE THE SHIFTER’

Carted Goods To The Fields
And Carted Them Away Again
Now He’s Carting Them Back

Joe the Shifter’ is the name given to one of the Goldfields’ best-known identities, Mr. Joseph Wilson, carrying contractor of Kalgoorlie, but one time of Coolgardie. He sets more thrill out of carting an 10 roomed house, a 20-ton boiler, poppet legs, cyanide vats, or a parcel of bolts and nuts than the average man would get from seeing the Melbourne Cup.

Camel Team carting a boiler and mining machinery- c 1900 Photo SLWA

Mr. Wilson hails from Bendigo, Victoria where, when he was a child, he was lulled to sleep by the sound of the batteries out at Eaglehawk way. Just 38 years ago he arrived in Coolgardie when things were booming, and started out as a contractor and builder, and also as a carrier. He put down

the First Footpath in Bayley-street.

He was well into the Londonderry rush and carted most of the machinery and material, and assisted at its erection at that mine. And then he carted most of it away again. He saw Coolgardie grow and saw it wane, but he stuck there for 21 years. Many a tale he can tell of the hectic days when the 20-odd hotels were crowded, the streets filled with people, and the fine stores and busy banks reflected the prosperity of the town. He saw the hotels reduced to two, the bank to one and the Town Hall deserted, and the Exhibition building — the material for which he carted — burned down. He then carted all the bricks away. In those dull years lie saw the roofs taken off the buildings and the fixtures removed to Hannans (Kalgoorlie). After 21 years he left for Kalgoorlie, but he never lost faith in the ‘Old Camp,’ and always said it would come again. It fell to his lot to do much of the demolition of old Coolgardie, and he was called upon to blow down with dynamite the walls of a big bank (now being re-built). The strong rooms and the banks. offices and exchange he carted to Kalgoorlie. At Kalgoorlie too he did big jobs of carting and contracting, including the removal of machinery, boilers, batteries, and the like. He virtually carted Coolgardie to Kalgoorlie. He took great loads to Ora Banda. Kanowna, Mulline, Menzies, Grant’s Patch and along the

Awful Track to Siberia.

The roads were dreadful, but his teams of horses, donkeys or camels always got through. In Kalgoorlie, in Boulder, and around the district, he built houses of wood and iron. In fact, he could not get them up fast enough. But the slump came, and he carted them away to be railed to the agricultural districts. He carted the Warden’s Court from Broad Arrow to Comet Vale, the school house from Waterfall to Boulder City, the school from Bulong to Celebration, while in between times he dismantled houses, hotels, banks and mining plants at Menzies and Kanowna. Batteries, boilers and plants he carted to rail away as scrap iron, much of it to Japan. Now he’s carting things back again and is once more on the road with his 30 camels. He sticks to the camels because he says. they are more surer than motor trucks. Besides, motor trucks won’t carry 15 to 20 ton boilers, and

the camels’ radiators don’t get short of water.

His big horse teams to are on the job, and once again the Long jinkers are loaded and on the track. Mr. Wilson claims to be the first to use camels for ploughing and farm work, as over 15 years ago he put in a crop with camels drawing the plough. What pleases him most is that Coolgardie is once again on the upgrade. He believes too in Kanowna, and holds that the deep lead will once more be a big project. Mr. Wilson was one of the originators of trotting on the Goldfeilds, and was for a long time a great suporter and member of the committee, having several well-known trotters and pacers. He saw the sport wane but is now energetically helping to resuscitate it. Football and boxing are other sports he encourages. The stories he can tell of the Goldfields and their people would fill a library. And what stories they are!