John Hindhaugh was born in Northumberland England in 1870, the son of William and Elizabeth Hindhaugh, and he died in Perth on the 19th Aug 1958 aged 88yrs. His ashes were scattered on the gardens at Karrakatta Cemetery. He is not known to have ever married.
Prospector – John Hindhaugh
At the age of 14 years he canceled his navy apprentice and 1895 he sailed from England and arrived in Victoria on the ship the Orizaba, he was 25 yrs old. In the same year he travelled on to Coolgardie in Western Australia to go gold prospecting. In the same year he again returned to England from where, a year later, he travelled to the Klondike Goldfields in Canada. Only a year later in 1899, he was back again in Coolgardie.
Coolgardie Pioneer – 14 January 1899, page 31
Back From the Klondike.
Mr John Hindhaugh, who after a three and a half years stay on the Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie goldfields, left for the Klondyke (Canada) in February last (1898), has returned to the colony. In conversation with a reporter of the West Australian on Friday Mr Hindhaugh detailed the hardships he had endured in endeavoring to reach the North Canadian delusion. Picking up two companions at Vancouver, the three got together an outfit which was very complete and contained enough food to last each man about a year. The weight of the outfit was one ton per man. They went up to Segway, and decided to get into the country through the famous, or infamous, Chilkoot Pass. They had to carry their belongings some 20 miles through the pass, apart from a little relief obtained by sledging. Two weeks were occupied in getting through, and if Mr Hindhaugh had been a week later he would have been caught in the terribly fatal snow slide in the Chilkoot by which so many men were killed and provisions lost.
The party moved on by sleighs to Lake Linderman, and there they had to cut timber and build boats. Thirty-five miles from Lake Linderman, Mr Hindhaugh became seized with fever and ague, which is so prevalent in the country, and as it was a choice of going on with the almost certainty of ‘pegging out,’ or returning, he came back! He met hundreds upon hundreds of men struggling back from Klondike ill and poverty stricken. From them graphic and certainly deterring accounts of affairs at Dawson City were received. He was told that no more than 40 claims were on gold, but those claims were rich. The country round about was pegged for 50 square miles, but it was not being worked.
In answer to a question why the claims were not being worked, Mr Hindhaugh tersely replied, ‘because the holders are only waiting to sell out to mugs’. The gold is only on two creeks, the Bonanza and Eldorado, outside them there was nothing. To stay in such a country, or even to go to it, needed the constitution of a horse and the heart of a lion. It was fearfully cold in winter, and very hot in summer. A man exchanged his fur lined sleeping bag, from which he had to cut the icicles at the mouth before he rose for the day in the cold months, for huge mosquitoes and other insects, which made life a purgatory in the summer time.
Life in the back country of Western Australia was a picnic as compared to the Klondike. In one place he saw between 300 and 400 horses which had died through the rough travelling and other hardships In his opinion Kanowna had yielded more gold than the whole of the Klondike claims. It was the transport people who were making fortunes, not the miners. Concluding about Klondike Mr Hindhaugh said, ‘My advice to anyone here who is thinking of going there is, stay at home. It may freak his heart getting there. It may break his heart when he gets there – he will certainly get no gold—and it may break his heart coming back. Mr Hindhaugh also spent two months prospecting in British Columbia. It is a terribly rough country. He found reefs, but they were not payable, and so determined to be his own words, that
‘Western Australia was really the country for him, he was sorry that he had ever left it.’
Truth Sunday 23 December 1928, page 7
THE LURE OF GOLD
SNATCHED BACK FROM SUCCESS
HE BELIEVED THAT WEALTH ALMOST WITHIN HIS GRASP
Prospectors Hard Luck Dogs Hindhaugh
To see the reward at last after long grinding years of labour and seeking, just beyond his reach, to see the glitter of gold that has taken a lifetime of finding, and to stretch out his tired hands to touch it, only to be snatched back from the prize by considerations seemingly of relative importance – that is the tragedy which many an old prospector refers to in rugged terms as his hard luck. It is the basis of many a hard luck story, imaginary or real, of the old goldfields. Behind it is the tragedy of seeking, finding, losing.
Here is a story of the goldfields of the today, in which the hard luck is apparently very real. John Hindhaugh is one of the pioneers of gold seeking. He is not to be counted among the first, perhaps, but for 35 years he has been seeking the elusive glitter of the red metal which all men love.
For thirty five years he has been engaged in prospecting for different Adelaide and London syndicates, with no great amount of wealth bringing success to himself. But all the time he has been true to his love—the lure of the virgin gold. Even after thirty five years, he was not discouraged. Last July he applied to the North Kalgoorlie Gold Mining Co for a tribute on the Kalgoorlie Gold Mining Lease No 22e, and it was granted to him. The block was one on which there had been four houses, but two of the houses had been removed. In one of the others lived the mine manager, Mr. Terrell. The application was granted and on receipt of a certificate as to his health, he was told that it would be all right for him to go ahead and work the ground. He got dynamite and detonators from the company, and was charged for them, and started work. In the course of his preliminary operations he uncovered a lode formation about twenty feet from one of the buildings.
Gold!
It showed good values on the surface, and with the old hope burning at him once more, he began to follow it down. Eight feet down the ground became hard, too hard for hand tools, and he began to blast. He knew the locality, and he realised that his block, practically a virgin block, had great possibilities. Just about 200 feet to the north, £250,000 worth of gold had been recovered from Hinchcliffe’s tribute. About two hundred feet west, £7,000 worth had been recovered in three months by tributers in a telluride leader, while on the adjoining block to the west, tributers were crushing payable values over a width of about ten feet. It looked good to Hindhaugh.
He had visions of the wealth which he had long sought, but which had been denied him. And he could actually see the color. He’d got it at last! It was with great heart that he set to work to follow his lode down. Every shot that he put into it seemed to lift him a step further on the way to prosperity. But it was not to be! The prospector’s luck still dogged him. Comfort, if not wealth appeared to be within his grasp, and then a simple thing happened, and he was snatched away from it.
The manager, Mr Terrell, came to him and forbade him to do any blasting there. From his point of view the manager was probably right. He said that it was too close to the houses and could not be allowed. But from Hindhaugh’s point of view it was tragedy. It was impossible for him to carry on without blasting. He could not do the work with hand tools. He could not go on.
He saw the attorney for the company and was told that that part of the management was in Mr Terrell’s hands, and Mr Terrell forbade him to continue blasting. So, in the end, the hole he had made had to be filled in and with the filling in, Hindhaugh’s hopes were buried.
Hard luck! It was hard luck all right.
Coolgardie Pioneer – 14 January 1899, page 31
Back From the Klondike.
Mr John Hindhaugh, who after a three and a half years stay on the Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie goldfields, left for the Klondyke (Canada) in February last (1898), has returned to the colony. In conversation with a reporter of the ‘ West Australian’ on Friday Mr Hindhaugh detailed the hardships he had endured in endeavoring to reach the North-Canadian delusion. Picking up two companions at Vancouver the three got together an outfit which was very complete, and contained enough food to last each man about a year. The weight of the outfit was one ton per man. They went up to Segway, and decided to get into the country through the famous, or infamous, Chilkoot Pass. They had to carry their belongings some 20 miles through the pass, except a little relief obtained by sledging. Two weeks were occupied in getting through, and if Mr Hindhaugh had been a week later he would have been caught in the terrible fatal snow slide in the Chilkoot, by which so many men were killed and provisions lost.
The party moved on by sleighs to Lake Linderman, and there they had to cut timber and build boats. Thirty five miles from Lake Linderman, Mr Hindhaugh became seized with fever and ague, which is so prevalent in the country, and as it was a choice of going on with the almost certainty of ‘pegging out,’ or returning, he came back. He met hundreds upon hundreds of men struggling back from the Klondike, ill and poverty stricken. From them, graphic and certainly deterring accounts of affairs at Dawson City were received. He was told that no more than 40 claims were on gold, but those claims were rich. The country round about was pegged for 50 square miles, but it was not being worked. In answer to a question why the claims were not being worked, Mr Hindhaugh tersely replied,’ Because the holders are only waiting to sell out to mugs.’ The gold is only on two creeks, the Bonanza and Eldorado; outside them there was nothing. To stay in such a country, or even to go to it, needed the constitution of a horse and the heart of a lion. It was fearfully cold in winter, and very hot in summer. A man exchanged his fur lined sleeping bag, from which he had to cut the icicles at the mouth before he rose for the day in the cold months, for huge mosquitoes and other insects, which made life a purgatory in the summer time. Life in the back country of Western Australia was a picnic as compared to the the Klondike.
In one place he saw between 300 and 400 horses which had died through the rough travelling and other hardships In his opinion, Kanowna had yielded more gold than the whole of the Klondike claims put together. It was the transport people who were making fortunes, not the miners. Concluding about Klondike Mr Hindhaugh said; -‘My advice to anyone here who is thinking of going there is, stay at home. It may break his heart getting there. It may break his heart when he gets there – he will certainly get no gold – and it may break his heart coming back. Mr Hindhaugh also spent two months prospecting in British Columbia. It is a terribly rough country. He found reefs, but they were not payable, and so determined that;
‘Western Australia was really the country for him, he was sorry that he had ever left it’.
Moya Sharp
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