If you visit the Kanowna Cemetery on the Yarri Rd just out of Kalgoorlie, (12 kms on the right from the turn off to the local tip) one of the first graves that you will see when you enter the gate is that of a little boy called ‘Teddy’. Over the years when I have visited the cemetery, there has always been a teddy placed on the grave. As one disintegrates another is placed there. I have put one there myself many years ago. 
As with every grave in the cemetery this has a family story and there are many infants in the cemetery, as there are in all the abandoned cemeteries on the Goldfields, but for some reason this grave touches the heart. The inscription reads:
Teddy
Youngest Son of
Albert & Edith Murray
Died 25th May 1909
Age 2years 8 months
MURRAY Edward Alexander Beresford ‘Teddy’, 2yrs 8mths, d 25 May 1909, at the White Feather Hospital, Kanowna, Cause: Acute Enteritis & Lobar pneumonia, Father: Albert Edward Beresford MURRAY (Hotel Keeper), Mother: Edith Annetta JOHNSTONE, Registered by father, Born: Kalgoorlie WA, buried 27 May 1909, PRES, Buried Kanowna Cemetery.
I have not seen a photograph that more clearly depicts the hard life families led in the Goldfields in the early 1900’s than the one below. The home of the Murray family in the background is made from flattened out kerosene tins. You can imagine how cold in winter and hot in summer this house must have been. However they were better off than others who would have lived in tents. You will see the younger children have no shoes.
When Teddy died, his father Albert was the hotel licensee of the Australian Bar Hotel in Isabella Street, Kanowna and was the Secretary of the Kanowna Racing club. He was 40yrs of age and was born in Tasmania. Teddy’s mother Edith was aged 34yrs and was born in NSW.
Parents: Albert Edward Beresford MURRAY and Edith Henrietta MURRAY nee JOHNSTONE. Standing: Thelma Olga Farrell ‘Queen’ MURRAY, Seated between parents: Edith Clarissa MURRAY, Baby held by mother: Edna Alice MURRAY: Standing to right of mother: Marguerite Linden Alice MURRAY. Front seated L-R: John Albert Desmond ‘Jack’ MURRAY, Edward Alexander Beresford ‘Teddy’ MURRAY, Alva ‘Lot’ Louise Smith MURRAY, Iris Alexander MURRAY. Photograph belongs to the late John Heffernan His mother was Marguerite)
Two more children were to be born to the family after this photo was taken: William (Bill) MURRAY b 1910 and Patricia Jean Agnes MURRAY b 1912.
The Australia Hotel run by the Murray Family
Truth Perth 13 October 1906, page 3 – THE AUSTRALIA HOTEL – at Kanowna is about the best house in the town. Mr. Albert Murray, the new proprietor, does not aspire to the Sydney “Australia” style, but claims that” his liquor is just as good. Mrs. Murray has full charge of the Culinary Department and the Accommodation throughout is First-class. The Billiard Table is O.K., and the Stabling very convenient. Mr. Murray cordially invites his Kalgoorlie, Boulder and all other mining pals to call and see him and have a real good time.
By 1909 Albert had taken over the Gala Hotel In Kalgoorlie which is where their next child, Bill, was to be born in 1910. Albert passed away in Perth in 1919 at age 50yrs. Edith lived till 1956 passing away at 82yrs. They are buried together at Karakatta Cemetery in Perth.
Little Teddy’s grave will be restored in stage two of the Kanowna Cemetery restoration project, see below:
Isabella Street, Kanowna 1905 – Photo SLWA
Restored grave of Teddy Murray 2024
Moya Sharp
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