The following story is with the kind permission of Kathleen’s family, in particular thanks Kevin Imms (Kathleen’s Grandson) and the late Robyn McLean.
THE SMITH/DUDLEY FAMILY AT BARDOC, W.A.
Reminiscences of Kathleen Mary Byrth (nee Smith)
On August 25 1893 Mary and Lionel Dudley, with their four children and Mary’s brother Timothy Steedman, left Victoria for Western Australia. The four children were Lionel Junior, Fred, Adelaide and Rene. They came by boat, namely ‘The Bothwell Castle’. Their destination after reaching WA was the Kalgoorlie Goldfields.
L toR back row; Dudley family: Mary, Lionel Jnr, Lionel Snr and LtoR front row: Eileen (Rene), Fred and Adelaide (Addie),
After arriving safely and finally getting to Southern Cross by train ‑ which was as far as it went at that time ‑ Mr Dudley purchased a couple of horses and large wagon, also supplies of tools and groceries etc, and the long trip commenced. The two men and two boys walked and Mary and the girls rode in the wagon.
“Tim Steedman” – Photo Dudley Family
It was a dry and very dusty journey to Coolgardie and it took them eight days. They stayed a few weeks and then continued on to Kalgoorlie and camped on the Boulder Road where Mr Dudley opened a roadside grocery business and also sold condensed water which was a very scarce commodity in Kalgoorlie, at 2/6 (25 cents) a gallon.
New gold rushes were breaking out all the time and two men had arrived in Kalgoorlie from Bardoc, 32 miles north of Kalgoorlie, seeking financial assistance for food as their cash had run out. Mr Dudley backed them and a lease was taken out on their claim which was named ‘The Waratah”. This mine was about two miles north of Bardoc. Later they sold it for quite a good sum.
Mary Dudley (formerly Steedman, later Smith) and Lionel Dudley. They were married on 25th June 1882 in Melbourne, Victoria. – Photo Dudley Family
Early in 1894 Mr Dudley and Tim Steedman went to Bardoc and built some rooms for the family, with a bar for liquor for which a wayside licence costing £15 (pounds) per year was granted. The miners showed their joy when the shanty was opened as Mr Dudley provided a couple of cases of spirits ‑ free of charge and a great time was had by all. The men fired off all their ammunition, from revolvers and carbines, and lit a huge bonfire on top of the big hill nearby ‑ which was after always called ‘Dudley Hill’.
Mrs Dudley was the first white woman to arrive in Bardoc and the two boys spent a lot of time talking to the miners and I’ll bet asking a lot of questions too. Young Lionel had remained in Kalgoorlie a few weeks ‑ as he had procured a job as telegram delivery boy, for which he received 25/‑ (shillings) a week and also about 1/‑ a mile from the receiver of the telegram. For a 10 year old that was good. He was the first telegram boy in Kalgoorlie.
You can read Lionels story here:- https://www.outbackfamilyhistoryblog.com/an-old-timer-remembers/
First Kalgoorlie Post Office, Lionel stands in front with a white jacket. – Photo SLWA
He and Fred mined an old shaft, complete with ladders and windlass etc., and one day Lionel decided to send Towser ‑ the dog ‑ down in the bucket. However, Towser must have got scared when he was half way down, so hopped out and fell onto Fred’s bare back with resulting scratches for Fred. One night some of the chaps in the bar were playing two up when an argument arose between two of the men and developed into a fight. Eventually they ended it and went home to their camps. A short time later one returned and told Mrs Dudley how he had lost a valuable gold coin during the fight. Mrs Dudley said she would get her sons to sift the floor ‑ which was an earth floor ‑ next morning which she did. But all they found was a two‑headed penny. That was his gold coin. She didn’t give it back to him and 30 years later on leaving Bardoc, she tossed it down the lavatory.
Well Bardoc continued to grow. In no time at all there were four hotels, miners institute and hall for dances etc., police station, post office and hospital and school; also football field and recreation ground and a Roman Catholic church, which was built entirely by money provided by people of the town. It was still a big job to get provisions etc. which had to be brought from Kalgoorlie by road, and often days late in arriving. Making do with what was on hand was a lesson soon learned by all.
Bardoc School 1907 – Photo SLWA
The photo of Bardoc school children was taken in 1907 and in the background is the Bardoc Tearooms.
Front row: 3 from LHS: Adelaide (Addie) Mary JESSOP – (sibling to Thomas Jessop front row)
Front row: 5 from LHS: Kathleen (Kath) Mary Smith – married name Byrth (the storyteller)
Front row: RHS with hat: Thomas (Tommy) James Jessop –
Back row: RHS with black hat: Margaret (Maggie) Ellen Jessop , nee Steedman
(Maggies husband George was killed in a mining accident)
Back row: LHS with large hat is Eileen (Rene) Mary Dudley,
Standing next to Maggie is a policeman, whose name was Constable Francis Edward Sheridan
Maggie Jessop nee Steedman is the sister of Mary Smith, previously Dudley nee Steedman. Rene Dudley is the niece of Maggie and the daughter of Mary as is Kath Smith – Rene and Kath are half siblings. Tommy, Addie, Kath and Rene are cousins.
Most miners were a handy lot. They had to be to survive. No luxuries of any kind ‑ not always enough to eat, and mostly their wardrobe was on their backs ‑ namely a grey flannel shirt and dungarees with bowyangs, and a shady hat with corks on the brim to combat the everlasting flies. On Saturdays some men working a few miles from the town would wash out their togs and put them back on wet and by the time they walked to the town they’d be dry again.
Some of the big mines about Bardoc were the ‘Zoroastrian’, ‘Excelsior’, ‘Bank of England’, ‘Eureka’, ‘Waratah’, and ‘Wycheproof’. Another deep mine was the ‘Homeward Bound’ about half a mile north of the town and was bought by an English syndicate ‑ to their sorrow. They paid plenty for this mine only to find it had been salted by the sellers who immediately left the town after the sale was completed and never heard of again. This crook deal made things bad for others trying to float a company in England. Consequently the buyers there would have nothing to do with dealings with Bardoc.
Wycheproof GM Bardoc Western Argus 26 May 1903 – Photo SLWA
The new townsite was eventually decided on and the Dudley’s bought several good blocks of land, one of them opposite where the railway station would be built. The various streets were all named. Mr Dudley decided to get an up to date hotel built on the block opposite the station and after much thought he had all the timber ‑ oregon ‑ iron, etc., brought to the site by wagon from Kalgoorlie. Later the furniture was all delivered the same way. The building went ahead and was completed by December 1896. But Mr Dudley’s health, which had not been the best for some time, became worse and eventually he died of pneumonia on December 13, 1896.
Grave of Lionel Dudley Bardoc – Photo Moya Sharp
The new hotel was well built (new hotel licence cost £40 per year) and consisted of passage six foot wide from the front door to the back door. On one side of the passage was a small private parlour, then four bedrooms, and on the other side of the passage, the front bar and serving section behind, then a good‑sized parlour. This was followed by the dining room about 30 feet by 15 or 16 feet, and behind that a servery and then pantry and kitchen, and another four bedrooms in backyard. Opposite the kitchen door into the backyard was a huge galvanised iron shed ‑ half for harness and feed, the other half was the laundry with ladies toilet inside. There were at least 20 water tanks in the backyard. A large billiard room was at the side of the hotel.
After Mr Dudley’s death Mary took her children and went back to Melbourne, having firstly leased the new hotel to a man named Cross. The official opening of the hotel took place on 1st January 1897. Mary stated she would never return to W.A. Tim Steedman stayed in Bardoc, and looked after the shanty and also Mary’s interest in the new hotel. Which was called the Bardoc Hotel.
In Melbourne Mary and her family stayed at her parents’ home in Richmond. The two boys had a marvelous time, going to various clubs etc., where the local lads got them to relate all about their journey to the Kalgoorlie goldfields and their experiences there, and they were named ‘The Coolgardie Nuggets’ by their Victorian friends. Some time later Mary contracted typhoid fever and was very ill ‑ in fact her life was in danger and the doctor said to her, “Mrs Dudley. I can not do any more for you, you are going to die.” She replied, “Doctor, I can’t and won’t die. I have four children and two pubs to look after.” And from then on she slowly recovered.
One day quite a while after she had got well again, Mary received a letter from Tim advising her to return to Bardoc, and not to renew the new hotel lease, as some of the rough miners were damaging the furniture and fittings of the place. She thought it out and decided to do as Tim suggested. She put the two little girls in the Lilydale convent and left Fred with the grand parents. She and young Lionel with Mary’s younger sister Margaret, and Will, her younger brother returned to Bardoc and took over the Bardoc Hotel again. Business was brisk and they were all kept busy. The hotel opened at 6.00 a.m. and closed at 11.00 p.m. About this time William Smith and his brothers Alf, Harry and Arthur, were mining in Bardoc, having arrived about 1897.
The Smith Brothers taken before travelling to Western Australia – Photo Dudley Family.
William ‘Bill’ and four of his brothers, Alf, Henry, Arthur and George, all went to Coolgardie in 1896 seeking their fortunes. Arthur remained a single prospector for the rest of his life and died in Western Australia in 1944, and the other three all went home again – empty-handed, the photo also includes an elderly family friend – who didn’t go with them.
William, or Bill as he was always called, was a pretty good footballer, having played for his hometown, which was Rosedale in Victoria. He had a gold medal for fairest and best won in Morwell, Victoria in 1888. He captained Bardoc club and in 1898 he won the fairest and best again when Bardoc beat Paddington, which was located three miles south‑west of Broad Arrow.
In January 1900 he married Mary Dudley and they holidayed in Melbourne and before returning to WA they collected Mary’s daughters from Lilydale and Fred from the grand parents, and returned to Bardoc. The two girls were later sent to Highgate Hill (Perth) convent, where they attended school until December 1903. In that year Adelaide was about 17½ and Rene 14½
William & Mary Smith on their wedding day – Photo Dudley Family
On 22 June 1903 Mary gave birth to a daughter and named her Kathleen Mary (William and Mary also had a stillborn son, unnamed, 26th March 1901 at Bardoc) , by her father Bill Smith ‑ who was one of a large family ‑ he had four sisters and nine brothers. Always a popular figure he liked to take various visitors on a shooting trip in the bush after wild turkeys and seldom failed to get at least one of these birds. His visitors were not always so good with the gun. One in particular joked about it and ran around in the front bar flapping his arms (as wings) and saying, “I’m Bill Smith’s bird” several times.
Margaret Steedman had married a young miner in 1900 and had a daughter in January 1901 and a son in October 1902. The chap she married was named George Jessop, but tragedy took George on 30 April 1903 whilst working on the “Zoroastrian” mine. He was knocked from the stope he was working in to the bottom of the shaft.
Grave of George Jessop, Bardoc taken in 2017 – Photo Paul Tonkin
George had a brother named Tom and he and Maggie had a nice headstone erected on George’s grave (see above) where to this day it still stands. When Tom was leaving Bardoc many years later, he got a law passed through Parliament to the effect that George’s grave and others near, must be looked after by the sheep station owner as these people had been some of the pioneers of Bardoc.
There were many characters around Bardoc over the years and as I, Kathleen, grew older I knew them all. A great conversation piece was old Fred G, a small man in size and an awful liar. He had a squeaky voice and spun tales which everyone knew he had made up. He had a great aversion to water ‑ to wash with ‑ so his clothes were filthy with grease, dirt, sweat and urine, and people could not decide which smelt the worst, Fred or the billy goat. He got sick at one stage and was taken to the Kalgoorlie hospital ‑ probably the first thing the nurses did for him was prepare a Phenyle bath. Anyhow, when better, he arrived back in Bardoc as clean as a new pin, but in a few days was as filthy and smelly as usual. Another ponger was Dave, but he ran a poor second to Fred.
A poet worked in Bardoc for some time, and he was quite clever ‑ made up a verse or so whilst you pulled him a beer. As an example this one was written on the wall of the station lobby ‑
The beer bummers of Bardoc they are a lousy lot
They’d never do a tap of work while a bob they’ve got
At the Bubble house a merry time they pass
And often bounce the publican to supply them with a glass (full of course)
Another poem was‑
A loaded train left Yarradale with the passengers and the usual mail
She started off at a terrible rate, for the driver reckoned he was late.
Not half a mile from Jarradean is now the centre of a terrible scene
An accident happened, I don’t know how
But the driver blamed it on a cow
Women screamed and men went red
One lady said ‘The driver’s dead
I know he is for here’s his finger
Hasten to him, do not linger
I picked it and examined it and found it was a poor cow’s teat
I told that woman she was mad ‑ or else her eyes were going bad
She knew she was wrong and started to cry
And for this reason I’ll ask you, why should I be mixed in an awful row
For showing a finger that grew on a cow
The composer of these two gems was Dick Donovan.
Then there was Ben, a wood carter. He had two dray horses and called them both Tom, reason being when he called out “Tom” they both came. Boarding at the hotel an old bloke named Billy Barker was very fond of eggs and had up to 10 or 12 every breakfast. The lads used to say “Billy’s got his clutch again.” Another bloke had no intention of letting anyone beat him to the cakes or scones ‑ he put a supply on his bread and butter plate for when he’d had the soup, meat and sweets. I remember once Mum had just taken a jam tart out of the oven and it was really red hot. As I placed it on the table, he grabbed it and bit into it. Then he didn’t know what to do and suffered a nice burnt mouth. I didn’t feel a bit sorry for him ‑ a real greedy character.
In the spring Bardoc produced all kinds of wild flowers and the Railway Department each year put on a picnic train to Bardoc. This was great for the travellers. They would arrive about 11.00 a.m. and leave for Kalgoorlie about 5.00 p.m. The local sports ground had swings and races etc. were held and both my father and the other publican, Harry Pont, had stalls where all kinds of drinks were available.
Picking Wildflowers at Bardoc 1900 – Photo SLWA
The everlastings were everywhere and on occasions my dad and Harry Pont would arrange to take all the town kids out to Mt Youle 12 miles east. Buggies and spring carts were used to convey the children and the older boys were instructed to watch the younger ones and see that they didn’t wander away On one picnic and flower day, one little boy did escape notice and when found was still going the wrong way in the dense bush. However, luckily he hadn’t got too far before being missed and found again.
Western Argus – Broad Arrow and Bardoc School Picnic 1904 – Photo TROVE
One man got lost in the very early days of the town about 12 miles or so east. The weather was terribly hot and no water about. Luckily some Aborigines found and cared for him and as he was a small man they christened him “Wee Laddie” and the rocks nearby were always afterwards called “Wee Laddie Rocks”.
There was very little entertainment in Bardoc so it was with great pleasure we welcomed the chaps from the Blind School (Perth). They held a concert in the hall of the miners’ institute and really put on a great show. They also sold recipe books at 1/‑ each and these were very well received by the ladies.
My brother Lionel and Rene’s husband Bert Crossland were quite entertaining once they got going, and sometimes after tea at night the tables would be moved back for dancing and these two would put on quite a good turn or two and in general just acting the goat. One night Lionel was doing his solo, such as recitation, song and jig around, and Bert asked me to get an empty chocolate box, which I did. Bert rushed down to the back yard and picked up a dozen or so of the goats’ droppings, rushed back and after wrapping and tying the box with some ribbon, entered the dining room as Lionel was finishing his act. Bert with a few words complimentary presented the gift and Lionel pretending to be overwhelmed, bowed and scraped etc., like some great soprano, and opened the box and took one out and popped it in his mouth. Great applause and laughter from the crowd. Needless to say although offered around no‑one else wanted any. It took a couple of beers to get rid of the taste.
Another night it was decided to hold a competition in the dining room dancing a circular waltz to
see who could last the longest. Quite a few couples got going all right but gradually dropped out, even the pianist found it hard going to remember any waltz tunes, and the latter part had one of the male competitors playing his mouth organ whilst dancing. I had already danced two chaps off their legs and at the end of two hours and 10 minutes my partner, the mouth organ lad, had had enough too, so that was that ‑ Kath won. No wonder the floor lino lost all its pattern, but we all enjoyed it anyhow. Not fit stuff for the Guinness Book of records though.
An Australian Aboriginal, Jacky, and his blind wife Polly, were often about the place. I did hear that Polly became blind through ants eating her eyes out many years before ‑ she was drunk and asleep at the time. She just sat out near the stables all day and when Jacky went bush with horse and cart to get wood for Mum, I’d have to take her dinner and billy of tea. She led a miserable life and old Jacky was so good to her. Then sometimes Jacky would go out ‘specking for gold’ and when he returned Mum would ask, “Get any gold today Jack?” and he’d sadly say, “No missus, only little ‘ply chit’”.
After a few months in Bardoc they would go up the line on the train ‑ riding in one of the trucks and later would return to Bardoc the same way and Jack would do all the same work again. If it was hot Mum would fill a beer bottle out of the keg on tap and he’d go and share it with Polly.
Often fellows ‘humping their bluey’ would call at the hotel and ask for food and tea to carry them on, and no‑one was ever refused and given enough for a few days’ travel.
Well in 1911 the school closed for Christmas holidays and at that time I was 8½. Quite a few families left the district and so the school was not to be opened again after the break as there were not enough pupils left. I had no more schooling till I was 11½ when I was sent to Boulder to my eldest sister’s place. She had married in 1906 to Jim Wightman, and he had got employment in the mines down there. I attended the All Hallows convent and used to go home to Bardoc every few weeks ‑ just for the weekend.
I hated having to go by train back to Boulder on the Monday, and one day by the time I got to Broad Arrow, had talked myself into feeling sick at the thought of it, so I decided I’d leave the train at Broad Arrow, which I did, and went across to Mrs Cross’ hotel. She was very sympathetic and got some one to phone Bardoc. The post mistress there sent word to Mum and Dad, who promptly harnessed old Kate, and came and took me home. It didn’t do me any good though. Had to catch the train again next day. Luckily I didn’t get the breeching strap on the legs as I was threatened with once when I had to take castor oil. Needless to say I took the oil, so escaped.
Bardoc Hotel 1902 William Smith in foreground with his horse – Photo Dudley Family
The town’s numbers had dwindled a lot especially when the Great War 1914‑18 was on. My half brother, Fred, and many others around the district had enlisted. Mrs Pont’s nephew, Tom Noakes, had been killed at Gallipoli. Fred got killed at Menin Road battle in France on September 20, 1917 and quite a few others lost their lives in France too.
My father died in December 1916, so Mum carried on with only my help. There were some days very quiet ‑ hardly anyone in for a drink or a feed, and the only excitement was the train arriving with mail and foodstuffs. Other times we would have a few boarders to look after. On hot summer nights Mum and I dragged a stretcher each out in the street to sleep in ‑ hoping for what was called the ‘Esperance doctor’ ‑ a cool breeze from the south. The dingoes often came around during the night but not finding anything to eat they soon departed again.
Grave of William Smith Bardoc – Photo SLWA
We still had to keep the place clean and tidy and it was a lot of work. Mum did any cooking necessary and served the bar customers ‑ when any called in ‑ and I carted kero tins and buckets of water to the goats after the milking was done. I was also housemaid and waitress too. On two occasions on December 13 ‑ with quite a few years between ‑ a cockeyed bob removed the front verandah. I was too young for the first occasion, but the second was a different matter. I just got from the kitchen to the back door of the passage in time to see the front verandah get lifted off ‑ every bit of it lifted and went over the full length of the roof ‑ from front to back ‑ and crashed down in the back yard. No other place in the town copped any of the violent wind.
Joe, an Italian, came to Bardoc and decided to mine an old abandoned shaft, opposite the hotel. He worked hard for a few weeks and then decided to go about half a mile north. Now Joe didn’t know all the rules of mining and one day another miner passing the first of Joe’s ventures heard loud knocking below, and then saw the mine had been nearly filled in. He collected a few other blokes and after three hours or so hauling the earth to the top, to see if Joe was buried, they saw Joe coming from North Bardoc. The knocking travelled along the reef from north to south. Joe hadn’t heard of the unwritten law about not filling in a mine when finished with it. He would definitely know in future.
Spanish Flu Poster
The Spanish flu caught up with a lot of the folks including Mum and myself ‑ she had it for a week but had to carry on as usual, then my turn. We both had nothing but orange juice and soon recovered. One thing to say regarding this flu ‑ neither Mum ‑ in the last years of her life ‑ nor myself, ever got flu again. Must have been immunised by the Spanish variety.
Now and again Broad Arrow would have a Euchre Party and dance on and we would be trying to nut out how to get to it. On a couple of occasions I managed to get permission ‑ illegally of course ‑ to use the Kalamazoo, so Mum and Mrs Muldoon would sit on the front, and three men and me did the pushing on the handles, up and down for eight miles and home about four or five next morning. The painters ‑ doing the work on the station ‑ and always gone to Kalgoorlie for the weekend, were in charge of the Kalamazoo, but put me wise about finding the keys. One thing about it, it sure made a body warm on a cold night.
As there became fewer and fewer people in Bardoc Mum reckoned that instead of the pub keeping her, she was keeping the pub, and after discussing this problem with her son Lionel, she decided to sell up and leave for Perth. So Lionel contracted a couple of chaps in Kalgoorlie named Hawkins and De Mamiel. They were wreckers of buildings. They came up to Bardoc and looked the place over. One said, “You can’t expect a high price Mrs Smith for a place built of bush timber.” Gee, do you think Mum ticked him off. Told him it was built of Oregon, which he wouldn’t believe until she told him to climb up into the ceiling and look for himself ‑ which he did and found she was correct. Anyhow after a lot of discussion they paid her £200 for everything ‑ lock, stock and barrel, and before they had pulled the first nail out, they had made more than that by selling the furniture in her bedroom.
Well she was given a valedictory social before leaving and presented with a very nice silver teapot by the remaining citizens of the town, and after 30 years, took her departure for Perth with me, of course, and we were both sorry to leave the old place. K.M. Byrth (nee Smith). – 1986
Kathleen Mary BYRTH nee Smith – Photo Dudley Family
Moya Sharp
Latest posts by Moya Sharp (see all)
- A New Town Hall for Southern Cross – - 09/11/2024
- The Widow Who Sued – a breach of promise - 09/11/2024
- Eh! but she was a good girl – grave tales - 09/11/2024
Thank you Moya for this wonderful story, Kathleen Mary Smith is my husband’s grandmother. I will show him this he will love it. Kathleen had four children one of them was Margaret. She married Kevin O’Regan in 1959 and had five children one of them was my husband David who was born on the 5th August 1963. David also had five children, four boys and a girl. I hope I did not bore you but we love family history.
Thank you Moya. Thank goodness we have people like you who give so much of their time to help keep our history alive. On behalf of my direct and extended families I THANK YOU.
I would also like to take this opportunity to THANK my cousin Kevin, his mother June, her mother Kath and her mother Mary for taking care of our family history in the form of stories and photographs and handing our wonderful family history on to each generation.
Robyn McLean – I am the daughter of Dulcie Mary Dudley, her father was Lionel Joseph Dudley Jnr and his parents were Lionel Joseph Dudley Snr and Mary Smith/Dudley nee Steedman.
Thank you so much for your kind words Robyn, it is very much appreciated and I consider it an honour to be able to tell these stories so they are not lost and can be read by anyone. Thank you to you for all the information and photos you and the family have submitted.
So good! Kathleen is also my grandmother and growing up I fondly recall a number of these memory’s. Well done! Laurie