Sunday Times 11 December 1932
ON THE GOLD TRAIL
‘Paddy’ – Whelan’s Claims
Not Borne Out by Lugg Party
A Warning That Was Justified
Excitement and hopes sprung from the faith of many Australians in the stories of the famous ‘ Lasseter’s Reef,’ but faded away with the failures of several expeditions through the Western Australian deserts. Now the hopes have been revived. Prospectors are setting out and company promoters are active as the result of the reported discovery of the mysterious reef, or one as good, by Patrick Whelan, of Kalgoorlie.
When ‘Paddy’ Whelan, four and a half months ago, set the local mining world agog with his account of an El Dorado at the Livesey Range (400 miles east of Laverton) in Central Australia, “The Sunday Times” urged that some confirmation of important points in his story was warranted before money was sunk into expeditions. Subsequent events have shown that that warning was justified.
Mining men in Perth are confident that Mr. Whelan has ‘struck it lucky.’ This sun-bronzed, weather-beaten man of about 50 years has made mining and prospecting his life’s study, and admits that he has had too many heartaches pursuing the elusive nugget to jump to hasty conclusions. Born in Pretoria, Transvaal (South Africa), ‘Paddy’ Whelan was mining with his father as a youngster. In 1893, they went to Western Australia together and tramped from Southern Cross to the new find, at Coolgardie. They went north to the boom at Siberia— so named because the pioneers considered the privations they endured there would have been more appropriate to Siberia. Except for a couple of years abroad with the 28th Battalion A.I.F., he has been in the gold country since, and his wife and two daughters are now living in Kalgoorlie. Mr. Whelan has always preferred to explore virgin country, with the result that few men, if any, know the interior of Western Australia better.
When he came to Perth last July, Whelan told a sensational story of his discovery of “staggering richness.” Receiving no small amount of encouragement, he added a little romance and adventure in the form of dangerous natives, spear wounds, a camel killed by native spears, an escape from death from thirst in the desert, etc. etc !!!
The Lugg party was one of quite a number encouraged to go into Central Australia by Whelan’s sensational reports. The above picture shows an Afghan and an Aboriginal preparing camel packs while Sam Hazlett (left) and R. Lugg look on.
Although no one in Perth at that time had seen any of the samples of rich stone referred to, it was later stated that they had been lodged in a bank at Kalgoorlie. A Perth-Adelaide syndicate was quickly formed to organise an expedition to accompany Whelan to the scene of his reported find at the Livesey Range, about 400 miles north-east of Laverton, and Government protection was secured on 36 leases which he claimed to have pegged there.
The warning issued by The Sunday Times was based on goldfields inquiries that did not corroborate certain points in Whelan’s story, on his statements to a representative of this journal, some of which were purely the work of an imaginative brain, and of a knowledge of some of his previous exploits.
Preparing For an Expedition
A party was sent out however, and with Whelan as a member got well on the journey to the Livesey Range, but they were forced back through lack water, since when further efforts to get on to the track have been unsuccessful owing, it is stated on behalf of the syndicate that Whelan was not well enough to travel.
In the meantime, another party (financed from Adelaide) led by Mr. R. B. Lugg, and with the well-known prospector and bushman, Sam Hazlett, as a member, set out for the reported find, using a motor truck and camels and travelling via the Warburton Range. Hazlett’s Well, at the Junction of Elder Creek and Hughes Creek, in the Warburton Range, was reached on November 5th, and then the truck moved on 30 miles as far as Lilian Creek, at the Townshend Range, whence the camel party made the final dash to the Livesey Range. This party comprised Messrs. Lugg, Hazlett and Hough, and native guides, with eight camels. The parched gap to be traversed, mostly sand hills, was 46 miles direct, but necessitated a journey of about 60 miles to the scene of the alleged find.
Twelve days later, this party returned to the camp at the Warburton Range (where the truck awaited them), weary, disappointed and disgusted. Where Whelan had reported big timber, they reported they found miles and miles of sandhills, and where he stated he had knapped rich specimens from the outcrop of a reef eight or nine miles long, they could not find a “colour”. Their report to their mates was that there was not a sign of the 36 24-acre leases Whelan stated he had pegged, and that sandhills surrounded the Livesey Range for many miles, the range itself (of comparatively small dimensions) being thoroughly prospected by them without the slightest indication of gold being found.
What the next step of the Whelan syndicate will be remains undecided, but in the meantime another party, with an aeroplane to assist it, is out giving the country a look over.
Three expeditions were made to find Whelan’s Claim with no success. The 716 shareholders were not to see a return for their investments.
The Telegraph (Qld) 3 June 1933, page 4
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