Tom Riseley – a man who blazed the track

Tom Riseley
Finder of the Cross

By Alfred Chandler – Tempus fugit! Fifty years ago – would you believe it? a group of hardy pioneer prospectors were sprinkled over the wilderness 200 miles east of Perth chasing the elusive “dwt” Among them were Harry Anstey, Dick Greaves, Ted Payne, B. N. Colreavy, Mick Toomey, Charlie Crossland, Hugh Fraser and Tom Riseley. They were all blazers of the track that culminated in Southern Cross and pointed the way.

But what induced these plucky adventurers to strike out into this virgin scrub in search of gold? Well, in 1887 Charles Glass, a pioneer settler 100 miles east of Toodyay, while digging a tank on his property found a large “floater” of metal which on examination proved to be gold. That was the “indicator” that gold existed in the Yilgarn area and spurred the early prospectors

to strike out and search for the “yellow siren”

Colreavy and party got as far east as Golden Valley where reefs and lodes were located, and Harry Anstey found rich specimens on an outcrop at Lake Deborah, but it was only a local “splash.” Meanwhile, Tom Riseley found a payable reef 30 miles east of Golden Valley and christened the locality, Southern Cross owing to the fact that Charlie Crossland, taking his bearings by the famous constellation, extricated the party from a critical extremity. As Riseley put it in his diary: “But for Crossland’s knowledge of the Southern Cross

our bones would now be bleaching in the bush.

As it was, we were two days without any water. He adds that they were forced to return to their base until the rain came when he and Toomey started out and specked gold at Cookerdine, which they named Southern Cross. Colreavy, Huggins and Anstey were getting “colours” in other parts of the district, and Hugh Fraser, who had been north to Mt. Jackson, returned and pegged what was afterwards known as Fraser’s Reward, which adjoined Riseley’s find.

Roughly that is the genesis of the discovery and development of the Southern Cross group of mines. Fraser, however, seems to have suffered from inflated vanity and set up a claim that he was the original discoverer of Southern Cross. Subsequently, he wrote: “I may say that I blazed and opened the track for the finders of Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. If anyone can contradict that let him come forward and do it. That bombastic challenge was readily taken up by Mr. Henry Lukin, of York, who had a pastoral lease called Wilgoon, 80 miles, north-west of Southern Cross, and joined one of the prospecting parties in 1887. He pointed out that C C. Hunt, who explored Hampton Plains in 1864, blazed the track to Coolgardie, and that Fraser never went through until after the great rush began in 1892 to the Eastern Goldfields. He also declared that Tom Riseley discovered the first “slug” at the ‘Cross, and scoffed at Fraser’s attempt to jump the credit due to another man.

Gold !!!!

Anstey probably found the first gold in the Yilgarn areas, but not at Southern Cross. Josie M. Rogers confirmed Mr Lukin emphatically thus “I have no hesitation in saying that Riseley and Co. were the first discoverers of gold at Southern Cross and they alone are entitled to the honour. Their find may not have been payable, but it was sufficient to induce my party and others to go there. . . . So if a reward is to be given he is entitled to it.” But when the allocation of rewards was fixed Anstey got £500, and Colreavy and Huggins £230 each. Rogers adds: “The fact of a prospector not staking a payable claim should not detract from the honour or reward if the field should afterwards prove payable. Southern Cross did, but Fraser secured the plum in the Reward claim, which was a good gold producer.” So that settles it!

But Tom Riseley was not always a gold-seeker. He was born at King’s Meadows, Launceston, Tasmania, where his father kept the King’s Meadows Hotel. His grandfather was the first Surveyor-General of Tasmania. On passing his maturity he crossed Bass Strait to Victoria, and was engaged in Railway construction at Ararat and other parts. Later he passed on to South Australia and in conjunction with Bob Thompson (afterwards a publican at Leonora) built the railway from Terowie to Petersburg.

“Go West, young man,”

seems to have been his slogan, and in 1882 he landed at Fremantle and with James and Arthur Wright secured the contract for the construction of the first railway through the hills, from Guildford to Chidlow’s Well. For this work, they imported a shipload of navvies with railway gear, engines, tools, adzing machines and so forth. Subsequently, he became associated with Edward Keane, who built the Midland Railway, and after whom Keane’s Point was named.

He was on the administrative staff of Wilkie Brothers & Co, who had the contract for the railway from Southern Cross to Coolgardie. It was a ‘Hell For Leather’ job, not only in rushing the rails through at break-neck speed, but they had the right to carry goods and passengers to the head of the construction as the work progressed. Afterwards, he was the Government inspector on the Smith and Twymns railway construction from Kalgoorlie to Kanowna and from Kalgoorlie to Menzies.

The Truth – Perth 7 June 1913

A former scribe summarised his activities in this State with gusto: “Tom Riseley controlled the construction of over 450 miles of railway in the West. He got the contract for breaking the first 1000 tons of coal raised at Collie. He carted the first boiler and milling plant to the Central mine at Southern Cross. He drove the first four-in-hand that made the journey to the ‘Cross. Finally, he carried out a vast amount of prospecting and made a lot of money, most of which he lost in dud shows and wild-cat syndicates, as many old-time goldfielders did. He ran the Miners’ Arms Hotel at Paddington (Broad Arrow) until that centre dwindled to almost nil.”

He used to tell an amusing story of his early days in Perth before the gold boom transformed the village into a city. In off times, there was nowhere to go except adjourn to the Freemasons Hotel for a refresher, or wander down the primitive Hay street and look at the goods displayed along the sandy footpath, and the pig melons and kangaroo hanging from the little shop windows. One day he and a mate noticed a man on the other side of the street who was evidently shadowing them. It became too obvious and Riseley queried ‘what the hades’ he meant. They asked Jimmy Greves, who said: ‘I’ll soon solve the mystery.” He slipped off to the police station and on returning said:

They have you spotted as Fenians

who are illegitimate here, so look out.” Riseley’s risibility was uproarious, which ended in a visit to the detective’s office with explanations that they were merely Australians who had a railway contract in their pockets. With more hilarious laughter the sleuth was called off and put on to something more tangible.

Tom Riseley was a good citizen, full of energy and boisterous goodwill, and was a general favourite. He died in 1910, and after life’s fitful fever sleeps well leaving the family tradition to son Victor.

Family History – Thomas Randle Riseley was born on the 27 April 1849 in Launceston Tasmania to Randle Riseley (1802-1877) and Mary Ann nee Council (1817-1886). Thomas Randle Riseley was one of 9 children, 5 boys, 4 girls. He was the 5^th child. On the 14 May 1870 in Brunswick, Victoria, he married Elizabeth nee Pittman. Tom and Elizabeth had six children Florence Elizabeth born 1871 (died age 8yrs) – Amy Sophia born 1873 – Thomas Randle born 1875 – Alfred Ernest born 1878 – Charles Randle born 1880 – Victor George Council born 1887. Victor was the only child born in Western Australia. Thomas died in Perth WA at age 60yrs.

Thomas Randle Riseley came to Western Australia with his father as did Victor. Sadly Thomas (Jr) died at Karalee near Kalgoorlie in 1897 and is buried in the Kalgoorlie Cemetery, he was only 21 years old.

Thomas Randle Riseley (Jr) – Photo Ancestry.com