When they Drank Champagne out of Pint Pots –

GLIMPSES of life in Coolgardie in those glamorous days when the “Old Camp” was a magnet to adventurous folk from far and wide, can be interestingly recalled by 89 year old Mrs Julie Kennedy, who resides in Stirling-street, Perth.

Picture those of wealthy English families rubbing shoulders with miners from the Bendigo diggings, thousands of gold seekers anxious to participate in every new rush, water at half a crown a gallon, gay scenes with champagne flowing freely. This is the Coolgardie Mrs Kennedy knew when the gold fever had the township in its grip. Few women had an earlier glimpse of the “Old Camp” than she. Her Journey from Southern Cross (about 120 miles) being made on foot in 1893 in the year following Coolgardie’s discovery and several years before the railway went through.  Her six or seven years in the gold town were full of incidents.

Mrs. Kennedy was born aboard a Windjammer off the coast of Rio de Janeiro in 1849

her parents, being discontented with ‘Old World’ conditions, were en route to the new world of Australia. Spending her early life in South Australia, the lady married Mr. William Sinclair Downie and, after some years farming in the Quorn Port Augusta districts, Mrs. Kennedy migrated with her husband and young family to Tibooburra in the far nor’ west of New South Wales. Her husband was a successful businessman, having the leading stores and hotel in the town. In the town’s philanthropic side, the lady was ever to the fore. The foundation stone of the local hospital bears witness today to her never tiring activities in the cause of the man out back.

After the untimely death of her husband, the widow carried on varied interests and subsequently married Mr John Patrick Kennedy, well known from Broken Hill to the Queensland border. When news of Bayley’s famous find reached the Eastern States. Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy packed up and traveled to Albany WA on the ship The Arcadia.

They arrived in the southern port, with thousands of other gold seekers, they eventually traveled to Southern Cross which was the head of the rail line in about the middle of 1893. Teams were leaving daily for Coolgardie, loaded with all manner of food and machinery. It was not a matter of money, weight told on the toiling teams through the heavy mulga to the next rock hole. Mr. Kennedy was ill, and, not preferring to stop at the Cross, Mrs. Kennedy elected to walk with the team in order that her sick husband might ride on the wagon.

John Patrick and Julie Louise Kennedy

Later, with the growth of the mining township. Mr and Mrs. Kennedy had an up-to-date hotel (Kennedy’s Family Hotel) erected at the corner of Hunt and Sylvester streets, the builder being Mr (now Sir) James Connolly, who became the State’s Agent General in London. In this hostelry Mrs. Kennedy saw many facets of life the gold town, and came in contact with such remarkable personalities as “Smiler” Hales, Martin Walsh, Carr Boyd. “Arizona Bill Adams”, and a host of Identities whose names are linked to the glamorous days of the scene of Bayley’s find.

“I’ve seen Lord Percy Douglas drinking champagne out of a pint pot,” she recalls,

and I’ve seen some young men from England getting their colonial experience of the gold trail by reading books under a bough shed”. Mrs. Kennedy had the privilege of owning one of the first cows in the camp, a drover having set out with a small mob from the cocky country around Northam; but few got through. Fever was raging and the cow was called upon many times during the day for lacteal fluid to sustain invalid Diggers thousands of miles from home and living under the hardest of conditions.

Kennedy’s Hotel and Cafe – 1895 – Image SLWA

Mrs. Kennedy’s daughters had been left in school in the Eastern states when she and her husband rushed to the West. Sending for them, the girls traveled to Albany in the care of Captain Nightingale, of the New Guinea, the trip across from Adelaide taking eight days. At the Cross they were met by an old family friend, Mr John Wilson Day, who placed them in the care of Mr. Abe Krakouer, who was making a hurried business trip by buckboard to Coolgardie.

When the rail line was completed from the Cross, Mr and Mrs. Kennedy undertook the catering for this memorable ceremonial, which was opened by Sir John Forrest. This was in ‘1896’. Then came the disastrous fire of ’97’. In an hour the fine hotel was razed to the ground. Awakened in the early hours of the morning. Mr and Mrs Kennedy had to jump for their lives from the balcony into a ground sheet held by their rescuers.

Kennedy’s Family Hotel, Coolgardie 1896 – Photo SLWA

One boarder, Hamilton by name, returned to rescue his dog and perished in the flames. Another inmate sustained burns from which he never recovered. At the time the Kennedy’s had under consideration, an offer of £9,500 for the hotel. They were not insured, and lost everything they owned, but the towns people rallied to their aid and soon a thousand pounds had been collected. They decided, however, to try other fields, and for a number of years had interesting experiences from the far north of Queensland down through New South Wales and Victoria until the West called them again. Later the old couple led a quiet, retired life in Perth, Pat Kennedy passing on 18 months ago.

Mrs. Kennedy, now in her 90th year, takes an intelligent interest in the news of the day, and, surrounded by her family, lives the evening of her life with a host of memories of the most magical chapter in the State’s mining history.

Family History: Mrs Kennedy’s full name was Julie Louise Thusnelda nee KLAY, she was the daughter of August Albert KLEY and Marie Charlotte VON SELCHOW from Germany. On 19 June 1873 in Gawler, South Australia, she married William Sinclair DOWNIE, they had seven children – Julie born 1874 – Elsie Bertha born 1876 – Willie Sinclair born 1878 – Agnes Clara born 1880 – Stillborn male twins born 1882 – Laura born 1884 .Only Elsie and Agnes survived to adulthood. Julie husband, William DOWNIE died in SA in 1888.

In 1892, in News South Wales, Julie remarried to Patrick John KENNEDY. The couple had a daughter the same year, Kathleen. Patrick died in Perth WA in 1935 and five years later, in 1940, Julie Louise Kennedy passed away at the age of 92 yrs. She is buried in the Anglican Section of the Karrakatta Cemetery Perth. Her funeral was conducted by the Rev Canon Collick.