Northern Grazier and Miner – Leonora 4 June 1932, page 2
Jonesville via Sandstone
The Swan Bitter Gold Mine at Jonesville near Wiluna. The flooded foreground is a result or recent heavy rains.
This is a small mining centre is situated about 60 miles north of Sandstone, and 80 miles south of Wiluna. The Gidgee Gold Mine is now situated there. The field was discovered by Jones and Shannon in 1926 and was originally called Jones Find. Jones and Shannon first sank a 60ft shaft striking good water at 40ft and within a short time had extracted 25 tons of ore at 6 ozs to the ton – a rich show by any standards.
Daily News 23 March 1935, page 8
Due to the cost of transporting ore to the Sandstone battery, Ross and Sons erected a five-head battery on Dan Casey’s old lease, and Scott and Mortley also completed the erection of a two-head mill. The main mines in the area were the Swan Bitter Mine (lease 953B), so named because it was acquired from the previous owner
for six dozen large bottles of Swan Bitter,
owned by S W Scott and E Mortley. The other was the North End Mine (lease 967B) owned by the Hughie Ross family. This mine was worked by Hugh McKenzie Ross Snr and his four sons, Hughie jnr, Don, Colin and Ken. Both mines had their own batteries driven by charcoal-fired engines. By 1935 both mines had extended with the Swan Bitter holding four leases and the North End five.
Some of the names of those working in that area during these ‘Golden Years’ were Arthur Weeks, Bert Richardson, Jack Evans, and Joe Torrence. Mrs Tagliaferri operated a boarding house at the Swan Bitter site where she provided accommodation and meals for the workers. The men at the North End were fed and accommodated in a boarding house run by Jean Timewell and Vic Hull.
Manganese Record, Peak Hill, Nullagine and Marble Bar Gazette Meekatharra 3 June 1933
With thanks to Mark Leahy for sharing this family story with us.
Jonesville was a mining community which was located between the Swan Bitter gold mine and the North End gold mine on Gidgee Station approximately midway between Sandstone and Wiluna. There is nothing left there today but a hole in the ground. The pit is the modern workings of the old Swan Bitter shaft mine and has absorbed the old shafts of the North End mine as well. I visited the area back before the pit swallowed up the area, exploring the old workings and cyanide-treated tailing dumps, and could visualise the living conditions that existed there decades before.
My father was born at Jonesville in 1938 when my grandfather was 24 and my nanna was 19. They moved to Jonesville in about 1936. They lived in a simple shed made from hammered out kerosene tins and hessian bags and had an earth floor. All of their furniture was ramshackle as any new furniture had to come all the way up from Perth on the train and then carted out to the site on the back of a truck.
My Grandfather worked in both mines due to a labour shortage. At that time my nanna and her sister were the only women living in this small community. Although there were other women and children living at Jonesville at other times, my Nanna believes, to the best of her knowledge, that my father was the only baby ever actually born there.
When my father was born, my Grandfather was working and was unable to take time off to travel to the Registration office in Wiluna in order to register his birth. My Nanna’s Brother-in-law wasn’t working so offered to drive the 130km to Wiluna to fill out the registration papers. After a very long, hot, and dry trip in an old jalopy, the Brother-in-law arrived in Wiluna and immediately went to the hotel for refreshment.
After many refreshments, he headed off to the registry office where he asked for the registration form and started to fill it out. When he got to the portion of the form which required the name of the baby to be entered he stopped, pen poised. He couldn’t remember what my dad’s name was to be! Unfortunately, he got it wrong – my dad ended up with a name that wasn’t what it should have been. (Mark later told me that his grandparents didn’t worry about getting his father’s name corrected officially).
When my father was about four, in about 1943, they shifted away from Jonesville and moved to the town of Pindar where they lived in a real house, wood-framed, and corrugated iron and with a wooden floor this time.
Jonesville location – Map by Bonzle
Today, Jonesville is a series of huge open cuts which are being operated in the area.
Ref: Mark Leahy – TROVE – Book Sandstone – from Gold to Wool and back again by Sally Senior
Moya Sharp
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