I often write about something from our Kalgoorlie-Boulder Western Australia days – because 13 of my 78 years (a bit over 1/6th of my life) was spent there, many wonderful memories remain, and so many things from those days( 1969-75 and 1981-87) continue to influence my life today. It’s probably a bit late now 🙂 but I’ve always said to Mike ‘If we need to go back to Kal, just say so and I’ll start packing straight away’.
Mike’s first employer there was the Great Boulder Mine, and in a time of acute housing shortage in the boom, two demountables, both sent up from Perth and placed on the mine’s leases, were our first two homes there after our wedding in Launceston, Tasmania in 1969. (in those days no one shacked up together before marrying, as that was the kiss of social death) We headed west from Tasmania to the amazing world of a mining district in the full swing of an exploration boom, for nickel, which began in the mid 60s and then with mining underway the exploration phase faded by the mid-70s, and we moved on up to the NT and Mt. Isa, about which I’ve already written a bit and will write more in time. Both our kids were born in Kalgoorlie, and we made some wonderful lifelong friends there, many of whom also moved on as mining people do early in their careers, but a few others are still there, as these days the city has matured and there are better options for those who decide to remain in retirement. When we were there it was very common for people to retire to Esperance or the Perth metro area.
To go to Kal in the nickel boom was a huge and pretty exciting culture shock to me. Apart from the locals, who were a particular breed – everyone else came from “somewhere else”, and had no ties in the town. So when we began producing children there were no nearby grandparents, for example – and there were effects about which I will write elsewhere. There was still no TV yet, and so people took part in a very busy cultural, social, church and community life, a lot of which revolved round the hotels, with darts, pool and billiards teams! The famous Hay Street brothels were openly tolerated as a social service in a community with big numbers of single men from ‘somewhere else’ working in the area, perhas our of town during the week but they came to town on the weekends only, and like ourselves, none had family ties. The brothels were of course also patronised by some of the locals, and were safely located just a block down the street from the main police station. The minute one of the madams reported a disturbance, she could count on instant police action to settle it and remove trouble makers.
There were many active sporting and social clubs including tennis, football, cricket, squash, horse and dog racing, swimming, athletics, golf, netball, cricket, rifle and pistol shooting clubs, and bowls – though I don’t recall any mention of my grandmother’s sport, croquet. Many social activities revolved around churches, too, and choirs and amateur theatricals thrived – as did almost every recreational or hobby activity you can think of! Newcomers and locals alike became creatively entrepreneurial, bobbing and weaving, some making their fortunes, others not so much.
In every boom, in the long run most money is made providing services to those who come seeking the big discovery. Quite a few people made and some lost huge amounts of money on the stock exchange. During the heady nickel boom, all around Australia people focused on daily movements on the stock exchange and participated in trading on their own accunt of through share clubs. One company, among many, that rose to glory in the boom (and most then crashed) was Poseidon, a company built around a fabulous discovery of nickel which was in huge demand at the time. One of my father’s friends bought some Poseidon shares at about $15 and promised to take his whole family on a trip to Europe if they hit $300; we all held our breaths as they moved up and up, climbing over $280, and then began to fall, fast – he managed to sell at something like $35/share, a fabulous enough profit over his initial investment, but so disappointing for the family! And he was one of the lucky ones! Others we knew who did well included a couple of state school teacher friends who started a successful truck hauling business, a coin operated laundry and a cafe in the main street; a nother local fruit juice vendor did really well and became something of a real estate mogul; a furniture salesman successfully branched into real estate; a market gardening family installed a large store/shed and stepped up from horse and cart vending to major local and regional suppliers of fruit and veg; a pharmacist bought a run down old business, revamped it and following that success branched into several other businesses; formerly employed on the mines, some industrial chemists set up analytical labs to contract mineral assaying for prospectors and small companies; small business owners became big businesses as the suppliers of equipment and consumables for the exploration industry; electrical appliance sellers made fortunes as the demand for fridges, fans, portable air coolers and other domestic appliances soared; automotive electricians and camping goods suppliers made fortunes equipping vehicles with 2-way radios and other gear for remote area travel; someone bought a small cafe that used to sell spaghetti bolognaise by the pot full at the door (bring your own pot) and expanded into a large modern motel with a high quality restaurant – both always pretty full. An associate of Mike’s who ran a drilling company always bought a parcel of shares in every company that contracted his services for diamond drilling – that last, most expensive but final exploration step that no one takes without having good results on previous programs. He made a good pile down the years. It was amazing to see the rise and fall of a boom – but I’ll go into the fall on another post.