The sky pales from indigo to apricot. Fiery fingers flicker on the horizon, rimming rugged ridges with flame, glinting gold on quartz and quartzite, and painting the mulga trees vermilion. As the sun’s heat draws moisture from land and leaves, indigenous birds and marsupials, wise in the ways of this ancient land, retire to shady places to await the cool of evening.
This Western Australian outback environment had, for millennia, supported human beings and the unique creatures of this land. But the red earth held something the new people would fight and die for. It lurked in the structure of the soil, in veins and lodes, deep in the earth, and in glittering grains and gravels along water-washed gullies. Gold! That fabled symbol of wealth, traditionally seen as beyond the reach of all but kings, noblemen and, possibly, pirates.
In 1892, Bayley and Ford struck gold at Coolgardie, collecting two thousand pounds worth of gold in one evening. Then, in June 1893, Hannan and Flanagan made the rich discovery at what was to become Kalgoorlie, and the rush was on. By August 1893, there were 1500 miners there, 400 at Coolgardie, and about 500 more scattered through the outback. With no railway until 1896, it was no easy journey from the ports of Albany and Fremantle. Those who couldn’t afford to buy a horses or a ride on a wagon, walked, carrying their possessions or pushed rough, wooden wheelbarrows. This is the setting for my work-in-progress, a murder mystery/romance novel. I had been calling it ‘Gold-dust to Dust’, but the latest Working title is just ‘Goldtown’.
Lynne Cairns 