George Smith is a dam labourer

Part eight: Continuing the transcription of the diary that my great-grandfather, William George Smith, wrote when he travelled from his home in Minyip, Victoria to Western Australia in 1889.

After a short break exploring some areas north of Perth (see previous entries) George went back to spend to more time working as a labourer along the Great Southern Railway that had just opened between Beverley and Albany.

 12/7/1889 Went to the Perth station early to go to Beverly found the train did not leave for there until one o'clock so went to the rifle range & viewed Perth from the highest hill. Left Perth at one, at Beverly at 7. Went onto a raffle at night and lost.
13/7 Left Beverly at 8, at Wagin Lake at two. Had a look at the men working, taking out a dam, blasting it, putting it into drays.
14/7 Fixed up my tent and decided board at the rate of pound a week.
15/7 Started to work at eight shillings a day. The work was pretty hard and awkward shovelling among big lumps of stuff almost like rock.
16/7 Got onto the work a little better but the navvies were very coarse and rough especially at the table, a class of men truly that exists without God in the world.
17/7 I found myself camped alongside an English man, a new chum who comes from Newcastle on Tyne. A very interesting and agreeable companion with a lot of very drool sayings.
18/7 At our dray we have the most comical drivers in the pit. Several times we thought we would get sacked because we laughed so much.
19/7 Getting into work splendid, a real navvie with my knee straps and my shirt undone in the front and hat on three hairs.
20/7 A bobbie on the scene, the men a little scared owing to some of them having a lot of sandlewood [sic] on hand illegally.
21/7 A lot of men working in the dam ploughing and picking. There is no Sunday here.
22/7 We had a long talk with and ex Queensland cockie, a Frenchman who judged the colonies by their results. Reckoned half boiled corn left standing for a few days was good to make fowls lay.
23/7 Two men arrived on the camp from the Horsham district. They had been through Minyip. They said it was the wettest season that they had on the Horsham plains since 1876.
24/7 Their opinion of WA was very bad & they thought of returning to Victoria. They couldn't sight paying one pound a week board. They worked with us one day and left for the north west.
25/7 Heard some very curious yarns about the Blacks in the N. West and also in Queensland. Had a Queenslander with us. 26 men in the boarding house.
26/7 Heard a good deal about Bunbury district. Nearly got hit with falling stones from one of the blasts.
27/7 A very dull and damp day. Reckoned the dam to be finished in a fortnight.
28/7 Paid one weeks work 1/18/6 and a shovel 6/6 (2/5/0)
29/7 Considerable amount of gambling going on in the Camp. It seems it is a general thing among the navvies after pay day.
30/7 This morning an extremely heavy frost. A great argument on religion with the Frenchman.
31/7 learned we were going to shift to the next dam this day week.
8/8 At the drains and making a small dam to catch the sand filter on the main drain into the reservoir. Number of yards in reservoir 14 thousand.
9/8 preparing for shifting. The Boss hurrying the men and horses scooping. They were regular done up.

Horses used in scooping process in NSW. Source

Dam scooping. Source

Wagin (pronounced 'wagon' by locals) today is an agricultural district with cereal crops, sheep and cattle. It hosts the largest sheep show in the southern hemisphere. When George returned to Minyip he was also a cereal and sheep farmer in the Wimmera where his father had selected land. But several times in his dairy he mentions other areas that he was assessing as possibilties but I don't think he had Wagin on his list.

The railway dam that George was working on was near the railway siding at Wagin Lake. The town of Wagin developed near there so the boarding house that George was living in was probably there. Some of the early settlers supplemented their income by cutting sandalwood (legally or illegally). Sandalwood is a small tree that has been a very important part of Western Australia's economy because its valuable oil has been used as an aromatic, a medicine, and a food source. Since the 1880s land clearing and over-harvesting has greatly reduced the natural population of the plant but it is now a plantation timber. It was illegal to harvest it in 1889 and unfortunately it still happens on a large scale.

Sandalwood harvest, 1940s. Source: Wikipedia

George Smith visits Glentromie and the Spanish Mission

Part seven. Great-grandfather George Smith's diary continues. He leaves Perth to spend several days at Glentromie Station. He seems to have been impressed by the farming country and considered going farming there himself.

5 July 1889 Left for Glentromie. Travelled until quarter to two next morning at Bindoun [Bindoon].
6/7 Left at 8.00 for Glentromie arriving at two in the afternoon. Strolled around the homestead.
7/7 Strolled around. Went riding and turkey shooting and in the afternoon went to the Spanish Mission [New Norcia]. A very interesting place. Our party was showed all over it by the Bishop. There was on the mission 50 monks and 300 natives.
9/7 Morning went to see the station men plowing the ground was very wet but the crop that was in looked well. I and Mr Alpine left for Gilford [Guildford] 11 a.m. came to ... and put up for the night. A pleasant ride of twenty-eight mile.
10/7 Left Wellese [?] at seven a.m. on a fifty mile journey. Passed through some very nice country. Saw some good land which was sold in 1887 for 15/- an acre. Arrived in Gilford 6 p.m. put up for the night at Jutes Hotel. Went to a concert in the evening.
11/7 Started for Perth on the 8.30. Visited Henry Wright, also the government printing office, got the land regulations.

Towns mentioned by George in his diary.

Glentromie is about 120 km from Guildford. Bindoon is about 70 km. George doesn't say in his diary how he travelled. Was it by coach? Was there a train line? For the journey back to Perth he talks about 'a pleasant ride' so he may have had access to a horse.

Why did George go to Glentromie? Maybe he wanted to check out the possibilities of farming there, maybe he'd been talking to someone, maybe he just wanted to see the Spanish Mission. As described in the article below, Glentromie was a very large, innovative and efficient property and the owners welcomed visitors.

The Daily News 18 April 1887

In fact, McPherson died that year, 1887, and the property was found to be heavily mortgaged and had to be sold. Walter Padbury bought it and the new manager was Charles Davidson from Victoria who was married to the new owner's niece, Amelia, so they may have been in residence when George visited. According to this site the homestead still exists. The homestead complex was placed on the state's heritage register in 2013.

'Glentromie' entrance off the Great Northern Highway [Google Maps]

The Spanish Mission at New Norcia is also mentioned in the article. It still operates today and is a very popular tourist spot. It was established in 1847 as a Benedictine Mission and many of the old buildings remain. Many of the monks were Spanish and Bishop Rosendo Salvado's  "original vision was to create, among the indigenous peoples of the Victoria Plains, a Christian, largely self-sufficient village based on agriculture. However, after the decimation of the local populations by introduced diseases in the 1860’s, he concentrated his activity on giving a practical education to the indigenous children who were brought to New Norcia from all over the state. Like other missionaries of the nineteenth century, his aim was to ‘civilise and evangelise’ according to the European ideals of the time, but he did so with sympathy for indigenous culture that was rare in his day." The quote is from New Norcia's website.

George says in his diary that he was shown over the mission by the Bishop so I presume that would be Bishop Salvado. 

Bishop Salvado

One of the many buildings on the New Norcia site.

There is an image of the mission in 1885 at the ANU - I can't reproduce it here but you can go and view it.

To be continued. George goes back down the line to work along the Great Southern Railway.

Trove Tuesday: George Smith attends court in Perth

Part six. The diary of George Smith continues. Great-grandfather George has left the work gang on the Great Southern Railway and travelled by train to Perth.

1 July 1889 On the train for Perth and very thankful to God for his Grace. Stopped at Pingelly Station road up from Broome Hill with witnesses on a murder case they all being drunk. At Pingelly worked one half day sinking trial holes for a dam.

2/7 Started for Beverley 8 A.M. arrived at 9 P.M.

3/7 Left Beverley for Perth 8 A.M. passed through York and Guildford arriving in Perth at 2 P.M. rode with farmers most of the way. nearly missed the train at Guildford. The country the Darling Ranges between York and Guildford very pretty. Perth also favorably  impressed me.

4/7 Called on Henry Wright. Attended the morning Perth Sessions. Afternoon went to Fremantle had a look around its jetty's and streets returning with the six o'clock to Perth.

5/7 Attended the Session. Jury returned a verdict of manslaughter.

Fremantle, 1898

I wondered why George would have gone to visit the Perth court sessions. He doesn't provide any names in his diary but a search through the newspapers on Trove gave me a few answers. It turns out that the drunk witnesses from Broom Hill George had met on his trip to Perth were involved in the case he went to see. It concerned an altercation (that ended in a death) among some members of a gang collecting sandlewood along the railway line near Albany. George had probably heard or read about the case before he met the witnesses and then decided to attend the court sessions.

Western Mail, 20 Apr 1889

Old Supreme Court, Perth (now the Burt Law Museum)

The Perth newspapers published the proceedings of the court case in great detail but I'm only posting the summary here. The sentence of 15 years for manslaughter seems a bit tough to me because the sandlewood cutters were all drunk at the time and gave conflicting witness accounts at the time. And, according to George, were still drunk three or four months later on their way to the trial!! I hope they had sobered up before they attended court. It would be interesting to know what happened to William Kelly after he got out of jail.

The Inquirer and Commercial News, 10 Jul 1889

The Argus, 8 July 1889

And for our George? He left Perth the next day to explore some other areas of Western Australia. 

To be continued.

Trove Tuesday: In which George labours on the line

Part five. The diary of George Smith continues. It's May 1889 and George is still working as a labourer on the Great Southern Railway that was being constructed between Albany and Beverley in Western Australia.

Men using timber sleepers to construct the 

Uralla Railway Line west of Roma, ca. 1918 [QldPics, bonzle.com]

1/5 Weather very showery, cold at nights with inclination to freeze. Very much amused at my mate giving me some reminiscences of old Ireland and some ballads.
2/5 Plate layers in camp fixing line and lifting siding to ballast pit.
3/5 Dressing & trimming formation. Visited by inspector of repairs.
4/5 One month on repairs 8-6-0 due. Beautiful day. Went to next camp for mutton. Weight of sheep 28 lbs. Longing to see a Christian.
5/5 Usual routine, usual work.
7/5 Loaf of bread stole from Ned McGuinnes's tent attributed to two travelling hawkers.
9/5 Usual work. Michael Courtney's tent robbed, loaf of bread stone. My tent robbed, piece of bacon & some mutton stolen.
10/5 Jack McCarthy put on. Went to Taylors in the afternoon.
11/5 Ten pound of pork stole from McCarthy's tent, suspicions on Bobby Hunter.
12/5 Shifted two tents & erected two chimneys.
13/5 Lifting and pulling the line.
14/5 Burning off scrub.
15/5 Pay day. Paid 8-6-6 twenty two and a half days. Loading rails and crossings with the next gang.
16/5 Went to Narrogin with McCarthy on the trolley, distance 16 miles, for stores. Could get no fresh meat so have to do without it. Wrote home.
17/5 Cleaning drains
18/5 Heavy showers. Miller went along the line inspecting.
19/5 Lang ramble into the bush, reading etc.
20/5 Working on the line. Evening listening to ballads and ghost stories.
21/5 Got word from Inspector Reardon that we would have to shift in a day or two on account of the length being made longer a mile being put on to each of them.
22/5 Thinking of leaving the repairs and going to Glentromie. The line has to be opened on June 1st and intend then to go down to Albany and see about it.
23/5 Shifting camp six miles near Beverley. Made two trips of it, shifting three frame tents. Pushing them up on a one in sixty grade on the trolley hard work.
24/5 Morning fixing up camp, afternoon went to Taylors with trolley 12 miles for meat, got half sheep 11 lb. First saw the notorious Fanny Flay.
25/5 Working close to next gang. One of them had his bed clothes pulled off him and took outside, the door of his tent being closed. Rainy day washing, baking the food, fixing tent. Living with Ned in a twelve by two.
27/5 Dispute between the ganger and Ned McGuinness. hasty words. the dispute arose out of which of the two owned a certain kerosene tine bucket. Ned stopped in all day, went out next day.
28/5 Saw a regular overland troop going east, six niggers and a gin all mounted on three pack horses & a white man. Rather a drool looking lot.
29/5 The inspector came along and altered our length us to shift a second time to our annoyance. Ganger received news from his wife. She said she was coming over.
30/5 Up at daybreak packing up. Shifted to the 66 and a half. At it all day. I vexed the ganger very much in wanting to let the trolley run down a steep grade.
31/5 Went to Taylors got 12 lb pork, half pound of tea, 6 sugar.
1/6 On clay banks the line sinking working hard. Afternoon fetched a load of boxes on trolley from the old camp.
2/6 Putting floor in tent.
3/6 Lifting the rails on each of the bridges one inch high. Three hours rain, stopped in tent. Line opened from the ninety to Beverley, a train through & back once each day.

West Australian, 31 May 1889

4/6 The boss and old Ned at it again about packing the sleepers. Sam Diver with us for a night. He had been on a spree for a fortnight and was in the horrors.
5/6 Climies Cart came with the stores. Fetched letters and newspapers. Was glad to hear that all was well at home.
6/6 Bought 16 shillings worth of Ned's stores. He left with the cart down to the one hundred and nineteen. He left the tent. While we were away took six lb onions from my tent & dish and some bags from Courtney.
7/6 Visited by the inspector of repairs. Was told the length we left was very bad in parts. Gave letter to him to post.
10/6 Rainy day. Pay train came at eight o'clock at night. Grand 20 chain chase after it. Received 24 days pay 8-18-0. Ganger one pound short in his pay.
11/6 Began a six chain general lift and decided to go to Narrogin on the morrow for stores.
12/6 Road too bad. Put off the trip to Narrogin. In rainy weather the banks get soft and the weight of the train puts the rail down in places and if they was not lifted and packed they would put the train off.
13/6 to 19/6 Diary pages missing

Railway gang [Image H2002.106/266 SLV]

20/6 Another hand put on, W Geary a Colonial, but as usual a swearing cursing navvy. Inspector passed up and found fault with the length. Said it was very crooked.
21/6 Full handed again but McCarthy said he would not come out again if he had to work such a heavy lever.
22/6 McCarthy stopped in having a very bad cold the result of the booze.
23/6 Went to Blakes camp and fetched back Diver to fill Jack's spot.
24/6 The Diver and I batched together. He is a sailor cove with plenty of funny yarns but abominably smutty.
25/6 Playing cards all evening and did not feel right, neglecting praying & spiritually uneasy.
26/6 Thought of leaving & going to Perth. Bad company has an awful influence.
27/7 Another man put on, Black Peter by name. The usual character. Cards again. Told Courtney that I would leave. Sorrow all round. Got my time and gave stores to Diver.
28/6 Started for Albany from the Arthur River siding.

Albany Railway Station, Western Australia. It was constructed  in 1889
the same year that the Great Southern Railway was opened. [Postcard]

To be continued. In the next installment George goes to Perth.

George Smith the dictator

Part four. The diary of George Smith continues. It's April 1889 and George is still working as a labourer on the Great Southern Railway that was being constructed between Albany and Beverley in Western Australia.

Bush camp 1900 [Museum Victoria]

19/4 G Bow in our camp. Paddy Fits and McGloun ... their tucker and cans of ... because ganger wouldn't wait for them to get water in the morning at 5 past 8 they stopped work all day.
20/4 They used threatening language, was going to half kill the ganger, he being very frightened of them.
21/4 Sunday. Helped build tent for the ganger. Went over to the rowdies camp and talked blood and hair. Cowed them a little.
22/4 The rowdies done a lot of tongue work giving a lot of abuse to Courtney. Got off to our work all right. Asked guidance. Live peaceable with all men as much as possible.
23/4 Rowing again. Urged Courtney to hit McGloun couldn't get him to go for him. The ganger would go for police protection but persuaded him to not go and if the rowdies said or done anything I would knock ... out of them. Quieted his fears a little.
24/4 Peaceful. Saw Reardon inspector of repairs. Pleased with our work and said he would get us two fresh men.
25/4 Cutting scrub now with Bobby Hunter. Was pealed off to give him a hammering for language used. Was vexed by my very unchristian action.
26/4 Cutting scrub. Peace in the camp owing to me I believe holding the office of dictator.
27/4 Burning off. Rehmatics [sic] very bad in the shoulders. Rowdies still quiet.
28/4 Sunday. Washing, baking, went to a farm eight mile off for mutton. Got one fresh hand E McGinnis. Rowdies cleared out in the ...
29/4 Cutting scrub. Afternoon a terrific thunder storm. Sent letter home for Clissie storekeeper.
30/4 Clearing on the line. Becoming reconciled to my lot in a measure. Beginning to think of visiting New Zealand and after, God willing, home.

To be continued.

Trove Tuesday: In which George is a railway ganger

The story of George Smith's adventure continues. You can see the first two installments here and here.

George Smith travelled on a coastal steamer from Adelaide to Albany in Western Australia and headed up the line to find work on the construction of the Great Southern Railway. Before the Fremantle port was built Albany was the main deepwater port for Western Australia and it was over three hundred miles from Perth. Construction of the 241 mile line was started at both Beverley (in the north) and Albany (in the coast) in 1886 and the line was opened in 1889.

The Argus, 4 June 1889

George found work in a gravel pit at first and then as part of a gang repairing the ballast and cutting scrub on the line. He was a devout Christian and found the conversation and behaviour of his workmates rather shocking. He wrote in his diary every day.


31/3 [1889] Arrived in Western Australia, Albany, and thought it a very pretty place.
3/4 Went up 190 mile to 196 gravel pit. Slept out all night. Rained at four o'clock in the morning. Suffering with a violent cold.
4/4 Engaged myself to work in the gravel pit 9 shillings per day. Went to work after dinner after pitching tent.
5/4 No coal for engines. No work in the morning, worked afternoon filling trucks. Thought I would have dropped for a while filling the last one from exhaustion. Cold no better.
6/4 Worked all day. Felt better. Thinking about giving it up.
7/4 Told I wasn't wanted in the pit. I engaged to go line repairing at the 165 at 7/6 per day.
8/4 Started for the 165 cap on the ballast train. Came to ? 14 mile off of it, started to walk the rest it, carried my things two mile, come to repairers, was trollied down. Camped at Godfreys.
9/4 Trollied down to 165 by Godfrey. Pitched tent in the morning, went to work in the afternoon. Thought it easy work. Thankful to God for his goodness.
10/4 Cutting scrub along the line with bill hooks. The country sandy and scrubby with plenty of poison weed called York Poisoned Weed.
11/4 On repairs packing the sleepers, equalising the gravel and filling the line. Shocked at the filthy conversation of the wicked.
12/4 Made my first batch of bread being the best bread on the camp. Any amount of rats in the tent at night.
13/4 Not very well being very tired at night. Took medicine.
14/4 Sunday. Refixed tent, washed my clothes, baked bread, took physic very feverish.
15/4 Felt well. Found out that my three mates Michael Courtey, Paddy Fits and Paddy McGloun starting mess. Got a supply of goods, tinned milk, preserved fruits, potatoes &c. Thankful.
16/4 Fell in with Bobby Hunter kangarooing. Thought him a queer card with his dogs & gun & lonely life.
17/4 With the flying gang ballasting the line with some Victorians. Getting into the work splendidly.
18/4 Still with gang re ballasting. Worked very hard all day ...

Railway trolley. [Museum Victoria MM4926]

Railway camp, Western Australia [Museum Victoria 158140]

To be continued.