Canbelego

The area now known as Canbelego is part of the traditional lands of Wangaaypuwan dialect speakers (also known as Wangaibon) of Ngiyampaa people.[8][9]

The Surveyor-General Thomas Mitchell and his expedition had camped and obtained water, in early 1845, at a place that he called "Canbelego" but that was not the later site of the village; it was a location—on the Bogan river and near to the modern-day locality of Grahweed[10]—about 30 km from Nyngan. As Mitchell tried to use local language names whenever possible, it is likely that the name Canbelego is derived from the local aboriginal dialect. Grahweed and the later site of Canbelego lie at opposite ends of area of the County of Canbelego, and it is likely that the village took its name from the county.

After settler colonisation, the area of the village was partly within Robinson County (Parish of Cohn) and partly within Canbelego County (Parish of Florida).[3]

General view of the Mt Boppy Gold Mine - Surface plant (c.1905)

The original Mount Boppy Gold Mine operated from 1901 to 1922. It was, at the time, regarded as being the largest gold producer in New South Wales.[11] Over that period, the mine produced 13.5 tons (433,000 ounces) of gold.[12] By the end of 1912, shareholders had received a return of 356% on their capital investment,[13] rising to 500% over the entire 21 years of operation.[12]

After reef mining ceased in September 1921, the old company reprocessed tailings and remnant ore stocks, until finally closing the site and selling off equipment, in 1923.[14][15]

Between 1929 and 1941, there was minor production of gold from remnant ore and attempts to process tailings.[16][17][18] Around 500,000 tonnes of tailings—still containing an average of 3g of gold per tonne—were left on the surface. Starting in 1974, these tailings were reprocessed to recover more gold. Later mining operations included reprocessing of tailings sand that had been used to back fill the old underground workings.[12] In recent years, the mine was reopened as an open-cut operation,[12] but later placed under care and maintenance.

It is estimated that over its entire life, from hard-rock mining and tailings reprocessing, the mine has produced 500,000 ounces of gold. Only with the opening of the New Occidental mine at Wrightville, near Cobar, in the 1930s, did the Mount Boppy mine lose its place as the most productive gold mine in New South Wales.[19]

Mount Boppy South mine (1912)

In 2020, drilling revealed intersections of high-grade gold-bearing ore below the bottom of the existing pit.[20][21] Gold was again being mined there in 2021, and that was expected to continue, until 2022, with limited mine site rehabilitation.[22][5]

South-east of the Mount Boppy mine was the Mount Boppy South mine,[23] which was worked in conjunction with the main Mount Boppy Gold Mine.[24] Other nearby mines included the Canbelego Copper Mining Co. (also known as 'the Burra', located 5 miles south of the village), the North Mount Boppy Gold Mining Co., and the Restdown Copper Mining Co. (15 miles south-east of Canbelego).[25][26] Nearer to the railway station at Boppy Mountain was the Boppy Boulder Gold Mine.[24]

The deposit that was formerly associated with the Canbelego Copper Mining Co. and later Canbelego Copper Mines Limited[27]—mined between 1906 and 1914[28][29][30][31]—was once again, in 2022, the focus of exploration as a copper resource.[32][33]

Miners who were starting their shift at the Mount Boppy Gold Mine (c. 1905)

The village of Canbelego was proclaimed in December 1902,[34] although the emerging settlement— at first informally known as Mount Boppy Mines—had been surveyed and named Canbelego, by late 1900.[35] In May 1901, the population was 184.[36] By the end of 1902, there was already a population of 300 to 400, and two hotels.[37] By mid 1904, the rapidly growing population had reached around 900, with 180 employed at the Mt Boppy Mine.[38]

Canbelego Public School c. 1904.

The post office opened in 1901. The public school was established in 1901, initially with around 35 children;[39] by mid 1904, it had an enrollment of 158, and an average attendance of 120. The main street, Edward Street, had three hotels, six stores, two butchers, a baker, blacksmith, billiard saloon, cool drink shops, many boarding houses, a post office, and a court house under construction. There was also a local doctor. The first of its church buildings, the Presbyterian Church, built in 1901, was shared when necessary with other denominations, pending the other churches being built.[38][40]

View from poppet head of Mount Boppy Gold Mine, with Canbelego in the background, c.1912.

All the houses in the town were neat houses of weatherboard construction, not the temporary structures common in mining towns of that time. On the outskirts of the village, a sawmill was busy cutting timber for building work in the growing village.[38] In 1905, the population reached around 1,500, with around 300 of these being employees of the mine.[12][41] By 1907, the population had reached around 2,000.[6]

A fourth hotel, the Federal Hotel had opened by late 1908.[42]

Construction of an Anglican church (The Church of the Good Shepherd) began in late 1908, and it was consecrated in mid 1909.[43][44] Anglican church services were conducted by visiting priests of the Brotherhood of the Good Shepherd.

By 1908, the village had a Catholic church (St Phillip's).[45] In 1908, a second school, a Catholic Convent School, was opened, with four Sisters of St. Joseph and 70 pupils.[46]

In 1910, the village's new Methodist church was opened. The new building was necessary because the Methodists could no longer use the building of 'a sister church' (probably the Presbyterian church) for their services.[47]

Canbelego Town Band (1909)[48]

By 1908, there were four hotels,[38][49] to slake the thirst of miners, but there were also other recreation choices.

From around 1906, the village had its own horse racing course[50] and race meetings were held there on New Year's Day until the racing club was wound up in 1912.[51]

The Canbelego Town Band, performed at a second annual fancy dress and masquerade ball, in 1907.[52] It competed in music competitions against other towns.[48][53][54]

On 27 October 1911, the village was entertained by a touring 'Bio-megaphone', an early form of talking motion picture show. It was powered by "huge electric generator imported from America expressly for this tour", and was fitted with "Fire-proof guards to prevent any danger of conflagration".[55] Later, the village would have its own venue for motion pictures, Levy and Wall's Picture Show.[56]

The rapid growth in population soon exposed the vulnerable water supply—a continuing problem in a semi-arid area—overcrowding at the school, and inadequate postal and telegraph arrangements.[57] The village would suffer an extraordinary number of building fires.[58][59]

Water supply 'tank' at the Mount Boppy Gold Mine c.1905

Water was critical, in the semi-arid environment. Canbelego's mean annual rainfall is just under 400mm,[60] but it can vary greatly from year to year, with drought an ever present risk. All watercourses in the area are ephemeral.

Enormous amounts of water were needed for the gold processing operations. The mine drew its water from a vast 'tank'. Despite the mine tank's 12-million imperial gallon capacity—enough for eight months operation if full—and very careful water management at the mine,[61] lack of water was a cause of interruptions to production and employment, during droughts.

The village's water came from a separate 'Government Tank'. So critical was the mine to the village's economy that, if the mine's tank fell below eight feet in depth and subject to approval, water was transferred from the Government Tank to the mine's tank.[62][63][64] From 1914, the mine began using groundwater, from the abandoned North Mount Boppy shaft, in its boilers.[65]

The quality of the village's water supply was poor, often containing silt, and water needed to be boiled to be safe to drink. Distribution of water to the town depended upon there being enough wind to operate the windmill-driven pump feeding a distribution tank.[66][67] Some houses had rainwater tanks, but these could not be relied upon in Canbelego's climate. Groundwater from the mine workings was clean, but brackish and unfit for human consumption.[68] In times of drought, residents sometimes needed to buy water that had to be brought in by rail.[49]

Royal Hotel c.1904. It was one of nine buildings destroyed in the catastrophic fire of February 1915. It was not rebuilt.

With little water and no fire brigade, fire was a constant threat to a village built mainly of wood and corrugated iron sheets. There were serious fires that destroyed multiple commercial buildings, in 1904,[69] 1906,[70] January 1911,[71] October 1911,[72] November 1911,[73] 1913,[74] and 1915,[75] as well as house fires that destroyed individual residences.[58][76][54] In 1915, a fire at the hospital was extinguished before it could destroy the building.[77]

The most destructive fire was the fire of February 1915; it destroyed two of the village's hotels and seven shops, all in Edward Street. Only with great effort, by surface staff from the mine, was the fire prevented from spreading to the other side of the street.[78] The fire of November 1911 was nearly as destructive.[73]

After more fires affecting hotels and businesses, a skeptical reporter opined in early 1916 that, "Fires seem to be quite fashionable in Canbelego at present".[59] Arson was involved in some fires,[79][74][80][81] but in others, including the destructive fire of February 1915, it was not possible to reach a conclusion on whether there had been arson or not.[82][83] The fire risk at Canbelego, in general, was such that insurance cover had become harder to obtain by 1912.[58]

Canbelego did not have local government, before 1958, and lay within the Unincorporated Western Division;[84][85] it was in many ways a company town. That had advantages; the company provided a small hospital, a library and the village's electricity supply originally came from the mine. The surface employees of the mine also fought fires in the village.[77][78] Not just the village's economy was dependent upon the mine, but most services too. Another disadvantage was that, without local government, the village could only rely on its Progress Committee, or the management of the mine, for advocacy to the New South Wales state government and its departments.

Miners working a 16 feet wide reef, inside a stope (Mt Boppy Mine, 1905). Note the absence of any personal protective equipment and the bar being used to bring down rock, from below.

Hard-rock mining was a dangerous occupation; the accident rate for Cobar district miners, in 1912, was 109.3 accidents per 1,000 workers.[86] Accidents at the Mount Boppy Mine—commonly due to rockfalls but sometimes entrapment in surface machinery—often had fatal outcomes.[87][88][89][90][91] In one such accident, in April 1914, a miner and recent widower, William (W.J.) Nicholls, was killed instantly by a large falling rock; he was survived by his seven then-orphaned children, the eldest being just fourteen.[92][93]

Even if a victim survived an accident, the medical facilities available to treat them, at Canbelego's small 'mine cottage hospital' were very limited, and some injuries were just too severe to treat successfully at the time.[94] In March 1916, a miner, Edward Webb, was caught in a rockfall and pinned against timber. He sustained internal injuries and a fractured pelvis. When his condition had not improved after a day, he was relocated, on a goods train, to the district hospital at Cobar. Once there, the doctors "decided that the case was not one suitable for immediate operation and gave instructions to the matron as to treatment", and it was there that Webb died. His body was returned to Canbelego,[88][94] where he is buried.[95]

The sudden death of a miner not only affected their immediate family, but also community life. A husband and father of three, John Price, who was killed in the mine in January 1910, was the secretary of Canbelego's town band and the village's librarian. Price's 18-year old son had miraculously survived an earlier serious accident, when he was caught in machinery.[96] Price himself had experienced a near miss, in January 1908, in an incident in which the miner working alongside him, a popular man and keen sportsman, Herbert Corbett, lost his leg. Amputation of Corbett's leg could not arrest the process of "mortification" and, after a second operation, he died at Cobar district hospital. When Corbett's body was returned for burial, at Canbelego, the funeral cortege from the railway station, led by the town band and including members of the miners' union, the A.M.A., was said to be over three-quarters of a mile long.[97][98]

Fatal accidents also occurred outside the mine. A fall from a bullock wagon took the life of Canbelego's carrier, Owen Byrne, in 1914,[99][100] a fire that of an old-age pensioner, Mrs Smart, in 1908,[101] and an accidental shooting that of 15 year old Thomas Henderson, in 1915.[102]

Fortunate to survive was the mine's accountant, Eric (E.B.) Treatt, a former N.S.W. Lancer and a veteran of the South African War. In September 1903, he was at the Commercial Bank in Cobar, after accompanying the gold escort from the mine on the train. While inside the manager's office, with the bank manager and another man, he bent over to retrieve a document and a loaded revolver fell from his top pocket onto the floor. The revolver discharged and the bullet went through Treatt's thigh and entered his abdomen.[103][104][105] Without the newly-discovered X-rays, great difficulty was experienced in finding the bullet, at Cobar.[106] He was taken to Sydney, where X-rays were used, but without a result. Treatt eventually recovered, still carrying the bullet,[107] and returned to his job at the mine.[108] An elder brother of state politician, Vernan Treatt, after Canbelego, he was first an A.M.P. agent and later a farmer and orchardist, near Young, where he was also an unsuccessful political candidate.[109][110] Treatt was to have a long life.[111]

Canbelego's 'mine cottage hospital' c.1912. It was overwhelmed, in July 1919, when Spanish flu struck the mining village, and the library and billiard hall were taken over to provide space.[112]

The village had outbreaks of typhoid fever, a disease caused by bacteria. In those times, the disease was a regular visitor to settlements, but especially those with poor water quality and sanitation. More serious cases were transferred to the district hospital at Cobar. Canbelego had a serious epidemic, in 1906.[113][114][115][116][117] Another serious bacterial disease was diphtheria, affecting especially infant children.[117][118]

In July 1919, Canbelego suffered a serious outbreak of Spanish Influenza, during the second and more lethal wave of the pandemic in Australia. Most of the community were infected—temporarily closing the mine and overwhelming the small hospital—resulting in at least nine deaths in one week.[112][119][120][121]

John Bray

Australian War Memorial records show five men from Canbelego went to the First World War.[122] Four of these five men died during the war.[122] However, a contemporaneous report states that Canbelego had raised three contingents of volunteer recruits—the last of consisting of eight young men—by September 1915.[123] A roll of honour memorial from Canbelego lists the names of 71 men, of whom 14 had died in the war.[124][125]

One of those who died, John Bray, perhaps unsurprisingly for a miner, was a sapper in the 3rd Tunnelling Company, A.I.F., when he was killed in action in France, on 12 September 1916.[126] He was buried at the Pont du Hem Military Cemetery, at La Gorgue, with another sapper killed on the same day.[127]

On 9 July 1916, the village was stunned by a murder suicide, referred to, at the time, as the 'Canbelego Tragedy'. A discharged soldier, William Henry Carroll, shot and killed his girlfriend, Gertrude Tessy Pearson, then fired at his own sister, Rosey Carroll, but missed; when his sister last saw him, he was reloading his rifle. Fearing for their own lives, his sister and his mother fled and summoned a police sergeant, who found Pearson dead and Carroll mortally wounded by a gunshot to the head. He died in hospital, later on the same day. Gertrude Pearson, believed to be from Botany, was staying as a guest of Carroll's family, at Canbelego, at Carroll's invitation, but had announced her intention to return to Sydney on the following Monday. Just before the shooting she and Carroll had quarrelled. She was described as a "refined girl" who was "said to have been 17 years old, but hardly appeared that age."[128][129][130][131]

Carroll had been an army recruit, in training at Liverpool Camp; during that time he met Gertrude Pearson and they had formed an intense attachment. He was discharged, after he had participated in what became known as the 'Liverpool mutiny', in February 1916. It had started as a protest strike by recruits, but escalated into a massive and violent, alcohol-fuelled riot, in Liverpool and later in the streets of central Sydney. Carroll had been sentenced to two months of imprisonment, for violently attacking a police constable during the riot. Carroll's father stated that his son always had a violent temper and was "madly jealous" around Miss Pearson. The coroner's findings were willful murder and suicide.[129][130][131][132][133] Gertrude Pearson was buried in Cobar,[134][135] not in Canbelego. Although the only people she knew in the district were the Carroll family, in an outpouring of sympathy, her funeral was well attended.[130]

In 1917, the population was said to be around 2,000 but, in February of that year, hard rock mining was suspended at the Mount Boppy Gold Mine. The mine reopened in early 1918, after the sinking of a new shaft was completed, and the lode near the old shaft was then mined.[136] Despite assurances that the closure was temporary,[7][13] the population began to decline during the approximately twelve-month interruption to mining, probably as there was plenty of work for miners elsewhere in the Cobar region.[137]

The frequent droughts in the Cobar region had caused the Mount Boppy mine to shutdown on numerous occasions over its life, including in late 1918;[138] it happened again in 1919 and in early 1920. Like Cobar and Elouera, water was brought to Canbelego by rail, but the interruptions to work at the mine brought hardship when mine employees were stood down.[139][140] The drought would be a long one, which was still affecting mining operations at the Mt Boppy mine, into the early 1920s.[141][142] By March 1920, as the drought continued, Canbelego had begun to lose some of its weatherboard buildings, which were sold, demolished and taken to other places.[143] Canbelego residents were paying six shillings (6/-) for 100 gallons of water, which was brought by rail, from Narromine to Boppy Mount—a distance of 213 km[144][145]—and then by road to the village, in April 1920.[49]

Rain came in June 1920,[146] allowing production to restart, but around the same time the miners were in dispute over wage rates.[147] Nonetheless, the mine was able to produce enough gold, by the end of December 1920, to comfortably hold its place, for 1920, as the largest gold producer in New South Wales.[148]

On Monday 5 September 1921, the company announced that the mine had closed—consequently the last mining shift had ended on the previous Saturday at midnight—resulting in the loss of 200 mining jobs at Canbelego.[149] Some work continued, for a time, processing tailings and remnant ore, and twenty miners worked the old mine, as tribute miners during 1922.[142]

The final closure of the Mount Boppy Gold Mine, in 1922-1923, brought an end to any hoped for revival of Canbelego's prosperity.[150] A gold discovery and rush at nearby Muriel Tank, proved ephemeral, as did a mining claim pegged in Canbelego village itself.[151][152] In 1921, the population was down to around 1,000,[153][149] but it rapidly fell still further, without a major source of employment in the area. There was an immediate effect on the village; both the Miners' Arms hotel and Federal hotel closed,[154][155] and the convent school closed at the end of 1923.[156] The buildings owned by the mining company and the village's library of books were sold off, with the other mine assets, by auction, over three days at the end of August 1923.[157]

By September 1921, work for miners in the Cobar region was already scarce. In 1919, the huge Great Cobar mine had closed[158] as did the Chesney Mine which depended on its smelter.[159] In 1920, the C.S.A mine at Elouera closed unexpectedly due to an underground fire,[160] as did the Gladstone Mine which used its smelter.[161] In July 1921, the Occidental Gold Mine at Wrightville closed,[162] and the widespread expectations that it would reopen were dashed in July 1922.[163] After Mount Boppy closed, there were no longer any large mines working in the Cobar region,[164] and there would not be until work resumed at the Occidental Mine, subsequently the New Occidental Mine, in 1933.[165] Many miners and their families left the district altogether.[166]

The hospital building had been sold as part of the mine assets, but then was bought back by the Mount Boppy company, and made available to the community at a peppercorn rent.[167] By early 1924, the local hospital committee was struggling to keep it funded.[168] The village had obtained an ambulance, by April 1926,[169] which allowed patient transport to larger towns; the hospital seems to have closed before then, probably by the end of 1924.

Canbelego c.1938[170]

The village's domestic electricity supply came from a dynamo at the mine,[171] and it therefore ceased when the mine's surface operations shutdown, probably during 1922.

Canbelego had no fire brigade, and its remaining citizens—the surface workers from the mine were no longer available—had to deal with building fires themselves. Canbelego's public venues were Levy's Hall and an adjoining building, which in 1920 was the venue of Levy and Wall's Picture Show, the village's cinema.[56] The public hall was destroyed by fire in 1924, three month's after another fire destroyed Lane's general store, in December 1923. It was reported that—after the fires and earlier building removals— "The town is beginning to assume a rather dilapidated appearance".[172]

Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd, Canbelego (1935)[173]

Later, in 1925, it was reported that, "a handful is left hanging on in hope that the old field will come again"[174] and in 1929, "there are very few houses and shops in Canbelego".[175] Limited gold production between 1929[176] and 1941 allowed the village to persist, with diminished circumstances. In 1931, the population was still 261[177] and the village had one hotel, two stores, two butchers, a bakery, and its public school, with 40 pupils.[178] In 1944, the school had "less than a dozen children".[179]

In 1938, the village—by then described as "one hotel and cluster of houses"— had briefly relived its former glory, when its Country Rugby Leaque team—the smallest club of the 500 in the state—won 20 of its 22 games,[180] and it had another successful year in 1940.[181] The team was still in existence in 1954.[182]

By 1949, there were only 93 inhabitants left.[183] A visitor in 1951 wrote of the village and its old Anglican church, ”Here can be seen the little grey church on a windy hill, which in times past was surrounded by numerous houses, but now stands almost alone."[184] By 1954, the village reportedly had just 24 houses.[185]

The Commercial Hotel - The longest-lived of Canbelego's four hotels c. 1904.

The old Commercial Hotel was destroyed by fire, in 1956.[186][187] An attempt was made to remove its licence to Dapto, in 1958,[188] but it reopened, in a new hotel building, at a different site in Edward Street, in 1959.[189][190] After late 1957, Canbelego no longer had its Court of Petty Sessions[191] and Warden's Court.[192] By 1962, almost all that was left of the facilities of the village were the hotel, public school—with a few pupils, each of whom planted a tree in the school grounds that year[193]—and the post office. The school closed in 1969.[194] The post office closed in 1987.[195] The 'new' Commercial Hotel burned down in 1990, and this time it was not rebuilt; its licence was transferred to a hotel in faraway Coogee.[190] As late as 1995, Canbelego still had a village hall,[196] its last public building.

Boppy Mount (also known as Boppy Mountain)—4.5 km by road to the north-west of the village, and 710.8 km by rail from Sydney—was the railway station for Canbelego on the Cobar railway line. The railway station opened in July 1892,[197] and predates the discovery of gold and the settlement at Canbelego. The original discoverer of the gold-bearing lode, a prospector, Michael Delaney O'Grady, lived near the railway station. It was while walking back to his home, in September 1896, that he recognised the lode, where it was exposed in a watercourse.[13]

Boppy Mount railway station c.1910, with the landform, Mount Boppy, in the background. The water tower is visible on the right.

The railway station and its hamlet lay close to the landform, Mount Boppy.[198] Mount Boppy rises around 150 m (500 feet) from the surrounding country, and its peak is around 440 m (1450 feet) above sea level.[199] On the side of Mount Boppy was a gold mine, known as Boppy Boulder Gold Mine, which was employing 23 men in 1912.[24]

In the days before motorised road transport, the railway at Boppy Mount was vital to the area around Canbelego, not only for the mining community, but also to ship wool grown in the surrounding area.[200]

There was a water tower at Boppy Mount, for replenishing trains. A hamlet existed there, in the very early 20th century,[38][201][2][202] and a post office until around 1957.[195] There was a hotel there, known as Boppy Mountain Hotel, and "one or two private houses".[38][203] The Boppy Mountain Hotel was destroyed by fire in February 1916,[59] and it seems was never rebuilt. At some time—possibly around 1957—the station became unattended, but remained operational. The railway station closed,[197] probably in or around 1974.[204]

There was another platform, at a railway siding called Florida, located to the north of Canbelego.[204]