Gladstone Gold Mine (W.E.G.), Niagara, Kookynie Goldfield, Menzies Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Gladstone Gold Mine (W.E.G.)	Mine
Niagara	- not defined -
Kookynie Goldfield	Ore Field
Menzies Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

The original prospectors could not be located, or much information under the Gladstone name, although plenty as W.E.G. No source explained what the acronym stood for. The mine had a chequered career.

The earliest information was 1899, when the Continental and Western Trust took out a working option.

Pabst and Hope took over the mine around 1901. The main shaft had been sunk to 300 feet on a reef 5 feet wide, between two clean walls. A 10 head battery was erected.

An early indication of the poor management of the mine, was in 1902 when slime boxes containing gold were stolen. While most mines kept these locked and guarded, at the Gladstone the boxes were left in the open, and hidden behind the battery out of sight.

Pabst and Hope gradually wracked up debts to local businesses, wages and the bank. The employees had taken small advances from time to time, in lieu of wages, hoping their employers would come good. Several Kookynie businesses were owed, including a large sum to the local beer distributer, indicating how the owners had been passing their time.

Regional correspondents to the Kalgoorlie papers were always keep secret, to protect them from being run out of town. The Kookynie representative was clearly a mine manager in the district with comments like ' miners who allow their wages to run so much in arrears deserve little sympathy if in the end they get nothing'. He had a similar view of the business owners.

However, he also lambasted the management of the mine. Pabst and Hope he claimed had been swanning around the district like Rand magnates, while the mine was left on auto-pilot, employees turning up when they felt like it. When creditor clamouring became too much, a crushing would be produced, but the mine had been pot-holed accessing the richest parts, with little systematic development, and dangerous timbering underground. The mine was described as in a state of hopeless chaos.

Eventually the Western Australia Bank took control of the mine and appointed receivers in early 1905. Several court cases followed as employees pursued Pabst and Hope for wages, and local businesses for money owed. All without success.

The creditors appointed a committee to work the mine themselves. Former underground boss, Oleman (surname) was made mine manager. After four weeks, and employing fifteen men, the result was a further loss.

The mine was let on tribute, then an option was taken out by David Davies in 1907. Mine manager was J. Strauss, whose first job was to lay a water pipe one mile to the Jessop Well to obtain water for the battery. After one day of pumping the well was dry, with no likelihood of obtaining any further water from other sources. Further the battery by this stage was in dis-repair, and the boilers were condemned. The mine closed.

Employees took Davies to court for wages, and local businesses for money owed in a repeat of the Pabst and Hope episode two years earlier. The creditors tried to get the local court to force the sale of the lease, but as Davies was an option holder, this was never going to be approved. Davies eventually received a prison sentence.

Reid and party took out a crushing in 1931, from new ground, 500 feet south of the main shafts.

In 1933, George Hepburn on behalf of the Wavic Gold Development Syndicate NL took out an option over the mine. An old plant from the Mulwarril mine was purchased and re-erected to pump water out of the Gladstone.After considerable difficulty, they unwatered the mine and sampled. At least one crushing was taken to Hunt's battery in Kalgoorlie of 52 tonnes yielding 27 ounces of gold.

The mine had produced over its time 7266 tonnes of ore for 5257 ounces of gold.

The present site contains an old small square battery sands pile, several more modern cross trenches, collapsed shafts, small mullock, building foundations etc. The workings run west south-west to east north-east.

The site is at the far western edge of the goldfield. Numerous historic workings exist to the east of the location. Finding the mine on the ground amongst the mulga scrub would be difficult. A faint un-marked track leaves the Kookynie Road heading north, about one kilometre east of the Morapoi indigenous community. The mine is about three kilometres north of the Kookynie Road. It could also be accessed via numerous tracks heading north, then west from the Orion mine. Getting lost is a distinct possibility.

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References