Kalgoorlie Miner 15 Apr 1966-
Dinny’s Brainwaves
‘Oysters and a Petrol Pourer’
When Coolgardie was new and luring men from all parts of the country, many interesting characters rode or trudged into town. Pint-size bantam weight Dennis ‘Dinny’ O’Callaghan arrived there only eleven days before his 18th birthday. He came to Australia with his family from Ireland but he left them behind in Broken Hill when news reached that town of the rich gold finds at Coolgardie in the West.
On February the 4th 1893, he first caught sight of the canvas town of Coolgardie with the dust rising above it from the feverish dry-blowing activity. He waited only long enough to pitch his tent before joining in the search for gold. He picked up enough small nuggets to pay his way but, disappointed, he decided to prospect further afield. He bought pack horses and ventured out into unknown country. He made two expeditions in the following months with no big gold finds, and on one he nearly perished through lack of water. The young Irishman kept going back to Coolgardie as he said those days in Coolgardie were
wild and willing, it was where I spent some of the happiest days of my life.
Dinny O’Callaghan first attracted public attention after the discovery of the fabulous ‘Hole of Gold’ at Londonderry, twelve miles south of Coolgardie. After the news of his rich find, which turned out to be mainly an extremely rich pocket, about 200 alluvial diggers swarmed to the spot and pegged claims surrounding the mine. Dinny pegged twelve acres close by and sold out for £2000. He then looked around to see if there was any more ground to be pegged, but he found all was taken. He then had a brain wave, in those days an alluvial gold miner could work to within 20 feet of the cap of a reef, later this was changed to 50 feet provided the lease was then only recommended for approval. The owner of the lease had all rights to reefs or loads.
The owners of the Londonderry had their line of reefs delineated with red flags.
Dinny’s bright idea was that as the mining act did not allow the reef owners to hold the alluvial ground that their tents and dwellings covered, he would peg that area. The six owners of the Londonderry each had a tent as well as a log hut which held the precious specimen stones from the mine. The hut was locked and guarded day and night, it was like likened to a jewellers shop or a gold mint.
Dinny carefully marked off 20 feet from the line of the reef and pegged a block of 50 square feet which held the tents and the famous log hut. The owners appealed to the warden but were told there was nothing they could do about it. After working his new claim for only 5 days, Dinny heard of another rich find, the ‘Wealth of Nations’ a few miles away. Anxious to join the rush he sold out his alluvial claim to the Londonderry owners.
At the ‘Wealth of Nations’, Dinny was lucky and picked up quite a few big nuggets, the largest weighing 25 ounces. He soldered down one of these in a mustard tin and sent it back to his father in Broken Hill. When the gold around the new find became scarce he went back to Coolgardie. It was then the middle of 1894 and Dinny decided something was missing in the now busy centre, and that was a small goods shop. With a partner he opened ‘The York Ham Shop’, they sold all types of small goods and one of their biggest draw cards was oysters sold for five shillings a dozen.