A Pioneer Remembers – Charlie Counsel

Pilbarra Shows the Way to the Gold Rushes
Pioneer Recounts his Romantic Story
By ‘Westerner’

A man who went to the Kimberleys and its goldfields in 1887, and on the morning of his 21st birthday was doing the last 18 miles of a 300-mile walk with his swag on his back just after recovering from a severe bout of malaria, must have grit. To have carried on from then until now in various capacities over a big slice of the State, he certainly had staying power. That he celebrated his 65th birthday last March in the same piece of country where he did his long trek in his 21st year showed that with him the spirit of adventure was not dead but was enjoying an Indian summer. It also demonstrated his faith in the country which sirened him in his youth. The possibility that his next birthday will be passed in the same locality is evidence that once a goldfielder even easy retirement in the metropolis is exile.

‘When you’ve heard the Fields a callin’ you never ‘eed aught else.’

Such has been the experience of Mr. Charles Henry Counsel, of 26 Woodsome-street, Mt. Lawley, whom I had the pleasure of interviewing this week. Mr. Counsel carries his years well, and, nearing 66, is still a comparatively young man, despite malaria and its complications, the toll a man has to pay when he seeks adventure in our tropical north. He recalls the adventures of the past with relish, and one senses that his great regret is that Anno Domini has put a semi-colon to his roving —  ‘out where the dead men lie,’ may be, but where the romance of gold played an enthralling game of ‘hide and seek’ every hour of which was difficult, almost always dangerous, but fully worthwhile, and, in the retrospect, delightful. Looking back from his 65-mile post on hardships that would appall our suburban youth of today, and expressing gratification that he was enjoying good health despite the rigors of the track, the hard ‘tucker,’ the many thirsts that had to be postponed over a long, dry stretch, and the pestilential mosquito, whose bite meant malaria, he said that he thought he owed much to the fact that he had been a life-long teetotaller. He certainly is a good advertisement for the non-alcoholic brand of thirst quenchers.

Charles Henry Counsel

Mr. Counsel came to Western Australia from the Old Country in 1884 with his parents in the little vessel Helena Mena. Timber getting was then a big industry, and for two years and a half, he worked with his father in the Jarrahdale timber mills. There came a breakdown of machinery and temporary closing of the mill, and he went sleeper-cutting outside Chidlow’s Well. Next came a chance, still in timber, to work on the installation of the first telegraph line to Kimberley, under the Government, and that’s where adventure first called and he went. The prosaic work of running a telegraph line was punctured by tragedy, robbery, and murder which broke the peace of a bush camp.

Murder Obtrudes

The boss of the railway camp on the telegraph line used to deal in pearls that came somehow from Broome. He made no secret of his activity —  unauthorised pearl buying was frowned on, but the law was a long way off. His cash box with its hoard of pearls was his pride and joy and he showed it freely. ‘That was his undoing’ The box disappeared. The boss offered a reward of £10 for its recovery. A red-headed man known as Bricky said: “Your pearls must be in this camp. I’ll find out who has got them and I will see that they are restored to you. We don’t want any thieves here.” That night the coasting ship came into the harbor, and the camp got its share of grog, and things were merry.

But the case of the missing pearls got tangled up with the grog, and ‘Bricky’ and his mate, a native man nick-named ‘Hamlet’ were shot. ‘Bricky’ was killed instantly, but ‘Hamlet’ lived for three days before passing away. In the camp was a cook who had a history of transportation from England as a convict for murder. The cook changed camp suddenly and moved 30 miles away, whence he hoped to catch a boat for the south. However, the police came to investigate the shooting of ‘Bricky’ and ‘Hamlet’, and, being suspicious of the cook, they bailed him up at the point of a revolver — this because he was armed — and found in his possession half of the stolen pearls. Evidence of murder could not be found against the cook, only proof of receiving stolen property. Somebody else had the other half of the pearls, and, doubtless, had done the shooting, but who it was baffled the police. For unlawful possession, the cook was sentenced to two years in jail.

The work of running the line held until the gold rush to the Pilbarra broke out in the late eighties, and telegraph posts no longer held any charm. Counsel and his mate hastened by boat to Cossack, and then, although Charles did not know it, began his life romance. They made straight for the Pilbarra, a 100 miles from Roebourne, and found about 200 men there, all on alluvial gold and most of them doing well. Slugs over 50oz were found there, and gold was worth £3,15s an ounce. Hancock and Edwards had the store, goods were packed from Roebourne, the water was good, gold was reasonably plentiful in the shallow gullies, and the conduct of the men was good. Everybody was serious, and, despite a grog store, everything was orderly. But for one exception.

Tragedy Once More

The year was 1889, and the scene was the Pilbarra goldfield. Again tragedy crossed the path of young Counsel. It was a Sunday morning, and the peace of the camp alongside Pilbarra Creek was broken by a man named Fred Laffer running up and calling out that Jack Hines had shot old Captain Moon and tried to shoot him as well (Laffer). It so happened that Warden Owen and Constable Mitchell (later Inspector Mitchell) had arrived the day before, and they were able to take hold of the tragedy. Hines was an American of the Wild West variety who carried a revolver and was always shooting it off. He had had some slight trouble with Captain Moon and shot him dead out of hand. Then he went looking for Laffer, who was in some way concerned in the incident, and said he would shoot him also. Constable Mitchell arrested Hines. but got him without trouble only because he got the drop on him with his revolver. There were some Americans in the camp — adventurers with Californian experience who had somehow got word of gold in Australia. They were incensed because of the behavior of their compatriot Hines and wanted to lynch him in the approved style, of the Californian diggings of the late forties. But the Warden and Constable Mitchell reasoned with them and prevailed upon them ‘to let the Law have him and deal with him.’ He was taken to Roebourne and later tried, and while, really excused on the major charge on the score of insanity was sentenced to two years imprisonment.

Next came Nullagine.

In the same year of 1889, Charley Counsel went to Nullagine and was one of the first fifty to reach that field. Things were good and he and his party had pack horses instead of ‘shanks pony’ with which to do the 800 miles from Roebourne, the nearest port from their last venture. Once again the young adventurer found gold, alluvial gold. It was very fine, but it made up in persistency what it lacked in coarseness, and values for quantity were entirely satisfactory. Here Counsel met Walter Kingsmill. Walter was then a youngster, but he had the characteristics in embryo that were to gain him later distinction. He was a nature lover, a lovable personality, and a ready and interesting teller of stories. Time works changes that are sometimes wonderful, but the young Kingsmill was the recognisable father of Sir Walter Kingsmill who, dying recently, left behind him the fragrant perfume of a memory of service which will be treasured in our State and in Australia.

Young Kingsmill — he was familiarly known as ‘Watty’ — had a rich claim at the new diggings, and in Watty’s Gully (named after him) got 200 ounces of gold in short order —  The alluvial dirt was rich, and at Beaton’s Hill on that field as much as 30 ounces of very fine gold was got from one dray load. A shaft, one of the few then put down, showed gold from the surface to 60ft in conglomerate the whole way. Another man who became notable later whom Mr. Counsel met at Nullagine was Arthur Bayley. Neither knew then that Bayley’s name would later be put on record for all time and throughout the world as the discoverer of Coolgardie. Bayley had the impulsiveness and the itch for the end of the rainbow which would lead to fortune. The field was good, the gold was easy, but it was too fine. Somewhere it could be found in chunks, and he was going to look for the chunks. With him, it was slugs or nothing, and he packed up — that wasn’t hard in those days — and left, hence Coolgardie!

Now comes word of the man who foretold the Esperance goldfield. Counsel had as a mate one Charlie Holt, born a Western Australian, and a bushman whose knowledge and resource were amazing. Tiring of the even tenor of the daily working among fine gold Counsel and Bolt decided to look for new fields. They went out 150 miles east of Nullagine well into the ‘Never-Never’ until they came into the sandstone country and decided that they had passed the auriferous belt. Bolt then told Counsel that late in the seventies he had, single-handed, followed explorer Hunt’s tracks from York, through Narlbine (Coolgardie) to Dempster’s station at Esperance and had found auriferous country the whole way. On that journey, he said he had gone as far as Eucla. and although he had formed a good impression of the chances at Esperance, he had felt the call of the ‘Far Away’ and had struck from Eucla straight into the Eastern blue and had pulled up at the Mount Brown diggings in New South Wales. Tiring there he had come back to the West and he advised giving Esperance a trial.

Counsel was impressed, but Esperance was 1000 miles away, while gold was close at hand for the effort of prospecting, and, apparently, any amount more on every side, a few miles away. There came a split in the partnership. Bolt quitted and went south. He probably never got as far as Esperance. Word came that after leaving Nullagine he went to the Murchison and remained there, up and down from Peak Hill to the other extremity, until four years ago, at the age of 84, he shot himself. A tragic and pitiful end for a great, lion-hearted prospector. The split with Bolt was precipitated by malaria which, struck Counsel and compelled him to go to Roebourne for medical treatment and rest. He hadn’t much rest.

The Nickel rush broke out on the sea beach near Roebourue and then the Marsh, ten miles away, and he had to have a look at both. At the ‘The Marsh’ he again ran up against Arthur Bayley, who, running true to form, cleaned up 30oz. in the first fortnight.

A Great walk followed Counsel’s 21st birthday and his perspiring last morning’s burst of 18 miles on the end of his after-fever trek over the 300 miles on foot from Roebourne. East of Nullagine again, this time accompanied by Ben and Ted Mason from the Canning. Fred Chester, an ex-Fremantle butcher, and Arthur Grouse, son of Dr. Grouse, of York. While on this venture there came a whisper of gold at Ashburton. The whisper came at 5 o’clock in the afternoon, it was characteristic of the time that preparations were hustled and that daylight saw Counsel’s party and a lot more on the move.

There was a shunt of 350 miles to Roebourne and 400 miles from there to the camp at the Ashburton. Seven hundred and fifty miles! Here to Cue and halfway back. Quite a tidy distance by rail, but this party had to do it on foot. They had a spring cart and three horses but the cart carried the swags and the water bottles — the men walked. That 750 miles was done in five weeks and it is memorable for more reasons than the length and the strenuousness of it — one of the men who took part was a German named ‘Schooks’ a 73 years old who had come from the Californian goldfields with a reputation as the champion walker of the Pacific slope. The brave old seventy-old-year-old saw out the great walk, but he misjudged his capacity and overdid his pluck – He died a fortnight after the end of the trek, and the doctor’s verdict was an overstrained heart. Monuments have been raised to less worthy performances than that of poor old Schooks.

Counsel and his party got to Ashburton and found there Ford, Campbell, and Wilson, the prospectors of the field. Here were slugs, not fine gold, and when your luck was in you got it in lumps. Counsel was not among the lucky ones, so he shifted 100 miles to Mt. Mortimer, but found malaria killing people like flies there, and old hands ordered him to go away while the going was good. He carried his swag from there to Onslow, 150 miles — and on his own. That almost finished Counsel’s Goldfield’s career as a digger but not quite.

Procession for the death of Queen Victoria Boulder Coolgardie Pioneer Saturday 16 February 1901, page 22 – Showing Counsel’s Store.

From the Ashburton he came to Perth and started in a general store in Beverley and married Margaret Amelia Edwards in 1892. Then Arthur Bayley came, along and was shocked to see his old Nor’-West cobber doing commonplace business. Coolgardie had broken out. “You ought to be among the boys at Coolgardie.” said Bayley. “This is no place for a man like you” The urge was too severe for resistance. Counsel called in an auctioneer sold up post haste, ‘lock, stock, and barrel,’ and went to Coolgardie. He reached Coolgardie in June 1894 but did little digging. Possibly the Kimberleys had burned him out, perhaps simply he had got stale on romance. Anyway, he went into storekeeping, and as far as mining went contented himself with the backing of prospectors. This he did to the limit. Just the Hum-drum

That was. the end of the golden legend of Charlie Counsel. He forsook digging and became a successful businessman. He left Coolgardie and went to Beverley, Rheumatism of the eyes — a North-West left-over — attacked him and he nearly went blind. Fortunately, the affliction responded to treatment and after retirement from the business at Beverley and a spell at farming, he went to Cunderdin. Thence to Northampton for 12 years, with a business plus a station at Balline, and lastly, quitting the whole ‘box-and-dice’ he has settled down at Mt. Lawley with one reservation. His four daughters are married to farmers in the Northampton district.

Counsel’s Store, Bayley St, Coolgardie – Photo SLWA – Now better known as Morans Store.

There remains but his wife at home. She concurred in his re-visitation of the Kimberleys to take up, in association with Jock Thomson, our old friend, the one-time. M.L.A. for Claremont, a four-mile square block of the ground at Nullagine that he had dug on many years ago and she will probably agree to allow him to go up and see it again on his next birthday and then make a triple record — 21st, 55th and 56th birthdays celebrated at the same spot. The Nullagine block is now owned under option by the Paringa Gold Mining Co.