Earlier this year I was in correspondence with Julie McKenna and she told me of her wonderful family story which appeared in the Warrnambool Standard newspaper on 13th February 2024. I would like to acknowledge and thank Jenny McLaren, of The Warrnambool Standard, for her kind permission to reproduce the story, and to Julie for sharing it with us.
Great mates Brendan Kenna and Bill McKellar shared a bond over tragic family events in the WA outback. Inset: Frank McKellar, his fob watch and wallet. Photo: Eddie Guerrero.
They’ve been mates for years, but until recently, Bill McKellar and Brendan Kenna, had no idea they shared a connection that stretched far beyond the bonds of friendship. Or that it would lead them on a journey of discovery from the Western Districts, to a remote ghost town on the other side of the country. So, when they found themselves holding an impromptu graveside service, their wives standing beside them in the sandy red soil among the graves and unmarked burials of a forlorn, outback cemetery last winter, it was a moment both moving and surreal.
They were there to pay tribute to two pioneering ancestors whose dreams of adventure and riches turned to tragedy on the Murchison Goldfields of Western Australia more than a century ago.
Bill McKellar next to his uncles grave at the Nannine Cemetery.
As I stand beside your lonely grave,
I am proud to say I have travelled all this way,
to pay my due to an uncle I never knew.
Bill McKellar’s poem dedicated to his uncle Frank
Both Franks were from Ballangeich in Victoria where their large families were friends, farming on neighbouring properties a kilometre apart; both were lured to the West in pursuit of adventure and the glint of gold; both were there with another Ballangeich relative and friend, John ‘Jack’ Irving, and both died lonely deaths from typhoid fever in the desolate outpost of Nannine just south of Meekatharra.
It’s unlikely they ever met, but in death they have shared a final resting place far from home for more than a century.
Brendan Kenna, 62, and his wife Julie still farm at Ellerslie, across the Hopkins River from Ballangeich property where Francis ‘Frank’ Kenna was born in 1867, the second of Patrick and Bridget Kenna’s 12 children. His young brother William was Brendan’s Grandfather.
Frank Kenna – Photo Julie Kenna
The story of Brendan’s great-uncle Frank’s short life was a familiar one in the family. He’d travelled to the diggings with his mate Jack Irving, working as contractors surveying a new railway line. Just five months after he’d written home in the Christmas of 1891, Frank died from Typhoid, aged 25, on the 8th May 1892, and was buried in a rudimentary grave in front of the Nannine pub with a handful of other unfortunate souls before the town was gazetted the following year. A newspaper article at the time described Nannine as being ‘alive with gold’ although illness was rife among the 700 to 800 miners living in primitive conditions.
Daily News Perth 2 June 1892, page 3
THE NANNINE GOLDFIELD
During the past week sickness has again been rife on the field. Several men were brought in from Gardner’s suffering as usual, from some inexcusable disease, and on Sunday morning, May 8, one fine young fellow named Frank Kenna succumbed, and was buried today by the Acting Warden, Mr. Binning. At least four other men are very ill, and death may result at any moment. Still, in spite of the late public meeting and the representations made to the Warden, there is no hospital tent, nor, in fact, the slightest suitable accommodation for a sick man.
The miners here wish me to urge upon your paper (which professes to represent them) the absolute necessity of advocating the provision by the Government of proper medical attendance and medicines, for the stamping out of the disease which is rampant in our midst, and may be presently decimating us.
In Oct 1899 the Murchison Advocate stated that following concerns about the presence of cattle and dogs, six burials, including Frank’s, were re-interred in a ground marked by coach wheel axels at the ‘new’ cemetery six kilometres away.
Brendan’s late father and his wife made several unsuccessful attempts in the 1980’s to find his uncle’s grave. Brendan didn’t know that his friend from Ballangeich, Bill McKellar, had a similar family story to tell. In Ballangeich in 1884, to John McKellar, Bill’s uncle Francis John was born, one of four boys and four girls. Following in the footsteps of his unfortunate neighbour, Frank’s thirst for adventure led him west in 1908 to join his uncle Jack Irving in the diggings at Nannine where at 27, he met the same fate, succumbing to typhoid in 1912.
Frank McKellar’s grave, just inside the Nannine cemetery gate, bears a substantial marble headstone. A well-regarded young man, it was reported that nearly all the towns menfolk attended his funeral and all of the town businesses closed as a mark of respect that day. Sadly, Frank McKellar’s death was only the first of three sons his parents would morn within five years. His brothers Mitchell and Jack both died on the Western Front battlefields of World War 1 in 1917, leaving Bill’s father William the only surviving son.
Jack Irving too was struck down by typhoid, but survived, later returning to the Ballangeich area, marrying late and living a quiet life into old age, according to Bill who remembers him as an old man.
Nannine Cemetery Sign
It was purely by chance a few years ago that Bill and Brendan learned of their similar family stories. Bill and his wife Margie, along with Brendan and Julie had already travelled together to France in 2017 to pay homage to Bill’s soldier uncles, so with the latest intriguing discovery, a trip to the West in remembrance of the two Franks was in order. That was 2019 and COVID-19 soon derailed their plans. It was only last July they were finally able to make the trip. With their GPS guiding them to the site of the Nannine Cemetery, the couples had little trouble locating the prominent McKellar headstone where Bill grave a brief and very personal service.
Murchison Times and Day Dawn Gazette 16 March 1912, page 2
Mr. Frank McKellar, who had been an inmate of the Nannine Hospital, suffering from typhoid, died on Monday last, and was buried in the local cemetery on the following day, the funeral service being conducted by the Rev. Mr. Nicholls. The chief mourners were Messrs Jack Irving, Jim Smith and Mrs Willows, and the pall bearers: Messrs. Frank Johnstone, T. Allanson, R. Anderson and W. Smith.
The business houses were closed on the day of the funeral as a token of the respect felt for the deceased, who was universally liked and respected. Frank was morally, mentally and physically a model man — one of those straight going and living fellows who by their personal qualities command the respect of everybody and the love of those with whom they come in closer contact. He was an untiring, worker and a good athlete, clean in his business dealings and in his sport.
Practically the whole male population of the district attended the funeral to pay the last tribute of respect to their departed friend, and wreaths and crosses were sent by Mrs. Williams, Mr. Frank Johnstone, and the staffs of the various hotels. Dr. Batema aud the matron, Nurse Levier, were untiring in their efforts to pull their patient through, but the fever had secured too strong a hold for even the greatest skill and the most constant attention to do more than alleviate his pain.
A short poem composed by Bill was read, soil from Ballangeich was sprinkled and a fob watch and wallet belonging to Frank placed on the grave.
“It was quite emotional,” said Bill, 83, and now retired to Warrnambool. “I knew Dad had never gone there, so I thought I’ve got to pay homage to Frank. “I felt like I had done my duty.” His pilgrimage to the final resting places of his three uncles was complete.
Without a headstone, Brendan and Julie had little expectation of finding Frank Kenna’s final resting place. That was until they spotted, not five meters away, the four axles described as marking the corners of the 1899 reburial site. “When we found the axles in the ground it was emotional for all of us,” Brendan said. “I never really thought we would find it. We felt very privileged because we were able to do what Mum and Dad wanted to do, to recognize Frank. He died in such tragic circumstances, he deserved to be remembered.”
Brendan and Julie affixed a small plaque on the likely gravesite; however, it was removed after being deemed unauthorized. The couple is now in discussions with the Meekatharra Shire, which controls the Nannine Cemetery, to have a permanent plaque erected recognizing the final resting place of Frank and all of those buried in unmarked graves.
The Shire undertook a drone survey of the cemetery before Christmas 2023
Grave of Francis John McKellar – Nannine cemetery – Photo Fine a Grave
Moya Sharp
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