Some time ago, I was sent these wonderful photographs by Terry and Dawn Leitch of their family’s mine, The Black Jack GM at Yunndaga (Woolgar). It was leased first by Patrick George Henderson (Terry’s great-grandfather) and later by his sons Cyril and Eric Henderson. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this area, the following map shows its location. It is approximately 7 km south of Menzies.
Home Away From Home – The Black Jack Camp
Eric and Cyril Henderson outside their camp.
In April 1933, Eric and Cyril Henderson applied for a Mining Lease of ground to be known as ‘Black Jack’, identical with late GM Lease 5319Z, late PA 1295Z. In May 1933, Eric and Cyril Henderson applied for the lease GML No. 5340Z at Yunndaga. No objections lodged – Recommended, subject to survey. Then, in June of 1934, they applied for Subterranean Water Right No. 365Z, Yunndaga, which was granted.
Black Jack Mine – Yundaga – Map by Bonzel
Shortly after taking out the lease, the brothers went into a partnership with Arthur H. Deering, James A. Forbes, and William Henry Vance, and they each held 20 shares. This was registered as the Black Jack Mine Syndicate. Apparently, Vance died, and his brother took the syndicate to court.
The Black Jack Mine
Workings on the Black Jack Mine
The Black Jack Syndicate: Eric Henderson, far right in the back row.
Cyril and Eric Henderson were both in the First World War. Cyril served in Gallipoli and Egypt, and Eric on the Western Front, where he received the Military Medal for bravery in the field in 1916 at Ypres. A third brother, Francis ‘George,’ was killed in action at a town known as Fleurbaix (situated halfway between Fromelles and Armentieres).
After the war, Cyril took up a grant of land under the Soldier Settlement Scheme down near Bridgetown, but this didn’t work out for him. He married in 1928 and went back to gold mining with his brother Eric. Before the war, Cyril was working as a Pumper at Southern Cross and by 1958, he had returned to this work, and he and his wife, Margaret, were living at Station Creek, where Cyril was the Pumper at the Station Creek Pumping Station. Eric never married, and he died in 1951 and Cyril in 1974. The brothers are buried together in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Cemetery – together in death as in life.
Further details supplied by Heather Harvey from the Residency Museum, York, WA.
The three Henderson brothers also have links to York, Western Australia, with Cyril and Eric having been born there after their father married their mother, Eliza Scotcher, a local York woman, and before their father moved to the goldfields in 1896, with his wife and young children initially staying in Meckering after he moved there. Their uncle Henry James Henderson had also married a York woman, Sarah Coles, and their aunt Elizabeth had married into the Ingram family there also, with several of their cousins also serving in WW1. The senior Henderson men were all very much involved in the local brick yards in York from the late 1880s.
Moya Sharp
Latest posts by Moya Sharp (see all)
- Blood on the Mulga Plains: The Last Day of John Sutherland - 28/02/2026
- A Brother’s Return in Mourning: Tragedy on the Coolgardie Goldfields - 28/02/2026
- The Contract at Old Warden Shaft - 28/02/2026
Hi Moya –
I look forward fo your weekly posts. I was the woolpresser at Yunndaga station when the Finlayson family owned it, along with Jeedamya and Melita, all of which I pressed the wool. I was in the Eastern Goldfields for the 1966 & 1967 shearing seasons, and also worked on Ida Valley as a station hand and horsebreaker. Your posts are a highlight of my weekend – Thank you
Sam Horner