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Charlie the Goose and The Goose’s Puzzle

28/03/2016 By Leave a Comment

No one knew his real name and it was thought that Charlie himself too was hazy on that point. There are many colourful characters in the Early Goldfields of Western Australia but the tales of ‘Charlie The Goose’ must be amongst the best. As you will see from these stories, taken from the newspapers of the day it is said that he was born in South Africa and others say he was born in France, I think we will never know the truth and I am sure that Charlie himself would want it that way.

Charlie The Goose

Charlie The Goose

It is said that he was born in France and had been a champion athlete in the Navy but deserted when he heard of gold in Western Australia. Charlie was in Southern Cross when Arthur Bayley reported his find and was among the early prospectors at Hannan’s, Black Flag, Siberia, Kanowna and I.O.U., later called Bulong, Ninety-mile and most of the Northern districts, Leonora, Laverton, Burtville, Malcolm and Lawlers. One of the raciest recollections of early prospectors who knew him was the manner in which Charlie tricked a knowing crowd who were following him to a new alluvial and reefing patch he was supposed to know about.

 The crowd followed him, half a day behind, until they were about two days north of Kurnalpi, tracking him easily as, in addition to a dozen riding and lightly packed horses, he had with him a very light spring cart. The wheels of this vehicle were easy to follow as if he were farm ploughing and when they led to an immense outcrop of granite away east of Pindinni, the following crowd smiled broadly. Charlie had gone in there for water, there being a splendid series of soaks in the earth basin along the southern edge. There was also a splendid shade forest of salmon gum, and when the pursuing party came up a day behind and saw the wheel tracks, halted and disappeared up on the granite they were puzzled. All around were tracks of Charlie and those of his and scores of other horses but no wheel marks! They scanned the high and low branches of the gums, thinking Charlie might have strung it up not wanting to be encumbered with it. Then they searched the wells and soaks but there were no traces of wheel tracks.

The truth came out a long time afterwards when Charlie came back to Coolgardie with a fine shamy of gold got all on his own undisturbed by the mob. It appears that when he reached the patch of granite Charlie took the light spring-cart to pieces, packed a wheel on one horse, another wheel on another, a shaft on this, the other there and so on until the whole vehicle was distributed among the spare and lightly laden horses. Twenty miles further on he put the cart together again and because the wheel tracks were so numerous, no one knew which tracks to follow. This gold fine was called ‘The Goose’s Puzzle’.

Vale - Charlie The Goose

Vale – Charlie The Goose

Daily News 6 Oct 1933

 Sir. — Your magazine section article on Saturday concerning ‘Charlie the Goose’ lives in my memory. About 30 years ago I was away at Erlistoun and one day I sent a native man out for my horse. As he did not return the following day, I visited his camp and was told by the native girls that he might be ‘walk-about.’ A week later a strange turnout with two men came to my camp looking for water. One was ‘Charlie the Goose.’ He told me that four days previous he was in the store at Darlot when the native, whom he identified
from my description, came in with a four ounce slug of gold. They brought the man with them back in the cart and got him to show them where he had picked up the slug discovered while tracking my horse. These men got a few dwt near the same spot. — Yours etc Subiaco H. Smith

The Evening News Queensland  30 Dec 1933

TRUNDLED IT FROM CAPE   YORK TO COOLGARDIE.
‘”CHARLIE THE GOOSE.”
 No more appropriate -memorial  could be  placed upon grave than reposes  over the remains of Charlie the Goose,” one of Western Australia’s best known prospectors in Wiluna cemetery.  N0 one could ever get Charlie, who was French born, to remember his surname, ‘Charlie, the Goose’ being the  only appellation known not only to others but  to himself it was thought.
On his last resting-place is the wooden-wheeled, home made, wheel barrow which Charlie trundled once from Cape York to Southern Cross and  from here to Coolgardie, all his worldly belongings being packed upon it.
Another good long push was from Dundas to Darlot, still another, from Hannans to Kurnalpi. He took the old wheelbarrow, which he had had since the roaring nineties from Perth to Wiluna, and when he had gone to his last costeen some of his old mates saw that the ancient salmon gum and gimlet carryall were placed above his grave as a memento of his imperishable past.
Charlie the Goose got his name from a lottery which he used to conduct on the fields. He had a lottery barrel and marbles much the same as the present day Lotteries Commissioner and the sweep was conducted among the miners. Charlie’s share was a percentage of the takings. To extract the winning marble from, the barrel he trained a goose.  It just stuck its  head through an opening in the side of the barrel and withdrew it with a marble in its beak. That was the winner. !!!!
Once when Charlie and two mates were working alluvial ground other miners were puzzled by the repeated disappearances of Charlie while his mates were working out in the open with the rest.  They set about tracking Charlie down. It was a puzzling case for Charlies tracks led them in a circle. They  finished up where they had begun. and nowhere was Charlie to be seen.  Finally a closer watch was kept on Charlie as he sneaked away. Half  way around the circular track was an overhanging tree.  There Charlie stopped, looked around, swung himself up on to a bough, climbed along the branch, swung to another tree and from there back to earth some distance away— and then to new alluvial ground. Shortly afterwards. the other miners were working the new ground, but Charlie had the best claim pegged and had already got the best of the value from the other ground.
A popular resort on the Murchison field was a bough shed where ‘Charlie the Goose’ ran a refreshment room. It was un-licensed, but this was no hindrance against being served with drinks that had a kick in them. Also, one could get a mug of good broth for a shilling, made from good beef supplied by Tullock, Willis and Kerr. Quite a lot of gambling was carried on openly. The stakes were put up in nuggets or fine gold and the gambling was the cause of frequent disturbances. It was the subject of a roll, up on one occasion  when Charlie  was accused of stealing 20 ozs of gold. He was acquitted, and the.gambling stopped.
Sadly there are no remains of Charlie’s barrow on his grave at Wiluna but Im sure he will never be forgotten. There has much been written about Chahttp://bit.ly/22TgxVO
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Moya Sharp

Owner at Outback Family History
My name is Moya Sharp, I live in Kalgoorlie Western Australia and have worked most of my adult life in the history/museum industry. I have been passionate about history for as long as I can remember and in particular the history of my adopted home the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. Through my website I am committed to providing as many records and photographs free to any one who is interested in the family and local history of the region.
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