CUDDINGWARRA also known as Dead Finish
Latitude 27° 22′ S Longitude 117° 47′ E
Cuddingwarra is a townsite in the Murchison goldfields Western Australia near Cue. When gold was first discovered in the area in 1888 this place was known as “Dead Finish”, but when the government gazetted a townsite in 1895, Cuddingwarra was the name chosen. Cuddingwarra is the Aboriginal name of a nearby hill, first recorded in a pastoral lease application by Lacy Brothers in 1878-79.
Cuddingwarra Street Map – SLWA
Cuddingwarra was a thriving town pre-1900. In 1894 good water was struck in the vicinity by a government boring party. The time when it had the largest population was in 1898. The Cuddingwarra Townsite was established to service nearby mines such as the Victory United, City of Sydney, City of Chester, Bluebell, Coodardy Reef, and Rhinegold. The townsite went into decline when the gold started to run out around 1900.
The following is a list of residents as well as their occupations. As you will see most are involved in mining but several are providers such as hotels, shops, and boarding houses. There are a few women mentioned by name, but there may have been other women in the town, you will see in one of the photos, a woman with two small children. As well as the necessary offices such as a store, a bootmaker, a bakery and three hotels, there doesn’t appear to be a church. They used to say all you needed to start a town was
a church, a shop and an hotel.
Cuddingwarra Map – Bonzle
WA Post Office Directory: Cuddingwarra Murchison GF – 1898-1902 & WA BDM’s
ALDRIDGE James Mine Manager- City of Chester GM
BLACKETT John W Mine Manager – Cuddingwarra GM
BOWLING T G – Mine Manager
BROWN Martin
BROWN Matthew – Carrier
CHAMPION E C – Mine Manager
COUMBE Joseph Edwin & Amelia Schroder nee WHITE
Joseph COUMBE with his children – Bertha, Reuben, William, Bessie & Violet. Reuben and Violet were both born in Cuddingwarra – Photo Ancestry.com
William R DIGGINS – Storekeeper and Butcher
Cuddingwarra – W R Diggins store 1900
William ‘Bill’ Diggins – unofficial Mayor of Cuddingwarra
DIGHTON C H – Gardener
DRISCOLL James Richard & Sarah Agnes nee KEATING
DUDLEY John & Caroline Matilda nee GILES
DUSTING Robert H – Postmaster
FISCHER Wilhelm H – Storekeeper
FOX Dora Mrs – Boarding House
GARRY Patrick – Miner
GENGE Isaac & Sarah nee BARRETT – Boarding House
GIRST Joseph – (Murray & G)
GOOCH E – Mining Engineer
GOUGE Isaac & Sarah nee BENNETT
CHAMPION G C – Manager – Greymouth GM Co
CHARLES John – Manger – Golden Gate GM Co
GOOCH E – Mining Engineer
HOTCHIN Tom Bower & Emily nee CRESSARD
HOLLINGSWORTH G – Mine Manager
HOSKING James – Mine Manager – Rheingold GM Co
KILSBY E R – Manager – Lady Rosie GM Co
MARCHANT Spencer Frederick & Margaret Elizabeth nee GOLLOP
MATTHEWS Christopher & Charles – Bootmakers
McGLEAD Frank M – Victory United Hotel
Victory United Hotel
McKEAN Gordon F – Mine Manager – West Aust GM & Bluebell GM
MERTZY Albert – Hotel Proprietor
MORONEY Stephen – Boarding House
MURRAY William
SEARLE Richard – Butcher
SMITH C H – Gardener
SMITH James – Cuddingwarra Hotel
SMITH James B – Beehive Hotel
SMITH William J & Blanche Cumming nee BROWN
SORRENSEN T J – Engineer
STOCKDILL John – Baker
TOWNSEND Edwin – Coodardy Station
TRENFIELD John & Amy Elizabeth nee WILMOTT
WISHART John & Caroline Maud nee JAMPIN
A 10 head battery was erected in 1898, later expanded to 15 heads. It s estimated that 62 000 oz of gold were recovered in the area, 30 000 oz of this from the Victory United GM alone.
A Home in Cuddingwarra – Family photograph from James Parker
Moya Sharp
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Greetings. Thankyou for the information about Cuddingwarra and the list of residents. I was so interested to see the listing of HOTCHIN Tom Bower and Emily nee Cressard. My dad, Clarence Mayne Hotchin, was the son of Tom Bower Hotchin and Emily. He was the first boy to get a scholarship from the Goldfields to go to Modern School, Subiaco. I think that his dad was injured in the mine. Dad had to board in the city and had no money at all. Maybe he was only 12 or 13 when he came to Perth, so it must have been very hard for him. He was very good at English and had a lively expression. When he was a kid they called him ‘Squealer Dick’ as he cried a lot. I’m the same. He became an instructor in plumbing and sheetmetal work at TAFE.
Dear Margaret Poor boy, it must have been very hard for him at that young age to be alone in a strange city. Glad he became succesful.
Hi Moya, thank you for compiling wonderful information about Cuddingwarra. I was researching my great great grandmother, Edith Sarah GENGE nee Barrett (known as Sarah) and discovered her place of death was listed at Cuddingwarra, which led me to your page. I was delighted to find her name, along with my great grandfather Isaac GENGE as residents and it seems from the list that they ran a Boarding House there. I know Isaac was involved in gold mining because he eventually had a gold mine at Payne’s Find. Did you discover the Boarding House link from the Census reports of the time or might there be more information about Isaac and Sarah GENGE that I could locate? Sarah died young at Cuddingwarra and was buried in the Cue Cemetery.
Hi Denise, I looked up my Cue cemetery records and found these. Are they correct? GENGE Edward William ― 2 mths, Section unknown, Loc in cemetery but site not specified, bur 26 May 1898, he was born at Cuddingwarra WA (between Cue and Big Bell which was previously known as Dead Finish) and his parents were Isaac and Sarah Ann Genge nee Barrett, the cause of his death was deemed to be gastroenteritis and exhaustion. Reg 1538/1898. Buried at Cue Cemetery.
GENGE Sarah Ann ― 31 yrs, Wesleyan section, Loc C-1-5, bur 25 Jul 1902, she was born in Tarana NSW and her parents were William and Ann Barrett plus she was the sister of Edith Barratt, she was the wife of Isaac Genge and the mother of Edward William Genge and Sarah Annie Genge. Reg 1634/1902. Buried Cue Cemetery.
Hi Moya, thank you for adding some very helpful information! I had acquired the Cue Cemetery records and found Edward William (son of Sara and Isaac) but had no age for him from those records.How sad, poor little mite. I also located Sarah’s burial site. She was my great grandmother, having given birth to Blanche Hope Genge my grandmother in 1896.
Isaac married again in 1905, three years after Sarah’s death – to a Margaret Arnott Shaw. According to my records, Sarah was born in Bathurst NSW in 1870. However, with your other information about Sarah being the sister of Edith Barratt you may have cleared up an error that I’m making in my family history or raised another question for me to research! Did Isaac marry Edith Sarah (later known as Sarah Ann) Barrett or did he marry Sarah Ann Barrett, sister of Edith? I’ll go back to my research!
I do hope you solve the problem. Sometimes each answer creates more questions don’t you find?