Kurnalpi Jack – on his lonesome

KURNALPI JACK
One of the Early Day Men
Always operate on his Lonesome
by J Drake

We regret to hear that Jack Reidy (Kurnalpi Jack) is, as our American cousins would say, playing in hard luck, and as it is proposed by Government to benefit, one of the pioneers by pensioning him. Here we reprint the story of the finding of Kurnalpi with the object of enlisting the general interest in the case of a man who deserves something, at least of the citizens — if only subsidising to the extent of a prospecting outfit to enable him to go out in quest of fresh fields —

The Kurnalpi to Pinjin road -Picture: Rebecca Nadge – Kalgoorlie Miner

Jack Reidy, the prospector of Kurnalpi, has returned to Parker’s Range, which district he assisted to open with Bill McIntosh. What scenes will the sight of the above pair re-unfold to the vista of old timers. Reidy was absolutely unique as a prospector on the far eastern fields, electing to pursue his vocation in those at that time of far locations upon his ‘Pat Malone’ That is to say, without any white companion, being attended only by his faithful native friend. I do not recollect ever to have seen any written description of the events, that led to

the Rushing of Kurnalpi

and perhaps the following chronicle may be of some interest. Reidy, who had penetrated as far northeast as the Pinnacles twelve months before Bayley and Ford’s memorial discovery, was, in the fall of 1893, making another tour of the country crossed during his previous trip, when he specked gold upon the historic spot of Kurnalpi. He was at the time, almost the only prospector in that region, the crowd having got no further than the White Feather (Kanowna) and the I.O.U. (Bulong), which were then in the decadence of their first discovery. His find happened late in the month of November, and he had a good time specking unmolested. His term of secrecy would have been much longer but for

a Little Ebullition of Temper

which caused him to thrash his native fellow. The said native took the sulks, and broke camp, making down to a native pool (Boolbundie), about a couple of miles east of the end of Lake Lapage. Here he was accosted by the late Mr. Anderson, manager of the Hampton Plains Estate. That gentleman was on camel back, out for a visit to the late W. P. Goddard, who, at the time, was camped at Jurangie Hill carrying on a completion the survey of the Hampton blocks. Anderson gave the native a feed and a nip from his flask. This made him loquacious, and he informed Anderson that he was Reidy’s native friend and had cleared out for being ‘waddied’.

Reidy was, he described, on gold, picking it up in lumps on the surface. Being asked how much he was getting, the native said, “Oh, plenty, fill ’em pack bags” To the query, “Any big ones?” the native’s reply was, pointing to a small frying-pan slung over Anderson’s saddle, “All the same that feller.” This was enough to intercept Anderson’s journey as the surveyor. Mounting one of the sand hills in the vicinity, the native pointed out the exact locality in the hills fringing the north-east head of Lake Lapage.

Returning hurriedly on his tracks to Goddard’s Dam, where he had a confidential man, Alec Slater, employed, he apprised him of the discovery, and taking him and his mate, Angus Mclntyre, into the Hampton homestead, fixed them up with a camel, outfit, and. despatcher them – for a share in Reidy’s good fortune.  By this time the.

The Mulga Telegraph

had got into operation, probably started by Slater himself, who was an old Kimberley and Nor-West pioneer, and a number of mounted diggers got away and ultimately found Reidy’s “specking” bonanza. Slater was lucky, and gave his name to a gully, which turned out moderately well. The writer was at this period, and had been for a couple of months, resting horses at Yendi, a waterhole about 25 miles E.S.E. of the discovery, and had noted strange tracks several times at the hole. The visitors always came in and went out at night — a sufficiently suspicious circumstance — and it subsequently transpired that it was Reidy’s native with the horses coming and going for a water supply. I had intended to investigate these tracks, but had just then lost a couple of valuable medium draught mares. In the course of tracking them I made over into

the Identical Country of the Find

but, through watching their tracks from the saddle, I saw no gold. Getting my horses together, I made into Horse Rocks, via Goddarbie and Goddard’s dam. The season had been intensely dry, and all the known surface deposits of water were exhausted. I knew of enough however to successfully push the stage of 90 miles between Yendi and the Rocks. Arriving there, I was astonished at the number of well known ‘horsemen’, so termed at the time in distinction of those who padded the hoof and were dubbed ‘footmen’ swampers were, confined to the teams, but footmen formed that large body of intrepid goldseekers, who struck out for new finds singly, in pairs, or parties, humping their necessaries on their own persons.  When it was known that I had come through Yendi, I was the centre of attraction of those wanting to know the route to this particular spot, and the certainty of water along it. I was a bit greener then than I am now, and it didn’t take long before I was,

Successfully Pumped Dry !

without, in my innocence, extracting any information as to why they wanted to know so particularly. One of the most assiduous of my questioners was a well-known identity, Jack Ryan, who afterwards was supplying Coolgardie with sheep. As I was about to turn in for the night, he came to me and told me that he and his mates were very anxious to strike north from the end of Lake Lapage without going on to Yondi for water, and would be glad if I could put them in the way of getting water nearer. It so happened that in tracking my strays I had come across a fine waterhole, with a fair supply, in a gully at the foot of some Jasper hills a couple of miles from the lake, and though it was my intention to return to the  locality and use this particular water, Ryan was so pressing and so engaging in his ‘blarney’ that

I Gave Away its Secret to Him.

That was the way the horseman’s route was opened to Kurnalpi over which swept the troop that surprised Reidy and scooped all the “specking” prizes that he had so far not been gathered in. In the morning when I awoke, they had vanished on their quest and the Rocks were deserted except for a few teams that were spelling, the members of which were as ignorant of the new finds as I was.

Ten days later — in the third week in December, 1893 — I met Ryan in Coolgardie, He would insist on my breaking a bottle or two of ‘fizz’— not so frequent a drink in those days as subsequently in the boom period, and over our glasses he told me that his party followed my tracks minutely from the waterhole on to a burnt patch of ground near the hills that I had described to him. Here the irony of fate rubbed it in for me, for in that burnt patch, and almost wholly upon my tracks, he and his mate, Jimmy Lydon, had

Specked Close on 300oz of Gold.

This spot was shortly afterwards called the famous ‘Social Flat’, for Ryan’s advent with gold leaked out, and a few driblets of diggers began to make out for the new ‘El Dorado’, though the mass of the excitement did not occur till the new year, and the rush merrily proceeded for months onwards. I had been, without knowing it, dead on the spot of Reidy’s discovery. Clearly my name was a hard one for ‘Dame Fortune’ to spell in those days as she never mentioned me again.

Kurnalpi was further unique in the annals of alluvial discovery, in that it was the only important find in which no application was made for a ‘reward claim’ by the discoverer (See note 1 below).  As a matter of fact, Reidy belonged to the same school of horsemen as those who surprised him, rarely pegging out ground to hold, contenting themselves with the fruits of their process of “specking” and “lousing” (raking the surface over with fingers or sticks to disturb any lurking slugs), and as soon as ‘the getting of gold’ was exhausted by these primitive means having themselves a spell to some permanent or semi-permanent watering hole, or seeking fresh fields and pastures new.

Note 1. From Alex ‘Lang Syne’ of New Zealand – Arriving back at the Old Camp March 15, 1894, after a short sojourn in New Zealand, I found great excitement prevailing, Jack Reidy, with the aid of some natives, had specked 1,300oz. of rough gold at a place called Kurnalpi; or “Billy Billy” some 70 miles or so N.E. of Coolgardie. Reidy was carting water at the time, so throwing the gold into the tank, he delivered the liquid contents as usual, then drove on in to Coolgardie, deposited the gold in the bank, and applied for a reward claim.

Note 2: another man, John Kennedy was also sometimes know as ‘Kurnalpi Jack’, not to be confused with Reidy.

Note 3: About Jack, he was a ‘Tommy Atkins sic for ordinary soldier’ in the Sudan War. After hostilities ended he went to South Africa and then to WA. After prospecting in the Nor’west he arrived in Southern Cross in 1888. Jack made two fortunes, first at Kurnalpi and then Kanowna. After his claim at Kanowna ran out he made a trip back to Ireland to see his elderly mother. On his return to WA he fell into fiancial hardship. He was described as a thin wiry man with not an ounce of spare flesh on him. In 1912 he was a resident of the ‘Old Mens Home’ in Fremantle but its not know to me when or where he died.