Lodge Sir William Wallace – a history

We are fortunate to have another history of a Freemason Lodge which will be of interest to both other Freemasons and others. Thanks to Doug Daws.

LODGE SIR WILLIAM WALLACE No. 868 S.C.
A HISTORY  –  BASIC DATA

Lodge Name             Sir William Wallace

Lodge Number          868

Consecrated             30th November 1897

Constitution              Grand Lodge of Scotland

Location                   Kalgoorlie, Western Australia

30° 44′ 56″ S  –  127° 27′ 57″ E

This story is ultimately about one lodge, Lodge Sir William Wallace No. 868 under the Scottish Constitution, that was consecrated at Kalgoorlie, Western Australia on 12^th November 1897. But it also tells how Scottish Freemasonry came to Kalgoorlie and flourished, in the excitement and atmosphere generated in the last of the great Australian gold rushes in the second half of the eighteenth century.

The discovery of Australia

Perhaps a good starting point in this story is to point out that the first Masonic Grand Lodge, the United Grand Lodge of England, was formed in 1717 more than 50 years before the discovery of Australia by Captain Cook! The Grand Lodge of Scotland was established nearly 34 years before Cook stepped foot on the eastern shores of what, until then, was just an empty space on the navigation charts of the day. A vast continent is devoid of any settlement or shred of civilization as we now know it.

Captain Cook visited only briefly and it took another 88 years before the first fleet of settlers arrived in 1788 to begin the population of this remote colony – initially a penal colony – located literally on the other side of what was then, the known civilized world.

To understand how a Scottish lodge could come into existence at such a remote location needs an explanation. We will start with a quick explanation about how Freemasonry arrived in, and eventually expanded throughout Australia and it is all related to that wonderful commodity, GOLD!

Gold had first been discovered in small amounts at scattered locations through the eastern Australian state of New South Wales in about 1823 but news of these initial discoveries were suppressed by the government.

The early years

Australia was then, very much a young penal colony, and it was feared that the release of any news of these discoveries would lead to a depletion of the already small available workforce and with the potential to disrupt the management and economy of the small colony.

This all changed when the Californian gold rush started in January 1848 and over 300,000 people from all over the world rushed there to be involved – including some from Australia. One of the gold prospectors from Australia returned home and applied the knowledge he had acquired in the California ‘rush’ to an area west of Sydney that he considered to be prospective. His beliefs proved fruitful and he discovered payable gold in 1851.

The colonial government in Australia now realised that it would not be possible to suppress the news of the discovery and, anyhow, the Australian colonies were already agonising from the labor shortages caused by men rushing away to the overseas discoveries. They reasoned that the discovery of gold in payable quantities could reverse the labor drain and, if gold was found in sufficient quantities, might even contribute the money they so desperately needed to maintain the remote penal colonies.

The first gold rushes

Dayspring gold mine at Parkes, NSW 1863

The first gold discovery quickly led to other major discoveries in the newly

designated Australian states of New South Wales and in another area further south that had been named Victoria.

The population rapidly increased as the news spread and people from all over the world rushed to Australia to participate in the search for gold, hoping to ‘strike it lucky‘ and find gold and new wealth at this new location.

As history now tells us, the exploration for, and the discovery of new goldfields gradually advanced northwards up the eastern coast of Australia from Victoria through New South Wales to the state of Queensland (1857). Then on into the Northern Territory (1871) and across into the northern part of Western Australia, now known as the Kimberley region, in 1885.

The Kimberley region is a very remote location with major transport difficulties, even to this day, yet this first gold rush to the northwest of Western Australia quickly drew 10,000 men. As the easily found gold ran out, these prospectors gradually scattered but some continued their search with a migration down the western edge – the coastal fringe – of Western Australia. It was hard and dangerous work and new discoveries of gold were few until they eventually reached and made further discoveries in the area now known as the Pilbara in 1888.

That this search for gold and the successive discoveries took so long can easily be explained. After Antarctica, Australia is the driest continent on earth, and Western Australia is the driest state in Australia. This was a primitive land inhabited only by scattered Aboriginal people. There were no settlements or points of civilisation by Europeans of any kind, and there were certainly no maps, towns, or roads.

Developments in Western Australia

Meanwhile, a small penal colony, known as the Swan River settlement, continued to operate in the southwest corner of Western Australia unaffected by the events to their north, or in the “eastern states” which lay nearly 4,000 kilometres further to the east. About the same distance as from Lima to Florida or London to New York. The area in between was unknown and entirely uninhabited, apart from nomadic Aboriginals. It was waterless and unexplored. It was into this very remote and mysterious part of the world that prospectors eventually had arrived, seeking their own Australian Eldorado.

Although gold in Western Australia had originally been reported as early as 1848, civilisation hadn’t extended far from the original 1829 penal settlement on the Swan River, so the early prospectors were the first foreign explorers to venture eastwards into the vast unknown interior. Progress was slow, and uncertain, as the first prospectors contended with the lack of natural water, the vast distances involved and the complete absence of any civilisation. This was an entirely unexplored part of the world with great dangers to the unwary or foolish prospector. Many perished from thirst or were killed during raids by the native inhabitants angry at the intrusion of strangers into their traditional lands.

Slow progress

But the prospectors’ ambition prevailed and gold was eventually discovered more than 450 kilometres inland at a place they named Golden Valley in 1887. Not for the gold they found, but for the Golden Wattle growing in the area – a bright yellow flowered tree that is now Australia’s national floral emblem. This was followed immediately by the discovery of even richer gold at a place about 40 kms to the south. This place was named Southern Cross in 1888.

The prospectors, still desperate for a discovery, continued a further 150 kilometers further east, across the flat, waterless, and barren country – literally a desert – until they found gold at a place now known as Coolgardie in September 1892. It was a bonanza. The first prospectors used their small axes to hack out over 500 ounces of gold from the reef on their first day!

Rush for gold starts in Western Australia

When the news became known, thousands raced out to the new discovery, often carrying their entire worldly possessions on their backs, or pushing a wheelbarrow through the dry dust to get there and peg out their claim. It was a “rush” in every aspect of the word. Leases were pegged and quickly sold to mining entrepreneurs who just as quickly sold them onto promoters back in England. Companies were formed and ‘floated’ on the stock exchanges back in Europe. Investors struggled to keep up with the news of exciting rich new discoveries.

Gold rush reaches Kalgoorlie

Almost a year later, in June 1893, and a further 40 kilometers east, the best find of all was made by three Irish prospectors at the place that was initially called “Hannans” after one of the Irish discoverers. That name was later changed to the present-day Kalgoorlie. The vast deposit of rich gold lodes and reefs just a little south of Kalgoorlie quickly became known around the world as the “Golden Mile“.

A view across the early “Golden Mile

Civilisation had arrived in the desert of Western Australia and they came in their tens of thousands from all over the world!  Kalgoorlie and its nearby ‘sister’ town of Boulder, quickly grew into major population centres and, for a short time, even outnumbered the populations of Perth and Fremantle. The West Australian gold rush was now in full swing!

The gold discoveries had already transformed the rest of Australia, bringing mass migration and important wealth to almost every corner of the continent and it was now Western Australia’s turn. Inevitably, many among the original prospectors and the later migrants, brought personal aspects of their former lives and locations with them, as they settled into a new life across the oceans – in Australia.

First Freemasonry in Australia

The new settlers included many Freemasons among their numbers. Indeed the very first settlers in 1788 – the ‘First Fleet’ – had arrived in Australia with arrangements in place for a fully Chartered lodge to be erected at Sydney under the English Constitution. History now shows that the growth of that lodge and indeed, all early Freemasonry in Australia was slow and tough.  The population was small and the much more compelling issues of survival were the predominant matters in the minds of the pioneers.

Until the gold discoveries, the relatively ‘young’ Australian colony – not yet even called a nation – had only been plodding along as it gradually, but steadily, expanded its population and its rural-based industries. It was only the rapid and massive growth in population, and the wealth generated by successive gold discoveries following on from the original find back in 1851, that allowed Freemasonry to take root, and finally begin to flourish.

Initially the lodges erected in Australia answered directly back to their Grand Lodges in England, Scotland and, to a much lesser extent, Ireland. As each of the eastern states erected more lodges and confidence in the future grew, arrangements were made to create sovereign Grand Lodges. All extant lodges were encouraged to hand in their original lodge Charter and take up a new Charter offered by the new ‘local’ sovereign Grand Lodge. The same formula as had been used successfully to extend Freemasonry over all quarters of the globe.

Growth in Freemasonry

Queensland was a classic example, although atypical to the adjoining states. As the new gold finds and associated settlements were established in Queensland, so too were Scottish Masonic lodges. Eventually, there were 122 lodges in Queensland answering to the Grand Lodge of Scotland back in Edinburgh. This all stopped in April 1922 on the formation of the United Grand Lodge of Queensland when every extant “Scottish” lodge ceased being “Scottish” and became “Queensland”. The same happened in all of the other ‘eastern states’ and no “Scottish” lodges remained. The first Freemasons’ lodge in Western Australia had been Consecrated under the English Constitution in May 1843.

Fremantle Harbour during the Gold Rush

For reasons now not fully understood, when the Grand Lodge of Western Australia was formed in January 1900, many of the Scottish lodges chose to remain loyal to Scotland and refused to surrender their Charters, a position that endures to this day.

Eventually, by 1890, and the beginning of the ‘gold rush’ in Western Australia,  the lodge numbers had still only risen to six in the metropolitan area – i.e. Perth and the nearby port of Fremantle – and seven at towns in the nearby country area and along the coastal settlements south and north of Fremantle. And they were all under the English Constitution.

Rapid population growth in the south of Western Australia

The discovery of the bonanza gold deposits at Coolgardie in 1892 and the even more remarkable “Golden Mile” at Kalgoorlie a year later changed all that. The new gold discoveries, one after the other, and the consequential growth in trade and prosperity in the nearby areas rapidly transformed the built environment. Townships sprang up where, only a short time before, there was only uninhabited and inhospitable terrain. Roads were built to connect them followed by railway lines to bring in the freight and machinery for the mines and, of course, the new gold-seekers, gold-seekers anxious to join the gold rush and perhaps find their own Eldorado.

Construction of C.Y. O’Connor water pipeline

The problem of the lack of water at Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie and Boulder was solved in January 1903 with the arrival of water via the famous C.Y. O’Connor water scheme – a pipeline 540 kms long bringing water from dams in the hills near Perth on the west coast. This is still regarded around the world as an engineering marvel of that age.

Back on the coast the population of Perth had expanded from about 8,500 in 1890 to nearly 30,000 by 1900. But the growth at places like Kalgoorlie, Coolgardie and Boulder was even more spectacular after the pipeline arrived. There the population went from zero in early 1893 to an estimated 100,000+ by 1905! Even better was the extra cleanliness and hygiene that helped eliminate the scourge of typhoid that had decimated the earlier settlements.

An abandoned early mining town

A lot of the towns or settlements built at this time didn’t last long and quickly became ghost towns as the easily won gold petered out and the miners and camp followers moved on to the next discovery. But history has shown that many of the mines had a real future, with gold deposits that went deep, and lasted. Although abandoned a Century ago many have been returned to production in the later gold booms.

Kalgoorlie is the prime example of that and gold mining has continued virtually unabated since the original Irish prospectors, Paddy Hannan and his two companions, first found their gold here in June 1893. Kalgoorlie and its nearby sister town of Boulder continued to grow until they merged and created the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, now designated the gold capital of Australia.

More than 800,000 ounces of gold are still produced each year from the “Golden Mile” alone. Gold mines at the nearby original towns of Coolgardie, Kanowna, Leonora, Broad Arrow, Paddington and others add to the total, making Australia now (in 2018) the second largest gold producer in the world (310 tonnes).

The ‘seeds’ of Freemasonry planted in the new Goldfields

As each town was developed in the late Eighteenth, and on into the early part of the Nineteenth Century, and as we now look back at the historical records, we can say with certainty that the first Masonic lodge in any new town was generally formed about four years after the initial gold discovery. This elapse of time was necessary for the mines to display some prospects for continuity and for the traditional town amenities to be developed. The schools; the hospital; the churches; banks; shops; streets and cemeteries.

The ‘mechanism’ generally worked like this. Someone – a Freemason – would place an advertisement in the local newspaper or on the notice board at a local hotel or public building, advising that a meeting for the purpose of discussing the formation of a Masonic Lodge at the town would be held soon and inviting those interested to attend. The facsimile opposite is for Lodge Sir William Wallace but is similar to many of the others.

It would depend on what the majority of those attending wanted as to whether they applied for a lodge Charter from the Grand Lodge of England or from Scotland. There is no evidence of any competition in the selection of where to apply and almost certainly the choice reflected upon the previous Masonic associations of the majority of those attending.

At that time – the 1890’s – communications from the goldfields were still very limited – even primitive. Messages sent via the telegraph assisted but it still took many months between the despatch of the request to London or Edinburgh, until a Charter made its way by sailing ship back to the port of Fremantle. Then by coach or railway out to this remote part of the remote Western Australian Colony.  Lodges attached to the English Constitution were the first erected – both at Kalgoorlie and Boulder in August 1897.

Scottish Freemasonry reaches Western Australia

So among all this hustle, bustle, and progress it wasn’t until May 1896 that the first Scottish lodge, Lodge St Andrew No. 829 S.C. was granted its Charter. This lodge was located in Perth which was then and still is, the state capital of Western Australia.

Other Scottish lodges came rapidly on the heels of Lodge St Andrew. Lodge Caledonian No. 830 was erected at Fremantle three months later in May 1896 and Lodge Bonnie Doon at Perth in November 1896.

The first Scottish lodge in the new Goldfields of Western Australia – Lodge Golden Thistle No. 840 – was erected at Coolgardie, also in November 1896. Lodge Golden Feather No. 855 was erected at Kanowna (just east of Kalgoorlie) in August 1897.

Prospectors waiting for Father Long to reveal the location of a rumoured fabulous new gold discovery, Kanowna 1898. It turned out to be a hoax!

Amazingly, despite the size and growth of Kalgoorlie, there were the two Scottish lodges erected in Perth, another at Coolgardie (Lodge Scotia No. 861) and yet another at Kanowna (Lodge Golden Feather No. 855) before the first Scottish lodge was erected at Kalgoorlie. Lodge Sir William Wallace No. 868 didn’t receive its Charter to operate until November 1897.

First Minutes for creation of Lodge Sir William Wallace

It is mentioned earlier that lodges were formed roughly four years after a gold discovery and the deposit shows some proof of permanence. Here is some evidence to support that statement

Gold was found at Kalgoorlie in mid-June 1893 and the first meeting that led to the formation of Lodge Sir William Wallace was held at Burgess’s Kalgoorlie Hotel on 10th September 1897!

More Scottish lodges were erected in the Perth area but the majority of the new lodges were now being established in the bustling new mining towns in the vast goldfields around Kalgoorlie.

Not surprisingly, the first Scottish District Grand Lodge was started, at Perth, in July 1897 and it wasn’t for another nine years that the District Grand Lodge of Western Australia, Goldfields, was established at Kalgoorlie in 1906. Both continue to this day and remain the only Scottish Districts in Australia.

Beginnings of Lodge Sir William Wallace

 The Masonic pioneers certainly moved things along and didn’t waste any time. After the first ever gathering on 10th September 1897, the founding committee met weekly until they had arranged and held the Consecration and Inaugural Installation on 12th November the same year and only three months later.

In the interim they had sent a letter to Scotland with a list of Foundation members, enclosing fees and arranging regalia. They had contacted the District Grand of Scottish Freemasonry in Queensland to obtain Scottish Ritual books as none were available locally.

And they had arranged the printing of the program for the Consecration of the new lodge, and a venue at which to conduct the ceremony. All this in a remote frontier town with limited water and where the most substantial structures were still only tents.

The Consecration was conducted at the nearby Wesley Church, itself only a wooden structure clad in hessian cloth and some corrugated iron. The weather records show that on that day the temperature reached 103° F (39°C). At that stage of the development of Kalgoorlie, all of the roadways were still dirt or to put it more correctly, deep dust generated by the cart wheels and horse traffic. To say the conditions at the meeting would have been uncomfortable is an understatement.

James (Jas.) McGarry.

One of the Foundation members of the lodge was Bro. James (Jas.) McGarry. who was Invested as a Steward at the first Installation ceremony but later became a RWM. He was the father of Bro. Jack McGarry a later lodge RWM, and also a RWDGM,. The photograph opposite shows Bro. Jas. McGarry in the regalia of another unknown organisation, obviously of Scottish association. Perhaps the Caledonian Society?

For the first couple of years meetings of Lodge Sir William Wallace were held in borrowed venues – the local Council Chambers, the Presbyterian Church, or the Friendly Societies; hall with the Installations continuing at the Wesleyan Church. To put it mildly, the early meetings must have been very hectic. They met formally at least twice each month, and sometimes three times, simply to deal with the rush of new memberships.

Rapid growth and some outstanding members

An example of the growth is the meeting held in June 1899 when the lodge dealt with two applications for Affiliation, received seven new applications for joining membership, and conducted ballots from an earlier cohort for a further nine applicants. At the next meeting in July 1899, they had to deal with three applications for Affiliation, received applications from nine new potential members, and conducted ballots for eleven previously received applications.

These numbers went up and down but the growth was unrelenting eventually causing the District Grand Lodge to step-in in September 1899 with a recommendation that no more than two candidates should be Obligated at any one time and that no more than six candidates should be Initiated, Passed or Raised at any one meeting.

Some of the early members of the lodge went on to significant community success and recognition.  Bro. George Whitlock was Affiliated at the June meeting in 1898 from Kalgoorlie Lodge No. 2778 E.C. (later No. 24 WAC). He was, by profession, a government land surveyor and was engaged to survey most of the new townships, and the

A Goldfields Brooch

streets in them, including Kalgoorlie and Boulder. A street midway between these two towns is named for him.

Bro. George Addis was born in Melbourne in 1864 but the family moved to Gawler in South Australia after the death of his father before later returning to Melbourne. He then moved and received his early training at Launceston (Tasmania) until shifting to Kalgoorlie. George Addis was a watchmaker and jeweller who came to Kalgoorlie to set up business very early after the original gold discovery by Hannan in 1893. He was Initiated into the lodge at the March meeting of 1898 along with two others.

We don’t know what became of the other two but Addis made his mark as a famous jeweller specialising in ‘Goldfields’ brooches. He also manufactured many Masonic jewels. It was said that he had one of the largest collections of gold nuggets in Western Australia and these were, on occasions, displayed in his shop window. He too has a street named for him in a northern suburb of Kalgoorlie.

Another member arrived here in 1898 from Wales (UK) via Newcastle (NSW), Ballarat (Victoria), Malcolm (north of Kalgoorlie), and Coolgardie but he was not a prospector – he stated on his application that he was a mine manager.

More importantly, Bro. John S. Williams – Initiated March 1900 – was a musician of considerable skill. He quickly established a lodge orchestra (Sir William Wallace) and was conductor of the Boulder Liedertafel that had the State Governor, Lord Bedford, as its Patron.

Bro. John S. Williams

The 1903 RWM, Bro. F. Burton, thought so much of him that he presented him with a special jewel – made by Bro. Addis – in appreciation of his work for the lodge. This jewel disappeared from view for over a Century until it reappeared at an auction in Perth in 2012 from where it was purchased, for preservation, by a lodge member.

The jewel presented to Bro. Williams

Sadly Bro. Williams died of pneumonia in 1906, aged only 37, leaving a wife and daughter. Such was his repute as a musician that the State Governor came to Boulder to attend the funeral. Conductor Williams’ ebony baton is still held in safekeeping by the lodge. An emblem of the special jewel presented to Bro. Williams is repeated on the headstone on his grave at the Boulder Cemetery.

Where to meet?

1899 was a very busy year for Lodge Sir William Wallace for a special reason. Discussions had been started by the Caledonian Society in September 1898 for the purpose of discussing their ambition aimed at building a meeting hall to be used by both organisations. Kalgoorlie Lodge put forward an alternative proposal in December 1898. They suggested that Lodge Sir William Wallace should join with them and Golden Square Lodge – Kalgoorlie’s new daughter lodge – to erect a Hall on land they owned within the newly surveyed Kalgoorlie townsite, and only 100 metres from Paddy Hannan’s original gold discovery.

After a lot of debate, Lodge Sir William Wallace decided to join their Masonic ‘brothers’ to create the Kalgoorlie Masonic Hall Trust. The ‘Trust’ was to design, construct and manage the new edifice. At their May 1899 meeting the lodge voted to let the contract for construction and to provide up to £300 towards the cost of the hall.

Front of original Trust Deed

 Foundation stone laid

The Foundation stone was laid with much pomp and ceremony on 5th July 1899 by the then State Governor, His Excellency Sir Gerard Smith, who was conveniently also the District Grand Master of the English District Grand Lodge for Western Australia. He was assisted in the task by Rev. Bro. G.E. Rowe, R.W. District Grand Master of the Scottish Western Australian District Grand Lodge.

The newspaper report on the day said attending Freemasons numbered about 300 from lodges throughout the Goldfields. They assembled at the Wesley Church and marched across, in order, to the building site where about 1,500 people waited, the majority being ladies, who seemed to take a keen interest in the proceedings.

It was a cold rainy day but this did not deter some robbers. While the Vice-Regal party, and Freemasons, went to their formal dinner at the Miner’s Institute the robbers used the ceremonial machinery to lift the stone and steal the coinage that had been deposited under it, according to ancient Masonic tradition. This robbery made national headlines – even in the eastern Australian newspapers such was the interest in anything to do with Kalgoorlie in those times.

The Laying of the Foundation stone at the Masonic Hall Kalgoorlie

Fracture in fraternal relations

In the following years, many additional lodges were erected, but not always in the harmony that should be expected in Freemasonry. The Grand Lodge of Western Australia had claimed sovereignty in February 1900 but the Scottish Grand Lodge refused to acknowledge this and continued to issue Charters for new lodges. This eventually led to a complete breakdown with several years of shattered fraternal relations.

Members of the respective Constitutions were officially banned from attending any meetings of the other, under threat of expulsion. The Grand Lodge of Scotland ordered fraternal intercourse to cease completely from 20th August 1903.

The period of fraternal fracture continued until formally ended in July 1908, but elements of the unrest continued to simmer and, to some minor extent, might be said to continue to this day. None of this affected the partnership between Lodge Sir William Wallace and their two ‘West Australian’ lodge partners in the operation of the Masonic Hall Trust for the benefit of all lodges then using the Kalgoorlie hall.

It was during this period that a decision was made to establish a separate ‘Goldfields based’ Scottish District Grand Lodge and so on 2nd April 1906 it came into existence. The first District Grand Master was Bro. Andrew Barr from Lodge Golden Thistle No. 840, the first Scottish lodge erected in the Goldfields. In August 1905 Bro. James E.R. Sayers Affiliated from Lodge Sir William Wallace No. 768 SC. which operated at Croydon, a gold mining town founded in Queensland.

In June 1910 Bro. John Thomson, a Foundation member, a Kalgoorlie Masonic Hall Trust Trustee and the First RWM of Lodge Sir William Wallace became the Second R.W. District Grand Master.

Lodge Sir William Wallace sponsors a ‘secret’ daughter lodge

During the period of disharmony between the Constitutions, Lodge Sir William Wallace sponsored a daughter lodge – Lodge Broonhill No. 983 SC – which was consecrated on 30th November 1904. Several members of Lodge Sir William Wallace were Foundation members of Lodge Broonhill and their names appeared on the application to create the new lodge. What is interesting about this is the fact that there is absolutely no mention of the sponsorship to create the new lodge in the records of Lodge Sir William Wallace. This information was found in the records of Lodge Broonhill!  One possible explanation could be that Lodge Sir William Wallace, being a member of the Masonic Hall Trust with its two partner lodges being members of the rival Constitution, didn’t want to blatantly ‘rock the boat’. We will probably never know.

An early cottage at the suburb of Brown Hill

Lodge Broonhill used the regalia of Lodge Sir William Wallace for about two years until they could afford their own and they hired the piano from their ‘Mother Lodge’, transporting it out to Brownhill on a horse and cart for every meeting. Being ‘Scottish’, Lodge Sir William Wallace insisted they pay a hire fee, and for the cartage cost there and back. It couldn’t have done the piano much good either given the dusty rough conditions of the tracks between the two population centres back then. Nevertheless the piano survived and still resides in the Kalgoorlie Masonic Hall – although dreadfully out of tune and never played.

Lodge Broonhill has had many homes

Brownhill was a small suburb that had sprung up about four kms to the southeast of Kalgoorlie and just east of the mining area designated the “Golden Mile“.

Brown Hill School – Photo and information courtesy Moya Sharp Outback Family History

Brown Hill Primary School in 1902 when it had the second highest enrolment numbers in the entire Kalgoorlie – Boulder district.

The lodge eventually had its own lodge building which was opened in 1908. The timber-framed, corrugated iron clad hall was flattened during a mini-cyclone in 1927. The lodge Charter was lost during the confusion and meetings were suspended until a replacement Charter was obtained from Scotland.

Boulder Masonic Hall circa 2010

Rather than rebuild their hall, the lodge relocated to the Masonic Hall in Boulder – a substantial brick structure where it continued to operate until 1991. Since then Lodge Broonhill has temporarily operated at Kambalda – a nickel mining town about 50 kms south of Boulder; at Inglewood – a suburb near the centre of Perth and then at a more southern suburb named Armadale.

It was while at Armadale the Lodge adopted the City of Armadale official tartan for all of its lodge regalia.

Then, in 2002, Lodge Broonhill shifted from Armadale to Esperance on the southern coast about 400 kms south of Boulder in the belief that the young settlers (farmers) there might like the opportunity to belong to a Scottish lodge but that didn’t work either.  In 2006 Lodge Broonhill was moved again, this time back to Kalgoorlie where it remains successfully to this day.

The reason for all of the shifting was, of course, to retain the Lodge Charter rather than to close the lodge and hand the Charter in. Had that been done, Lodge Broonhill would have been lost forever under the terms of the Concordant struck in 1908 between the Grand Lodges of Scotland and Western Australian. Members of Lodge Sir William Wallace still strongly support Lodge Broonhill by Affiliated membership but now all of Broonhill’s lodge offices are filled by ‘Broonhill’ joining members.

Lodge Sir William Wallace grows

Bro W Leevers

These years at the beginning of the 19th Century were a wonderful period for Lodge Sir William Wallace with strong growth and exciting prospects in one of the most prominent gold ‘cities’ of the world. After Bro. John Thomson retired as R.W. District Grand Master in 1913 another “Wallace” member, Bro. William Leevers, became the Third R.W. District Grand Master. He had also been a Foundation member of the lodge, although coming to us as an Affiliate from Lodge Golden Feather at nearby Kanowna where he had been the first Initiate to that lodge. Bro. Leevers had been the Fifth RWM of Lodge Sir William Wallace in 1901 and served a full five year term as R.W. District Grand Master until he retired in 1918.

Although there were several other Scottish lodges from which a District Grand Master might have been selected, the Fourth R.W. District Grand Master also came from Lodge Sir William Wallace. He was Bro. Ethelbert Rosman, an accountant who had been the lodge’s RWM in 1905. He went on to serve a remarkable term as the Goldfields District Grand Master for 19 years from 1918 to 1937. A street in Pringle Village – part of Goldfields Masonic Homes – was named Rosman Way in recognition of his service to local Freemasonry.

Bro. Les Hilton in regalia as RWDGM

An meeting event, entirely unremarkable at the time – September 1913 – was the Ballot for Leslie Frank Hilton, an electrical inspector aged 24 years. Bro. Hilton shared his Ballot night with four other applicants and the Initiation of three joining members. Two of those three Initiates eventually went on to hold the office of RWM in the lodge – Bro. Hugh Campbell in 1917 and Bro. Robert V. King in 1919.

Bro. Hilton did not become the RWM of the lodge until 1936 and then went on to become the Sixth R.W. District Grand Master in 1947.

There was a steady flow of new members joining but an almost equally steady number of resignations as the men sought better opportunities at some other location. It has to be realised that none of the adults of that time had any strong natural association to Kalgoorlie as all had been born elsewhere – many even in some other country. It was a shifting population.

First World War – July 1914

The first reference to the war was an entry for the August 1914 meeting where the resignation was received from Bro. Andrew Rhind Davidson who had decided to join the Expeditionary Forces and was leaving with them forthwith. Indeed he did, as his enlistment date is recorded as 11th August 1914 and his enlistment number was 169. Bro. Davidson attained the rank of Sergeant and he returned to Australia with both a Military Medal and a Distinguished Conduct Medal for his efforts during the war. These awards are appropriately recorded on the World War 1 Honour Board on the wall of the Kalgoorlie Masonic Hall.

Bro. Davidson had Affiliated to Lodge Sir William Wallace from Lodge St. John No. 543 SC (Dalmuir, Scotland) in January 1907 and became the RWM of the lodge in 1912. His occupation is shown as a Tailor. He was also the lodge’s representative on the Kalgoorlie Masonic Hall Trust at the date of his resignation.

The polished jarrah timber Roll of Honour was prepared and remains on the wall of our Masonic Temple to this day.

The Grand Lodge of Scotland sometimes sent messages such as the one received at the May, 1915 meeting with the suggestion that …”it would be desirable for all lodges to prepare and preserve a Roll of Honour containing the names of Brethren who are engaged in the service of the King, Also that any lodge could, by a majority vote, pass a Motion freeing members on active service from their annual contributions during continuance of the war without losing their good standing.”

 Lodge member gives his life in outstanding war service

In August 1916 the lodge minutes record a letter received from Bro. Thomas Mark Nicholls, (service number 6088) then at the Claremont military camp, bidding all au-revoir and extending good wishes to his Mother lodge prior to leaving for the ‘Front’. Bro. Nicholls was a clerk when he was Initiated into Lodge Sir William Wallace at the December meeting in 1913.

His is a sad story. His father – also with the given name of Thomas – was killed when he fell down a surface shaft in a mine accident on the Iron Monarch lease at Brown Hill on 3rd March 1909. The son, our Bro. Nicholls had been educated at the Paddington public school and was 22 years of age when he joined the lodge, and only aged 24 and still single, when he enlisted on 20th March 1916.

The headstone for Bro. Thomas Nicholls in the St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen

He attained the rank of Corporal and was awarded a Military Medal for conspicuous gallantry at Mont de Merris during a battle on the 2nd/3rd June 1918.  The citation says he rushed an enemy trench and single-handed captured a machine gun and three of the enemy. He died of wounds on the 15th of August 1918 and is buried in an Australian Military cemetery near Rouen, France. At the September meeting a letter was written by Bro. Nicholls just prior to him receiving his Military

Medal had been received and was read in conjunction with advice from the War Office that he had paid the supreme sacrifice. The RWM asked the brethren to stand and sing one verse of “Nearer my God to Thee“.

At the meeting held September 1915, the lodge took up a collection for the benefit of returned wounded soldiers. This was the first of what became a regular lodge activity until the end of the hostilities.

Another message from the Grand Lodge at the October 1916 meeting advised ………..

… ” in order to prevent the peace and harmony of the Craft being disturbed, it is necessary that all Brethren of alien enemy birth or nationality, should not during the continuance of the War, and until Grand Lodge, after the treaty of peace has been signed, shall otherwise determine, attend any meeting.”

Another lodge member dies in service to his “King and Country”

Another lodge member who received a Military Medal, also recorded on the Honor Board, was Bro. James Webster Berry who was listed as a surveyor when he was Initiated into the lodge at the age of 33 at the June meeting in 1903. His war records show he enlisted (service number 4207) as a mining engineer in February 1916. That description no doubt had a major bearing on him being assigned to the 3rd Australian Tunnelling group.

Before the war Bro. Berry had carried on business as a machinery merchant on Boulder Road, Kalgoorlie and was widely regarded as ….” an enthusiastic worker in all movements tending to the development of the resources of the Goldfields.” …. He had been elected a member of the Kalgoorlie Municipal Council in 1913 and was given a rousing farewell by the Mayor when he announced his enlistment and he was granted leave of absence from his council duties while he was overseas.

Bro. Berry was one of three men killed by a shell blast on 31st July 1917 at Hill 70 only a week after the advice that a Military Medal had been conferred on him for an act of bravery he had performed with a fellow soldier. The lodge Minutes for August 1917 contain reference to his death in correspondence received from the District Grand Secretary.

In the latter stages of the war there were occasional references to news of a former Brother being reported missing, or killed, but from this distance in time, it seems that lodge ‘life’ continued almost as normal – as if nothing much was happening ‘over there‘.

Between the Wars

Leaving aside those that had lost their lives, many of the members who had gone to war never returned to the Western Australian Goldfields and Kalgoorlie. They had no real incentive to return as they hadn’t been born here; the excitement of the original gold rushes that had brought them here was long over and many had married and settled into regular family and employment activities.

The ‘governments’, wanting to increase agricultural production as well as to reward those that had fought for ‘King and Country‘, offered them cheap land known as “Soldier Settlements“. These were generally in more favourable geographical locations with higher rainfall and better soils – theoretically capable of development into farm land.

A typical returned soldiers farm in the South-West of Western Australia after World War 1

Bro. James Berry, MM, who lost his life at the battle for Hill 70 was a prolific writer from the trenches to friends and family back home. Many of his letters were published in the local papers and in a rather prescient piece printed in the Western Argus on Tuesday August 7th, 1917 – only a week after his death – he pointed out what he thought of the “Soldier Settlements“.

“As no doubt you are aware, many old gold hunters are members of this company, and though we are interested to read of propositions to enable returned soldiers to grow wheat and vegetables, gold hunters, at least, are not to be turned from their love by bright pictures of the life rural.

My dear friend, do not forget this fact, when the vegetation crowd are making things hot in the direction indicated; when this king of all disturbances is finished, it’s heigh ho! for Australia and the Golden West, and many of us have picked out the particular territory we shall track for.”

 Those that took up a piece of land under the “Soldier Settlements” plan found it was tough work under primitive isolated conditions and many failed, but this was the beginning of the very productive wheat fields for which Western Australia is now famous. It also laid the foundation for the eventual spread of the Grand Lodge of Western Australian ‘brand’ of Freemasonry into the new country farming towns, but not until the “Great Depression” was out of the way.

The Great Depression

The stock market crash of October 1929 not only had a bad impact on the Western Australian gold mines but forced many of the returned soldier settlers to walk-off their land. They had little time, or spare money, to belong to Freemasonry. Many began to make their way back to the Goldfields, and Kalgoorlie, to look for work.

The change to everyone’s fortunes began when Bro. Franklin Delano Roosevelt defeated President Herbert Hoover at the U.S. election on 8th November 1932. In 1933, Bro. President Roosevelt, made a decision to issue a ban on any buying or selling of gold bullion in the U.S. which had the effect of increasing the price of gold by 65% in the same year. When he took a further step and officially devalued the dollar in 1934 the price of gold soared again, from the historically stable level of US$20.60 per ounce to US$34.70 in 1934.

The impact of these dramatic price increases was felt all over the world, especially in gold producing countries and nowhere more so that in Western Australia. Abandoned gold mines were re-opened and unemployed men from all over Australia flocked to Kalgoorlie, and the other nearby historical gold mining towns, where they could get work. Western Australia was back ‘in business’ and Freemasons were again able to pay their dues and attend their lodges.

It was in the middle of this period of economic chaos that Bro. John (‘Jack’) McGarry was Installed as the RWM at the Annual Installation in June 1935. This was the first time a son of a former RWM was also Installed as such. Bro. McGarry was a moulder working in local foundries so his skills were very much in demand as the mines went into recovery mode.

In 1957 Bro. McGarry went on to become the Eight R.W. District Grand Master of the Western Australian Goldfields D.G.L. and as the photo below shows, he was robust in health and appearance.

Bro. Jack McGarry as a member of the District Grand Lodge

.Unfortunately Bro. McGarry’s health began to fail and it became increasingly difficult for him to attend lodge at all, let alone carry out the onerous duties of a District Grand Master at a time when there were a record number of local lodges. The photo below shows him in the Regalia of RWDGM shows his physical deterioration.

Bro. Lionel W. Hitchcock as RWDGM

The June 1940 meeting was the usual Annual Installation and Bro. Lionel Wingfield Hitchcock, son of the 1927 RWM, Bro. Stanley Hitchcock, was Installed as the lodge RWM. This was the second such instance of a son following his father into lodge office and, in an amazing co-incidence, Bro. Lionel Hitchcock also went on to become a R.W. District Grand Master – the Ninth – in 1962.

In normal life Bro. Lionel was a drapers assistant in the haberdashery section of Montgomery Bros. stores. Many members of the lodge enlisted or were called up for active service including Bro. Hitchcock who was sent to New Guinea and Bougainville for military duty.

Bro. Lionel became a Trustee for the Lodge on the Kalgoorlie Masonic Hall Trust and was the Lodge Secretary for many years until his death in July 1993.

World War 2 starts

The outbreak of war between the Allies and the Axis in September 1939 eventually had a bad impact on lodge attendance and Lodge Sir William Wallace was no different to the rest of the lodges. At the November 1939 meeting the members supported a Motion that …”any members of this lodge enlisting with the A.I.F. to be kept good on the books of the Lodge.” The Motion was Carried, of course.

Correspondence was also received from the District Grand Lodge asking all lodges to forego the festive Board at all Regular meetings during the war and to invest the money so saved into Commonwealth Government War Bonds. Lodge Sir William Wallace did, and the remnants of some of those investments were not played out until long after the war had ended.

Bro. Jack McGarry was Installed for the second time as RWM of the lodge at the June 1942 Installation and thus became the first ‘recycled’ Master of the lodge. It was 1959 before a second recycle of a RWM took place and that was Bro. L. (Paddy) Due who did two consecutive years. This practice became common from the late 1960’s as the decline in membership began to impact the operation of the lodge. In the fifty years from 1968 twelve members served more than one term as the RWM with Bro’s. H.J. Steinhauser, A.E. Aves. and A.J.R. Anderson sharing the lead at four times each.

One of the problems that arose during the war period was the difficulty in obtaining the petrol needed for vehicles used to drive to lodge meetings. Car-pooling was used to partly overcome the problem but visiting other lodges at Kanowna and Coolgardie, and even attendance at the lodge’s own meetings became an issue. Some vehicles were equipped with charcoal burning gas producers.  Here on the Goldfields, these were generally home made.

Another attempt at a ‘union’ of the Constitutions

At the March 1942 meeting the lodge dealt with a formal approach from the Western Australian Grand Lodge, who tried to use the low meeting attendances  to push their plans to eventually achieve an amalgamation of both Constitutions – what they called a ‘Union’. The Grand Lodge of Scotland gave permission for a ballot of all Western Australian based Scottish lodges to conduct a ballot to determine the matter. The result was that six of the eleven ‘coastal’ lodges voted against the move and five of the ten ‘goldfields’ did likewise. There were two abstentions. Thus the vote was lost with thirteen against and eight in favour. Two of the local lodges – Lodges Mossgiel No. 902 SC and Trafalgar No. 926 SC accepted the invitation  handing in their Scottish Charters to join the W.A. Grand Lodge. Lodge Sir William Wallace rebuffed the suggestion and has remained loyal to the Grand Lodge of Scotland.

That March 1942 meeting also dealt with preliminary advice from the Masonic Hall Trust suggesting that it may be necessary to dig trenches outside the hall for emergency. Why that was never done is not known but it may be related to the underlying ground conditions. Subsequent ground work has revealed the existence of very hard rock known as “Goldfields cement“, or calcrete, mere centimetres below a thin veneer of soil.

During the war, a major air base was established at Boulder as a maintenance and repair depot – one of the largest in Australia – principally for the engines of the US aircraft. At its peak the base had a roster of nearly 1000 personnel. The area occupied by that air base is now covered by the housing suburbs of O’Connor and Victory Heights.

Kalgoorlie became a major R&R location for the American submariners who were based at, and operated from the Fremantle harbour into the islands and waters north of Australia. Our records reveal occasional lodge visitors from a variety of overseas Constitutions – especially from the U.S – during the war. The reasons for the selection of Kalgoorlie are well understood and included:

• The Kalgoorlie Brewery – the only brewery if all of Australia that was not subjected to production restrictions during the war.
• The newly opened Lord Forrest Olympic Pool – the only one in Western Australia.
• The very clean air – important to the submariners who spent days on end in the confined and contaminated space in a submarine beneath the ocean, and
• The existence of the local brothels.
• The distance from the coast and the unlikelihood of attack from enemy aircraft.

Expansion of Freemasonry after World War Two

In a curious twist, after the Second World War a large Honour Board containing the names of all enlisted members of the lodges meeting at the Boulder Masonic Hall was attached the wall of the and unveiled on 2nd December, 1946. It remained there until the Boulder earthquake on April 20th 2000 badly damaged the building. With only one lodge still meeting there, the Grand Lodge of Western Australia decided to sell the property rather than spend any money repairing it, and donated the Boulder Honour Board to the Kalgoorlie Masonic Hall Trust, provided it was maintained in perpetuity on the walls of the Kalgoorlie Hall. That was duly done and it now remains as a tribute to ‘Boulder’ Freemasons on the wall near the entrance to the Temple.

Freemasonry everywhere went into a period of expansion after World War 2, and Western Australia was no exception. Even our outpost at Kalgoorlie felt the pressure and many new lodges were erected from the late 1940’s to accommodate the growth in membership. Of course, none of these new lodges were Scottish due to the conditions contained in the Concordant agreed to between the two Constitutions in March 1908, which was used to end the disharmony.

No new Scottish Lodges were to be allowed to be erected ever again which is the reason that great steps are always taken to protect the operations of all remaining Scottish lodges if any seem to be in danger of failing. This is something apparently completely misunderstood by, or of no interest, to the District Grand Lodge in 2019 when such stupidities as the ‘lifting’ of the Lodge Golden Feather Charter took place. The post-war growth lasted about twenty years and had dissipated by the late 1960’s. By the early 1970’s, all of the newly erected lodges had surrendered their Charters.

A line-up of the fifteen lodge Masters at the peak of expansion after World War 2 – 1955/1956

Post-war growth fades and lodge membership begins to decline

The disinterest didn’t only affect the ‘new’ lodges but also extended to lodges that had existed here from the time of the early gold rush. Some of these, including Scottish Lodges, also handed in their Charters. Other lodges amalgamated in the hope this would solve the problem of low, and falling, membership but, with the very rare exception, this too failed to work. Freemasonry at Kalgoorlie was in the doldrums.

In 1977, another member of Lodge Sir William Wallace attained the high office of the RW District Grand Master. Bro. Lauriston (“Paddy“) Due had been Initiated in May 1952 and advanced in the regular way through the lodge offices until Installed as the lodge RWM in June 1958, and again in 1959. He was a mine shift boss. Sadly “Paddy” only served two years as the Eleventh RW District Grand Master before dying in office in 1979.

The problems with declining the level of membership and a reduction in the number of lodges also impacted the Kalgoorlie Masonic Hall Trust. By 1990 the ‘Trust’ was conscious of the need to carry out important repairs – especially to the external roof but had insufficient money or income to have the work done.

Major storm damage to the Kalgoorlie Masonic Hall

On 3rd February 1995 a violent storm of the kind that often smash their way through outback Australia, passed over central Kalgoorlie. Some newcomers now call them mini-tornados but we call them thunderstorms. They feature very strong winds that appear to constantly change direction; intense and scary lightning strikes and very heavy rain usually accompanied by hail.

Kalgoorlie Masonic Hall in 1991 before renovation

The resultant damage to the Masonic Hall in 1995 was extensive with the glass in windows facing west into the storm smashed by the hail. Gutters were unable to cope with the amount of rain especially as the downpipes were blocked by masses of hailstones that melted together. To make matters worse the insurance company refused to consider a pay-out when the insurance claim was submitted on the basis that the building had not been properly maintained.

To compound the problem, the Masonic Hall was again battered by a similar storm in the very next month. Further rain damage was sustained – not only outside but to the internal ceilings as well. The Masonic Hall Trust were faced with finding the substantial funds that would be needed to carry out the long overdue repairs.

By 1998 a major program had been drawn up and an appeal made to members to support the work needed to have the building back to good condition for the planned Centenary in 1999. It worked and the building was subjected to the most comprehensive maintenance and development work since its original construction in 1899. The latest reverse cycle air conditioning supported by extensive roof space insulation made internal conditions more comfortable.

Kalgoorlie Masonic Hall 2015

The roofing was replaced with modern material and all of the electrical wiring and lighting was replaced and supported with computer-driven remote controls. Modern storage was provided for each of the resident lodges in a fire-proof zone and a rather unique vault for use by the Royal Arch Chapter was constructed under the main floor of the temple. The building had advanced to the standards of the Twentieth Century and the Masonic Hall Centenary Celebrations in November 1999 went off well.

Membership problems continue

Membership remained a problem and it was often the case that insufficient members were available to open a formal meeting. In 1995, for instance, Lodge Sir William Wallace conducted only one exemplary First Degree, the Annual Installation, spent two meetings reading the Lodge By-Laws, two meetings for the reading of a Masonic lecture and abandoned four meetings due to insufficient members being present. The year 1996 wasn’t much better and the lodge Centenary Year of 1997 delivered the Installation, one Initiation, two abandoned meetings, one Affiliation, two lecture nights and three exemplary Degree workings. Hardly a vibrant and robust Masonic environment.

Bro. Doug Daws, OAM, JP as RWDGM

It was into this environment that Bro. Douglas C. Daws became the Sixteenth RW District Grand Master. Bro. Daws had been preceded into Lodge Sir William Wallace by his father, Bro. Charles (“Digger“) P. Daws (Initiated June 1938), but Bro. Charles Daws had become heavily involved in local government and so didn’t take any office in the lodge.

Bro. Doug Daws had already served a few years as a Shire councillor and was towards the end of a three year period as Boulder Shire President when he was Initiated in May 1979. After becoming the RWM of his lodge in June 1985 he stepped into the role of District Grand Secretary in 1992 before being Installed as the Sixteenth RW District Grand Master in 1997.

Freemasonry was not the only organisation that struggled to maintain membership onwards from the 1980’s. Other ‘lodges’ such as the Free Gardeners, the Manchester Unity, the United Antient Order of the Druids, the Antediluvian Order of the Buffaloes and the Independent Order of Oddfellows all had branches in the Western Australian Goldfields. As ‘benefit’ lodges they had all suffered the additional impact of the establishment of private and government-owned health benefit funds that removed the need for lodge membership. By the mid 1990’s they had all folded and ceased operations. That Freemasonry has survived, and now gone onto further strong growth, speaks volumes for the tenacity of its members and the inherent value of its teachings and principles.

Lodge Sir William Wallace has long had a strong membership of individuals associated with the mining industry particularly, but also with government and commerce. The discovery of nickel not far south of Kalgoorlie in 1966 led to a sustained nickel boom but the flurry of new activity had only minimal effect on long-term lodge membership. Nevertheless, eight of those who joined the lodge and identified to Kambalda went on to become Installed masters of the lodge – some on multiple occasions – as the overall lodge membership struggled through the ‘nineties’ and ‘noughties’.

Members originating from Kambalda show fortitude and commitment

Outstanding among those were Bro. Harry Steinhauser who was Initiated in July 1975 and first took the ‘Chair’ in 1979. Then again in1988, again in 1990 following which he Installed his son, Trevor Steinhauser in 1991 and then, yet again, in 1994. Bro. Harry was a pioneer in the health and safety officer component of the mining industry as standards were lifted in the twentieth Century. He was a prominent supporter of the Boy Scouts and the St John Ambulance Association. The public sports ground at East Kambalda is named after him in recognition of his work. Bro. Harry was renowned for the fact that he never owned a dinner suit and habitually attended lodge in a dark grey company issue wind jacket.

Bro. Anthony (‘Tony’) Aves was a resident of Kambalda when Initiated into Lodge Broonhill when it was at Boulder. He first became the RWM of that lodge in 1981 then again the following year and again in 1990. When Lodge Broonhill relocated to Inglewood, a Perth suburb, in 1996, Bro. Tony Affiliated to Lodge Sir William Wallace He first became the RWM of his ‘new’ lodge in 1999, again 2001 and yet again for two years in 2010 and 2011, a total of seven years as a RWM. Bro. Tony Aves rejoined Lodge Broonhill when it shifted from the Perth metropolitan area to Esperance in 2002 and has retained membership of both lodges since. He is a Hon. Life Member of Lodge No. 1504 Glasgow.

Bro. Arthur J.R. Anderson was also a resident of Kambalda when he first joined Freemasonry as a member of Lodge Broonhill. He also Affiliated with Lodge Sir William Wallace in 1996 when Lodge Broonhill relocated to the Perth metropolitan area. Bro. Arthur first became the RWM of his new lodge in 1998 but again took the ‘Chair’ in 2002 and yet again for a ‘double’ term in 2006 and 2007. To assist Lodge Broonhill he too rejoined that lodge in 2002 when it relocated to Esperance and then, when the lodge had shifted to Kalgoorlie in 2006, became the RWM for four consecutive years from 2009 to 2012 inclusive.

Although living at Kambalda Bro. William (“Bill”) Hanlon chose to join Lodge Sir William Wallace but later also joined Lodge Broonhill. He was Initiated in September 1977 and first became the RWM of his ‘Mother’ lodge in 1981 and again for a further year in 1984. Bro. Hanlon was RWM of Lodge Broonhill when it was at Boulder in 1994 and 1995 and again for 1996 when it was relocated to Inglewood.

Future of the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder looks brighter

Other changes of a more general nature were also underway. Kalgoorlie and Boulder were combined in 1989 to create the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Bro. William (“Bill”) Baldwin, the RWM in 1992, was on the Council at the time and played a prominent role in the decision. Bro. Baldwin was brought up in Boulder, became a graduate engineer from the world famous Kalgoorlie School of Mines and, like many graduates before him, took on management and mining development roles around Australia, and the world. He served as the Secretary of the Hall Trust until he left for Perth in 1995. He has a family connection to Bro. Isaac Goss, who joined the lodge in 1897.

The City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder is now a major inland regional city, funded and  underpinned by the principal activities of the mining and processing of gold and nickel, but sustained by the other economies of government, agriculture and the ubiquitous tourism industry. As it moves towards the 2020’s other products such as rare earths, lithium and maybe even uranium will be added as the world reaches out for more of the exotic elements needed for the expanding range of high-technology products.

Association with the Western Australian School of Mines

Lodge Sir William Wallace and Freemasonry generally has long had a close association with the Kalgoorlie School of Mines. The logo for the ‘School’ is very Masonic in its design, no doubt influenced by the early Directors and senior lecturers. The last Director of the School of Mines to become a member of this lodge was Bro. Dr. Alwyne V. Pegler who Affiliated in December,1972.

A current country member is Bro. Daniel Lazo who came to the Kalgoorlie School of Mines as a PhD student specialising in the metallurgy of rare earth processing. He was born in Peru. Bro. Daniel found it necessary to relocate to Melbourne in his work where he has enthusiastically continued to display and promote his membership of Lodge Sir William Wallace.

Another change thrust upon us, and embraced enthusiastically, has been the change in religious and ethnic diversity. At the 2017 September meeting the lodge Initiated Friends Vishnukanth Malikaveettil SASIKANTHAN and Ismail BOZANOGLU the former a Hindu and the latter a Muslim. These two former School of Mines students are thought to be the first ever Hindu and Muslim Initiated in Lodge SWW in the entire existence of the lodge from 1897.

By 2010 membership for the Scottish lodges began a gradual, and eventually, a strong recovery but lodges from the Western Australian Constitution continued to struggle and didn’t recover. This included the Kalgoorlie Golden Square Lodge which had been created in 1980 by the amalgamation of Kalgoorlie Lodge and its daughter, Golden Square Lodge, two of the original three lodges forming the Kalgoorlie Masonic Hall Trust. The Charter was surrendered in 2015 after 118 years of operation. Eventually all but the Leonora United Lodge had handed in their Charters. The plethora of lodges that had operated at Boulder, Kalgoorlie, Coolgardie, Bulong, Menzies, Norseman, Laverton, Mt Morgans, Broad Arrow, Malcolm and Kookynie had all gone.

When the Kalgoorlie Golden Square lodge ‘folded’, the two shares they owned in the Kalgoorlie Masonic Trust became the property of the Grand Lodge of Western Australia, as provided for in their Constitution and Laws. When these were offered for sale, arrangements were made for ownership to return to the “Hall Trust’. Thus the completely independent Kalgoorlie Masonic Hall Trust, with the three Trustees nominated solely by Lodge Sir William Wallace, gained 100% ownership of the property which it continues to operate on behalf of all local lodges.

One of the members on the “Hall Trust”, and at that time representing Kalgoorlie Golden Square Lodge, was Rt. Wor. Bro Roy H. Kelly. After that lodge handed in its Charter in 2015 he first joined the relocated Leonora United Lodge before joining Lodge Sir William Wallace in 2017. There was a feeling that he had finally ‘come home’ such was the unfailing support he had dedicated to his representation on the “Hall Trust” for over twenty years. Partly in recognition of his role with the Kalgoorlie Masonic Hall Trust and partly for his over thirty years as a member of the Goldfields Masonic Homes, a street in the Pringle Masonic Village was named Kelly Lane.

Bro. David W. Collins as RWDGM

Bro. David William Collins was appointed the Seventeenth RW District

Grand Master in 2002 and prevailed in that office until his retirement in 2007. Bro. David proved to be a wonderful appointment and yet a further proud member of Lodge Sir William Wallace to hold the high office. He had been Initiated into the lodge as a joining member in 1978.

His work commitments in the mining industry and a brief period out of the district prevented him attaining the CKS until 18th June1993 neatly coinciding within four days of the Centenary of the original discovery of gold at Kalgoorlie by Paddy Hannan on 14th June 1893. He was Installed for another term in 1997. Like all of the modern era District Grand Masters, Bro. Collins also attained high office in the other orders operating locally.

Bro. Collins was the first Past Master of the Lodge to be presented with the new style of Past Master’s Jewel made by R. Somers & Sons. of Brisbane. The jewel is comprised of gold plated silver castings which altogether is a very good replica of the original handmade jewels that have become exorbitantly expensive – particularly as the price of gold has moved beyond AUD $2,200 per ounce.

Original style of PM Jewel

Newer style of PM Jewel

The Westralian Goldfields being host to the last of the famous world gold rushes naturally lent itself to the creation of elaborate Past Master Jewels and there have been none better than that created by the lodge Founders for Lodge Sir William Wallace.

Sir William Wallace members active in civic affairs

Over the years many elected representatives of the ‘people’ have found comfort in being a member of Freemasonry in general, and Lodge Sir William Wallace in particular.

The current (2019) elected Mayor of the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Hon. Bro. John J.M. Bowler, JP has been a member since he was Initiated into the lodge in 2009. Bro. John had previously served as the Member for Eyre from 2001. From 2005 he represented the renamed seat of Murchison-Eyre in the state parliament and took on the roles as Minister for Local Government and Regional Development. The portfolio of Sport and Recreation was added later and in 2006 he became the Minister for Mineral Resources and Racing and Gaming. His son Luke joined in 2014 and is steadily advancing through the ‘chairs’ towards the CKS.

 Hon. Bro. Matthew John Birney was Initiated at the March meeting in 2003 during his term from 2001 to 2008 as the member for Kalgoorlie in the State Parliament. Not long after, he relocated to Perth where, for a time, he became the leader of the Opposition for a year from March 2005.

Another member of distinction is Hon. Bro. Philip Ross Lightfoot. Bro Lightfoot commenced his public service as the Member for the seat of Murchison-Eyre from 1986 to 1989, having a brief break before becoming an Upper House member for the North Metropolitan Province from 1993 to 1997. He finished an outstanding career as a Senator for Western Australia from 1997 to 2008. Bro. Lightfoot Affiliated to Lodge Sir William Wallace from a Perth lodge belonging to the West Australian Constitution in March 2003.

Hon. Bro. Charles L. Smith MLC was a serving police officer in Kalgoorlie when he was Initiated to Lodge Sir William Wallace in 2010. Bro. Smith made steady progress to WSW when he relocated to the Perth metropolitan area and took on a career in politics, eventually being elected to the Upper House as the member for the East Metropolitan Province in December 2017.

Membership of Lodge Sir William Wallace has waxed and waned over the decades. The lodge went through another slump in 2006 when the work for the year included five at which the work was the reading of papers of Masonic interest;  two exemplary workings; an night for the election of officers and another for the annual Installation.

Part of the work done to overcome the slump was to lift Masonic activities and its public profile. Good community work that had previously been conducted quietly was  now communicated to the public in a complimentary way. The ‘Masons’ support for valuable projects such as the provision of accommodation for retirees was received favourably as was their involvement in public events at venues such as the Museum of the Goldfields. Lodge Sir William Wallace has been an active participant in this regard.

Members develop a taste for travel

Many members have participated in travel to other Masonic jurisdictions in places such as the Eastern States, New Zealand, and the Asian area under the District Grand Lodge of the Middle East (“Scottish”). In 2019 one group of members even travelled with their families to The Bahamas to participate in the Third International Scottish Masonic Conference. All this has aided the expansion and enjoyment of Freemasonry.

First ‘Masonic’ bus purchased in 2000

The lodge members also developed a tendency to long-distance travel to other lodge Installations, or even just regular meetings elsewhere. A small bus was purchased in September 2000 using personal donations made by individual members – mainly from Lodge Sir William Wallace. It proved successful so a larger bus was also purchased. Both were in considerable demand for hire by other social and sporting groups thus the Goldfields “Freemason” branding was regularly seen across the southern part of the state.

Kalgoorlie-Boulder still (2019) supports four active Scottish lodges and one WAC lodge plus the ‘other’ Orders, or branches, of Freemasonry. Two of the regular Craft lodges came to the Kalgoorlie Masonic Hall from their original locations nearby.

The early-day photo above shows a gathering of lodge members assembled outside the Kanowna lodge hall.

Lodge Golden Feather commenced ‘life’ at Kanowna but shifted to Kalgoorlie in 1947 when the Kanowna population failed to recover after the end of World War 2. Perhaps the most famous member of Lodge Golden Feather was Bro. James Balzano of “Barrowman” fame

Exterior Coolgardie Masonic Hall 1970’s

It took the structural failure, and eventual demolition, of the Coolgardie Masonic Hall due to the effect of nearby mining operations to shift Lodge Golden Thistle to Kalgoorlie in 1999. The Coolgardie Masonic hall had a long history of building problems including serious storm damage in the 1970s that required a re-roofing.

When the hall was demolished the memorial tablet that had been placed in the inner wall of temple as a tribute to Bro. Andrew Barr, the First District Grand Master, was salvaged and carefully reinstalled on the outer wall of the Kalgoorlie Masonic Hall.

Another lodge, and the only one belonging to the Western Australian Grand Lodge, that now (2019) meets at the Kalgoorlie Masonic Hall is Leonora United Lodge. Leonora United Lodge is an amalgamation of a number of lodges originally erected in and around Leonora. It came to Kalgoorlie, via Boulder, from the Leonora district when the mining companies there began engaging non-resident workforce leaving an insufficient cohort of local members. Freemasonry, like sporting clubs, retail shopping and other social groupings in regional towns throughout Western Australia became just another, but an early victim of the modern practice of FI-FO.

Problems emerge with the operation of the District Grand Lodge

Through all of these travails the “Goldfields” District Grand Lodge has, until recently, been a constant support. It has provided strong encouragement to all Goldfields Masonic activities and has been ‘there’ as a guiding supervisory support, providing the essential communication and connection back to Edinburgh and the Grand Lodge of Scotland.

Sadly this changed when Bro. Charles Dalton of Lodge Golden Thistle was chosen and Installed as the nineteenth District Grand Master in 2016. It is now clear that members of the District made a serious mistake in selecting him as the operations of the District Grand Lodge slide from one stupidity to another. The DGM ‘lifted’ the Charter of Lodge Golden Feather in April 2019 for reasons that are entirely unclear and despite several communications direct to the Grand Lodge of Scotland no support to try and repair the problem has been evident from them. The District Grand Lodge was unable to secure a full suite of members for Investiture at the Annual Communication  in June 2019 and several of those Invested at that time have subsequently remitted office.

The disruption has severely impacted the operations of the Kalgoorlie Masonic Hall Trust as all meetings of Lodge Golden Feather have been cancelled along with several meetings of the other orders. These economic circumstances led the Hall Trust to increase meeting rentals starting with the District Grand Lodge. This resulted in that body vacating the building altogether in October 2019. We have to hope and believe that there will be an end to this nonsense but we just don’t know when.

The construction of early Masonic Halls generally

Last meeting of The Lodge Norseman No. 20 WAC in July 2009

Many of the early Masonic halls were representative of the mood and materials available to the members at that time. Being located in remote previously uninhabited areas, there was a problem and cost to sourcing good building materials. Transport of the materials was generally restricted to horse and carts so there was a natural tendency to the use of lightweight products such as hessian and corrugated iron sheeting.

The ephemeral life of many of these early mining towns led to the buildings, including the Masonic Halls, being salvaged for use in the next new town. An example is taken from Broad Arrow.

A decision was made to build a Masonic Hall at Broad Arrow in July 1901 and the first lodge meeting was held in it in July 1901! The construction of light timber, corrugated iron, and hessian had another advantage that it quickly cooled at the end of a hot goldfields summer day whereas the stone or brick buildings continued to be uncomfortable into the night. The Broad Arrow hall sat idle from 1910 to 1916 when Lodge Golden Arrow was formally declared dormant so it was sold, and relocated to Comet Vale, for use as a hospital.

The Masonic halls at Kalgoorlie, Boulder, and Coolgardie were different and clearly reflected the attitudes and ambitions of the members in each of these early towns. There can be no doubt that they believed the future of these major gold towns was assured so the Kalgoorlie Masonic hall, for instance, was built principally from locally sourced stone and bricks, with a corrugated iron roof. The quarry still exists and is located about seven kilometres northeast of Kalgoorlie. The stone material used is not ideal and rather than being the more traditional building material of sandstone – as declared in the Heritage report into the building – it is far less durable and more fragile sediment, prone to decay.

Construction of the Kalgoorlie Masonic Hall

The building of the Kalgoorlie Masonic hall also proceeded at a quite incredible rate – almost the same as for the Broad Arrow Hall although of a completely different material. The construction contract was signed in May 1899, the Foundation stone formally laid on 5th July  and the building was completed in December 1899. The very first meeting of Lodge Sir William Wallace held in the new hall took place on 19th January, 1900 yet the only mention of this in the Minutes is a brief note that the District Grand Lodge had granted Dispensation to change the place of meeting.

Maintenance of old buildings is always a challenge and none more so than some of the early day Masonic Halls such as the ones at Kalgoorlie and Boulder. Being new to the area and with no knowledge, or concerns, about ground conditions our forebears were novices in respect to the pitfalls that were to unfold. They failed to apply or install, for instance, any damp courses to protect the stonework from rising damp. Had rising damp been mentioned as a potential problem the builders would have certainly been incredulous but rising damp we have, and it remains a significant threat to the ongoing building condition. And they were not to be aware of the corrosion that would be caused to the roofing iron by exposure to the fumes that would drift through from the multiple gold roasters along the Golden Mile.

Heritage issues affect the operation of the Masonic Hall Trust

The first impact of the emergent heritage ‘industry’ struck on 21st October 1980 when the property was placed onto the Register of the National Estate. The National Estate was described at the time as a National body dedicated to the protection of …”all those things we want to keep“. The Hall Trust members at that time were advised not to encourage, support or agree to any approach from the National Trust organisation but whether from disbelief or apathy, they failed to do anything to prevent the listing and the property was placed onto the Register.

There followed many years of threatening letters from lawyers on behalf of the National Trust demanding that the duplicate land title be delivered up so the caveat applying to the listing could be added to it. The duplicate title has never been given to them but the original title at the WA government land titles office has been notated.

The next ‘heritage’ event occurred on 23rd March 1998 when the property was added to the State Heritage Register over formal objections to the State Heritage Minister that the listing was entirely unnecessary. Like communists, if the heritage groups like the appearance of a property, they will use the powers given to them by weak politicians to effectively take control of private property yet they contribute nothing towards the maintenance and upkeep of it. Not one cent has ever been provided by the National Trust or the WA State Heritage Council towards the Kalgoorlie Masonic Hall.

In a ‘Monty Pythonesque’ type skit, the true capacity of the State Heritage Council to care for heritage listed buildings was played out when an arsonist caused the adjacent caretakers building to be destroyed in April 2005. Despite their own property assessment stating that the caretakers dwelling had little heritage value they proposed prosecuting the Kalgoorlie Hall Trust for removing the blackened remains to the rubbish tip without applying for and receiving formal Heritage Council approval.

Yet another problem emerged in June 1998 as a consequence of what was deemed at the time – a failed pillar blast in the nearby Mount Charlotte gold mine. Many buildings across the city were affected. The damage to the Masonic Hall from the blast itself, and subsequent seismic events, included the displacement of internal wall plaster and parts of the lathe and plaster ceiling falling in. All was repaired at no cost by the contractors engaged by the mining company – KCGM. One outcome was the placement of a seismic monitor with remote access at the SE corner of the property where it remains to this day.

Lodge Sir William Wallace remains the leading lodge in the Goldfields

Lodge Sir William Wallace, as well as being the first Scottish lodge erected at Kalgoorlie, has long been regarded as the “local leader” in respect to “Goldfields” Freemasonry. The lodge has had a strong sense of purpose from the very first meeting when our pioneers had already decided the Constitution, and the name. At the second meeting they set the regular meeting day as the third Friday of the month and that has been maintained almost without exception ever since.

A modern Lodge Sir William Wallace apron

One thing that has changed is the lodge regalia. Our founders determined the lodge ‘colour’ would be sky blue and that prevailed for 111 years.

At the Annual Installation in 2008, the regalia colour was changed, with the approval of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, to the Wallace Modern tartan displayed opposite. Members have also taken to occasionally wearing kilts to emphasise the Scottish heritage of the lodge as shown in photo below.

Lodge Sir William Wallace members after 2017 Installation

As much as we are able, in accordance with our undertakings not to veer too far from what we have inherited, we have gradually introduced innovation to our lodge rooms and meeting formats. Based on the inherent belief that all new young Masons will be computer literate, we have installed large electronic screens to display the words of odes, along with the names and notes of welcome, to new members. We use Wi-Fi commands to call music into our ceremonies via digital processes and have replaced the now almost mythical creature known as a Masonic organist with the very best music available in the world.

We can, if the occasion warrants, display digital photos accessed from the best Masonic photo libraries in the world to accompany the lodge lecturer as he delivers any one of the thousands of available Masonic lectures, if not one of his own construction.

We have also addressed creature comforts with more of the latest ‘comfort’ air conditioning and computer controlled lighting systems. We have used modern technology to re-introduce the ‘theatre’ to our ancient ceremonies and the members support and visitors love it. Our numbers are increasing and our membership is averaging ‘younger’. We may have found a way forward to combat the image of Freemasonry being male, stale and without a real tale.

Arrangements have been included to improve the storage and access for all of the lodges and other orders using the hall. Individual lockable rooms are secured in a fire-proof section with digital electronic locks and a mezzanine floor has been provided above the secure area for the storage of the bulky and less frequently accessed items. A small sleeping space has been incorporated for use by members needing a nap before tackling the road again the next morning.

We are now fresh, and certainly the best as exemplified in the lodge song adopted at the June 2019 Installation and now used at functions in the ‘South’.

1. We’re from Sir William Wallace  It’s the best lodge in the land
2.  We are here to help our Brothers And to lend a helping hand
3. We are part of the community And we love to play our part
4. . And we do a lot of useful work With our Apron Hand and Heart.

Sung with gusto to the tune of “The Marines Hymn”

The way ahead may be rough and beset with difficulties and dangers but, with courage, faith and purpose we can, and will, surmount them and lead Freemasonry into further prosperity, and Lodge Sir William Wallace into a glorious immortality.

So Mote it be.

Bro. Doug Daws, Hon. G.S.W. (Scot.), OAM, JP
PM
PDGM Western Australian Goldfields District Grand Lodge
Hon. G.S.W. District Grand Lodge of the Middle East (S.C.)

November 2019

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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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