Kalgoorlie Miner 25 Sep 1995
Merv Stubbs – Strong Ties with the Goldfields –
by Alan Francis
Merv Stubbs at work in the sawmill 30 years ago
Merv Stubbs, aged 70, is sitting back in his weatherboard and tin ‘castle’ and has just poured himself another midi of ‘gold’ and is all set to enjoy ‘Days of our Lives’. This is one of about a dozen stubbies he will have before he turns in for the night, he also has a cigarette dangling from one corner of his mouth one of only about 40 he swears he has each day.
There were two kettles on the slow-combustion stove, which was doing just that, burning slowly. “That’s the teapot,” he said, pointing to the smaller of the two big kettles. The room is his kitchen, dining room and lounge all rolled into one. There’s a huge cat sprawled on one of the three chairs in the room. “Don’t touch him, he’ll rip you apart”, he warns. “Don’t worry about them flies on the porch, they’re only humming flies, they don’t come into the house”, he said of the hundreds of flies buzzing around.
There are a couple of ancient fridges on the on the porch. One has the food for his five cats and the other has his food. There is also an assorted collection of bits and pieces scattered around the place, an old car radio, radiator, bits of a chainsaw, etc. Merv Stubbs is a Goldfields character, this now gnarled old man once had a reputation as the strongest man in the Goldfields. “When I was in Meekatharra I pulled a flying fox up the line with my teeth. I’ve pulled a horse with my teeth. I used to be in Vaulter’s Magical Circus”.
Merv Stubbs in his all purpose room remember his days as Kalgoorlie’s Strongman.
There is no doubt he was a strong man. There’s is an early photograph of him pitting his strength against four men two on each side, heaving on a rope with a slipknot around his neck. His father and mother came out from England and Merv was one of eight children, he was the first one born in Australia in Maylands. “My Dad, he was a fettler and he worked at Rawlinna, Cook, Loongana, Nullarbor and Parkeston. My dad went to school with the famous Gracie Jones. A Goldfields resident since 1930, Merv had done a lot of jobs. “Used to take out a truck and cut five tons of wood in a day, only had an axe and a crowbar. The blokes today couldn’t manage that, and they have chainsaws” he said.
“Used to cut Sandalwood as well but there’s no money in that these days. Oh yes, and I was in the War as well. Signed up when I was not even sixteen. Mum thought I was too ‘bloody’ young, even took a free trip in a Liberator bomber and nearly didn’t come back. Served in the 5th Australian Field Ambulance and was in New Guinea when I nearly got done”.
“After the war I used to cut fencing posts. I only got 1 ½ d, less than 5c each, that’s $3.50 a hundred. I’ve had a go at everything, milking cows, fencing, mining. How long have I lived up here now? about 20 years. Nearly burnt down two nights ago though, probably the wood stove. It’s always burning even in summer”.
He was quite happy to show me around his domain, which is littered with three caravans in various states of repair four cars in similar states and odds and ends. The house and property belonged to the Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines and the site was once the old cracker where they used to make tar and hot metal for the roads. There’s was a bird sitting on the television aerial, squawking. That bird’s been coming here for 16 years now. He comes for the grapes but he’ll have to wait till summer.
Dogs: He used to have a Rhodesian Ridgeback, but that got nicked. The other one, that’s his grave there where the collar is. He points to a spot in the yard that’s got an old cooking pot balancing on a stick to mark the spot. Children: He’s got four out of five still living, there’s Peter, the eldest then there’s Greg who heads the Goldfield Aboriginal Medical Service. Merv, who’s dead? Trevor and Murray who’s with the Aboriginal Legal Service. Grandchildren, well I’ve got a heap of those!
Would he move? “Why should I? He said!”
Moya Sharp
I always enjoy these stories, Moya, and today’s was no exception. What a colourful character Merv Stubbs was! Great writing, too. Thank you
Amanda Hearn
Hi Moya,
that was aninteresting article about Merv Stubbs. He was one of my great uncles however I had never met him.
cheers
anne
Hi Moya
Mervyn was my uncle, my Dad’s brother. Mervyn was actually one of 12, 8 girls & 4 boys. When his Mum & Dad arrived in WA in 1924, they arrived with 8 children, then went on to have another 4, including Mervyn.
Thanks for sharing this article of my uncle Mervyn, he really was a character, my Dad shared many stories about him. Mervyn passed away in December 2009.
Kind regards
Jeanette Stubbs
Hi Mervyn was one of 12 children, his brother Richard is my grandfather, and Richard was the last child born in England in 1923 before the family migrated to WA.