Thanks to John Pritchard for the original idea for this story:
The original site of the well at Milly Soak
Milly/Millie Soak is 16 kilometers north of Cue and was a popular picnic spot in Cue’s early history.
Milly Soak – A true oasis in the desert – Photos State Library WA
A bush Track, Milly Soak
A Pretty Spot, Milly Soak, Murchison
At Milly Soak Murchison – Photo Fingall Studios
It also became the source of the town’s water for a number of years following the pollution of the town’s water supply due to poor sanitary practices. During the early 1900s typhoid swept through the goldfields killing large numbers of people especially Aboriginal people who were less resistant to the imported diseases.
Main Street, Cue with Marshalls Hotel in the background, and well in street, c1892
Western Mail – Perth – 14 October 1926, page 41
The geological features of the country surrounding Cue and Day Dawn are remarkable for the frequent occurrence of quartz-bearing gold, iron, azurite, oxide of copper, graphite, malachite, opal, jasper, beryl, and silver. But these old rocks, though so rich in minerals, hold them tight, and though the whole earth floor is sprinkled, over and above with the finest alluvial gold, the place is verily and indeed not heaven. Nor do men look upon it as such—rather the contrary. Even in the earliest ‘eighties, when gold was first discovered in the district, men did not “rush” it, nor did they in the early ‘nineties. There was very little water, you see. ‘Very little water. The only certain thing about the water supply was that wells ran dry, that the rainfall was uncertain, and that droughts were sure to happen.
But there was always Milly Soak.
Long before Jack’s Deep Well, and underground tanks, and dams, and other means of securing supply were found, or thought of, there was Milly Soak. Perhaps Milly Soak is older than the hills, yet it has a homely name and is a homely place, a sweet place, a dear place, an oasis in the desert of gold-bearing reefs and ironstone formations, of saltbush country, and sorrow and sin, and too much sun.
Milly Soak is eight to a dozen miles from Cue and Day Dawn, and it is said that the old diggers used to walk out there in the cool of the evening with their buckets to fetch in the water. Gruelling that, twice twelve miles over the rough and red hot country after a hard day’s work to fetch in the water!
An old identity in the car said “There was a hospital there, too, at Milly Soak, 12 miles from anywhere, when I was a boy in ’91.” “A hospital – Why!” “Water!,” he replied.
Milly Soak Burials Reserve 366582
Kyarra Location on Nalla Station near Cue
PAGE William- died 9 Jan 1895, age 35yrs – Committed suicide at Milly Soak with a muzzle shotgun. He placed the gun in his mouth and fired and completely shattered his head. A man camping near saw the deceased ride up to the soak an hour previously with three pack horses, unload the horses and turn out and light a fire. He cooked supper and made comfortable arrangements for the night’s camp. He then deliberately shot himself. He had only been released from the hospital a few hours prior. There was a history of insanity in the family. At the inquest, a verdict of suicide when temporarily insane was passed.
George HAMERSLEY (HAMMERSLEY) – died 1893, age unknown a prospector who died of fever. He may have been the athletic half-caste Aboriginal man who won most of the events at a sports meeting, referred to in James Edward Tregurtha’s diary. Apparently, three young men were making for Peak Hill, when one of them came down with typhoid fever. They returned to Milly Soak where they all caught it.
George Hammersley Grave – Milly Soak – Photo Pat Saltmarsh
George (Thomas) HARDY – died 1892 aged 23yrs, from New South Wales, a miner who died of typhoid fever, Born c 1870. George Hardy was the first victim of the violent epidemic that swept over the mining camps of Cue. he was a young ex-journalist (better known to the pressmen as the ‘Raven).
HARRIS/HAMMOND – died 1893, age unknown. a miner who died of fever.
For Harris, Hardy Hamersley
who died of fever in ’93
the gold trail ended here
in flowering yellow cassia
by sandalwood and flood gum
miles north of Cue
In the hot and breathless bush
a Crested Bellbird mutes its call;
Raven’s eye the stony ground
where fate and fortune hid.
To the ‘Queen of the Murchison”
three young diggers came
and were by her betrayed.
by Diane Beckingham
Ref: Old Coach Road from Cue and Beyond
An old aboriginal man once said “No camp longa Milly Soak”. When asked why, he said “too many picaninny noises night time”. An old prospector agreed with this when he camped there for only one night, he did not get a wink of sleep. The whispering noises kept whispering to him all night long~ ~ ~
Harris Grave Milly Soak – Photo Pat Saltmarsh
The Graves at Milly Soak – by D Beckingham
From the pen of “Clay-Pan Joe”
Murchison Times and Day Dawn Gazette 23 February 1923, page 3
Milly Soak – An Oasis.
Travelling through any part of the Murchison at the present time, one becomes obsessed with gloomy feelings — the state of gloom being accentuated by the temperature, and sights of stock showing the effects of the dry season. There is very little in the way of scenery (some will say there is none), and the bumping and lurching of the car—-not necessarily a Ford— tends to make the traveller feel fed up. Having covered many miles of track, through almost endless, dull, dust-laden scrub, feelings of relief come when green trees appear ahead. These feelings are followed by others of great pleasure if a stop may be indulged in when the spot is reached There are a good many breaks of green trees dotted here and there through the length and breadth of this vast district. Unfortunately through the vastness of the district the breaks are far apart.
One of the breaks, in an almost endless expanse of mulga, is Milly Soak, situated some 10 or 11 miles from Cue on the stock route, one end of which is at Cue and the other in far off Kimberley. The limestone basin, within the limits of which are green leafed, white boled gum trees, the roots of which run an unfailing supply of water but a few feet beneath the surface, is not of large extent, yet large enough to create within the weary, dusty, and possibly thirsty traveller, feelings of thankfulness and great satisfaction. Almost beneath the branches of one of the largest trees there is a well, from which clear water, cool and refreshing, may be obtained by means of a bucket attached to a “whip-pole.” At this spot, although not from the same well, tired and thirsty prospectors, filled their water bags and tins whilst proceeding to the rush at Cue back in ’92. Here also for a time the hospital tent was pitched when typhoid fever broke out at Tom Cue’s “patch.” Three graves on the limestone ridge, which marks the basins run, remain as evidence of the fact. Milly Soak is part of the peoples’ heritage—being reserved for purposes of recreation chiefly. It is also a water reserve and halting place for travelling stock. Some time ago a number of the trees were cut down for mining firewood. From the stumps left standing several feet above the ground, bright green – leafed suckers, tinted with brown, have made rapid growth. Soon a thicket will occupy that part of the area devasted by the axe, and its second state will be as good, if not better, than its first. Distance from the towns of Cue and Day Dawn prevents the pleasant spot from becoming more frequently visited.
Moya Sharp
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