Mother Dead Finish:

Amongst the remarkable people who joined in the Kimberley rush was Mrs. O’Neil, otherwise known as “Mother dead-finish.” who acquired her name on account of the ‘grog’ she sold, which is said to have hastened many a miner to his early grave (and not as some think after the name of the town ‘Dead Finish’). She landed at Wyndham from the barque The Onyx in June 1886, from Normantown (Qld). She brought her own horses and dray, and undaunted by the rumours of bad natives, bad roads, unfordable rivers, and other obstacles, which had deterred many men from travelling alone, she set out with her horses and dray and a cargo of rum.

She camped on the road at the Dunham River (between the Durack Range and the O’Donnell Range) and established an eating house, with a little drop of rum to help the weary prospectors on. She kept a small sheep and goat farm to supply the ‘diggers’ with their meat, and needless to say amassed a considerable amount of money during the rush. She was attacked by the natives at the Dunham and gave a very good account of herself, even though they speared one of her packhorses and got away with some flour and sugar. She did remarkably well at the Dunham, and the police making it a bit hot for her sly-groggery, she shifted on to the Fletcher, where she disposed of her dray and continued on by packhorse to Hall’s Creek, starting a store and eating house at the Brockman, where a few reefs and some good alluvial gold had been found.

Mrs. O’Neil died in 1903 at the Rockhole 14 miles from Hall’s Creek on the Derby road. She carried in sovereigns on her person all her wealth, and was one morning found dead — murdered without a doubt, and bereft of the gold she had hoarded with such care. Rumour has it that before she died she threw her 200 sovereigns into the pool at the rock-hole. I can see her now clad in big Cossack boots, no stockings, short skirt, and a man’s wide-brimmed hat, with a short clay pipe in her mouth, a tomahawk in her hand to cut bushes for the young kids in her flock of goats, and a revolver – or as she termed lt, a dissolver in her belt. Despite all her peculiarities, she was a splendid cook and a competent midwife. Two or three of the children born in Hall’s Creek have to thank her for their safe entrance into this world, as there was no doctor available in those days.

A very interesting interview on ABC Radio: https://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2013/01/25/3676842.htm