Richard Fagan was born in Kelso, Bathurst NSW in 1866. he was the son of Matthew FAGAN and Mary Anne ROBINSON, he had seven brothers and five sisters. Following the lure of gold and riches he travelled by ship with many others, arriving in Albany Western Australia on the 4th September 1890, he then proceeded on foot to Southern Cross.
Richard ‘Dick’ Fagan – 1929
There was a story that Dick often told while he was the licensee of the Commercial hotel in the early days:
One day he was seated in his office at the hotel, when a surveyor came in and told him that he had received instructions to survey a road from Hannans (Kalgoorlie),to the Great Boulder mine. This would be the main road out from town.
By starting it from Fagan’s Commercial Hotel intersection where Hannan street and Cassidy streets met, it would run in a straight line to the mine and make the corner on which Fagan’s hotel stood the main intersection of the town and Fagan’s the main hotel! Then again, the surveyor said he could just as easily start the road at the next corner up (Maritana-street). But he would start it at Fagan’s corner if he gave him £100.
Fagan wouldn’t be bribed and tersely sent the surveyor away. He is later reported to have said: ”
That’s the shortest and most expensive answer I ever gave in my life.”
The surveyor went straight to Lee and Major’s hotel and made them the same offer. P. J. Lee paid him 100 sovereigns on the spot. He is said to have remarked later:
“It was the briefest and most profitable interview I have ever had.”
The Boulder-road was started from Maritana-street instead of the natural starting point of Cassidy street. To this day the Hannan Maritana corner is the towns main intersection.
He married Jinnet CULLEN in 1898 in Perth WA, the couple had no children. Richard died on the 27th Jun 1940 in Perth WA aged 74yrs. Richard did not only work in the hotel business but also involved himself in prospecting and had many mining interests. He also opened a brewery in Broad Arrow.
The Commercial Hotel (on left), Hill Street Broad Arrow – First Hotel in the town.
The town of Broad Arrow did not fulfil its earlier promise and Mr and Mrs Fagan again returned to Kalgoorlie where he took up the licensee of the Commercial Hotel again.
Kalgoorlie Miner 20 April 1907, page 5
The Goldfields was to eventually loose its allure for the Fagans, and they moved to Merredin where they took up a farming life. Dick Fagan was to enlist in the Great War from Merredin at the age of old age 54 years.
Richard Fagan was born in Kelso, Bathurst NSW in 1866. he was the son of Matthew FAGAN and Mary Anne ROBINSON, he had seven brothers and five sisters. Arriving in Albany Western Australia on the 4th September 1890, he proceeded to Southern Cross. He married Jinnet CULLEN in 1898 in Perth WA, the couple had no children. Richard died on the 27th Jun 1940 in Perth WA aged 74yrs and is buried in the Karrakatta Cemetery in Perth with his wife Jinnett.
Mrs Jinnet ‘Janet’ FAGAN nee Cullen
Mrs Jinnet Fagan nee Cullen, or ‘Mrs Dick’ as she was usually known, was a pioneer of the early days in her own right. Throughout the long time she spent in Southern Cross and Coolgardie she had been thought of not as a business woman, but as one to whom the whole of the people could look in sickness and common distress, her help in all ways being ever ready for the occasion. There was not a case of urgent need to which she did not readily respond, her aid being not one creed, caste, or denomination being favored more than another. A lot of her time being spent in visiting hospitals, etc., to cheer and help those requiring it. She and Mr. Dick Fagan were the pioneer publicans (along with Bill Faahan) of both Coolgardie and Hannans, her personality and kindliness being well known wherever the boys of the old brigade gathered. She died in December 1933 and is buried in the Karrakatta Cemetery.
Moya Sharp
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