The Mining Expert –

In the first days of the Coolgardie field, any man game enough to sign himself M.E. (Mining Expert) could put his story over.  So-called ‘Mining Experts’ were characteristic of the Coolgardie field especially from 1893 to 1896. Most were self-styled ‘Captains of Industry’ and had most of the letters of the alphabet after their names.

Some even sported an eye-glass and lived well by writing glowing reports for Mining Prospectuses for which they received anything from ₤25 to several hundred, which they impudently signed ‘Mining Engineer’ after their names.

One so-called ‘Expert’, after indulging in a lengthy and verbose description of a solitary shaft on one property, described it as ‘having a depth of 30ft, shallow trenches, costeens, windlass, and small quartz dumps’.

The concluding paragraph of this 200 guinea report announced: ‘There is a magnificent line of debase hills, seven miles north-east of the property.’ (When last heard of, this particular ‘Mining Expert’ was shunting trucks at an outback railway siding.) Another finished up knapping stones for the Menzies Railway contractors while another was reported to be dispensing ladies’ underwear in a northern town.

One Goldfields rhymster wrote of the passing of the ‘Mining Experts and Engineers’ in these words:

We mourn the ‘Mining Engineer’
The ‘Mining Expert’ too,
But most we mourn the halo
That crowned the lying crew.

Harpoons instead of halos
Will greet them down below,
When they’re shifting coals in Hades
Where all fake ‘experts’ go.

Lord, give them dust and ashes
Let them have it by the ton,
And hunt them round the sulphur springs
For the evil they have done.

One newspaper commented:

‘Fathers of sons, if you have a son who hath a genius for lying and loafing, reprove him not, for he has a glorious future ahead of him as a mining expert.’

When Dr Davey was offered a handsome fee to inquire into the ‘wherefore of a born-dead gold mine near Widgiemooltha into which an imitation of life had been injected’ he salved his conscience with the reflection that if he did not know much about an undeveloped mining proposition his lack of knowledge was no greater than that of some of the alleged experts. He cabled acceptance of the commission and sent in a report in due time.

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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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