The Mysterious Tom Cue

Tom Cue is mostly known for his involvement in the finding of gold near Cue, the Western Australian town that bears his name. And, while most people assume it was Tom who made the discovery, it was actually his partners, Michael John Fitzgerald and Edward Heffernan, who found the incredibly rich field that is now Cue. Tom was away on other business at the time the gold was found. Upon his return, he was told of the find by the wildly excited pair but there was a problem. The only horse that was in good enough shape to make the trip to Nannine to register their claim was Tom’s horse, despite the fact it had just finished a hard ride. So, Tom volunteered to make the journey but strangely never put his name on the claim alongside Heffernan and Fitzgerald. Tom Cue was thought to have been born in County Cork, Ireland, somewhere between 1849 and 1855 but as no birth certificate has ever been found, it’s anyone’s guess. Counting back from the date of his death in Canada on 4th September 1920, at the recorded age of 65, he would have been born in 1855 but the age on the death certificate was either a guess on the part of the medical examiner or a guess by his wife Eugene. The general consensus is he was born in 1850 and was 70 years old at the time of his death.

Tom arrived in Victoria at a very young age and travelled with his family to Casterton in south-west Victoria where his father, Thomas George Cue, set up a general store. Young Tom was given a very good education and excelled at sports. He left school to work in his father’s store but at the age of 16 decided he wanted to see the world and headed off to the Victorian goldfields. We know he worked for a short time in a sawmill near Castlemaine but after that nothing is known about him until the early 1890s, when he showed up in WA exhibiting all the signs of having done very well for himself.

No one knows where Tom made his money, but we can speculate. When Tom arrived in the Victorian goldfields there were still good finds of gold being made, and it is possible Tom did well on the diggings. It is also rumoured he had some involvement with the early finds of opal but there is no documentation to substantiate this. Tom often spoke with fondness of the hills and cool mountains of Gippsland but all we know is that he acquired a considerable amount of capital during those unaccounted-for years.

Arriving in WA it was noted that Tom always stayed at the best hotels in town. Rather than ride a horse with a packhorse in a train, Tom travelled everywhere in a horse and trap, probably as it allowed him to carry a comprehensive range of prospecting and mining gear as well as water and other luggage. Teaming up with Michael John Fitzgerald and Edward Hefferman, the three men set out for what is now the Cue district where they made their now-famous find. Tom stayed in and around Cue for a few years, becoming involved in other mining ventures and even travelling to Perth where he mixed with politicians and other shakers and movers of the era.

During this time the train tracks arrived in Cue and, perpetuating the myth that it was Tom who found the gold, the first locomotive into Cue was named the ‘Tom Cue’. During this time Tom returned home to Casterton where his father was in financial difficulties, but as all the family papers have been lost, the exact purpose of Tom’s visit isn’t known though we do know his father went bankrupt. Tom’s biggest find was Cue’s Patch 10km north of Lawlers. He had found an immensely rich alluvial patch and reef that others had missed at what was to become Agnew. Naming the mine ‘The Woronga’, Tom only stayed for 18 months before selling the mine for a very large sum. The mine must have been a good one as the Ogilvie line of reef was still being worked up until a few years ago. And then once again, Tom simply dropped off the face of the Earth. There were stories that he travelled to the Cloncurry and Chillagoe districts and in the latter was involved in the establishment of the copper mining industry, but again this is only speculation. It is also rumoured that he was at Broken Hill at one time. The next chapter in Tom Cue’s life was a prospecting trip up the Amazon River which he helped finance and organise. And while we know this expedition took place and that Cue was heavily involved, nothing is known about what the expedition uncovered. After the Amazon trip, Tom returned to Victoria and met Eugene Spencer Tyson, nee Wills.

Tom and Eugene travelled to Vancouver, Canada, where they were married and had a daughter they named Eva. Eva never married and died in 1972. The family then travelled to Alaska as by now Tom was an avid mining speculator who journeyed far and wide in search of investment opportunities. At one stage he was known to be in Circle City (just outside the Arctic Circle) but whether for investment purposes or to “take the waters” at the hot springs there is unknown. When he took his family to Dawson City he would have taken the famed White Horse Pass rail line from Skagway to Lake Bennet, then boarded a stern-wheeler below Miles Canyon for the last leg down the fabled Yukon River to Dawson. But, like much of Tom’s life, why he went to Dawson City and what he did there is a mystery. In 1900 Tom and his family were reported as living in Vancouver before returning to Australia in 1902 on the SS Africa, via Cape Town, South Africa. Not long after, Tom returned to Cape Town by himself, giving his age as 51.

In 1903 he was living in Toorak, Melbourne, and gave his occupation as a mining engineer and his age as 55. It’s little wonder there is so much speculation as to the exact date of his birth when Tom himself seemed to have no idea of how old he was.

From shipping company records we know that Tom and his family travelled extensively, often taking trips to the United States, Canada, England and back to Australia. What he and his family did when they arrived at those destinations we will never know. Much of this travel might have involved mining and investment but we don’t know for sure. Tom must have invested wisely in many mining companies to have accumulated the kind of wealth that allowed him to travel so extensively. Even in the early days of the great Western Australian gold rushes, there is little evidence that Tom did much actual mining himself. He certainly did some prospecting as evidenced by his big find at what is now Agnew, but there is no reference to him actually getting his hands dirty. Tom, it seems, was willing to invest in others and to share their success when it came.

Some people might think less of a man who lets others get down and dirty and then claims a share of their hard work, but in the mining game, and especially prospecting, there would have been far fewer miners and prospectors who could have afforded to get out there and make a go of it if it wasn’t for men like Tom Cue. And, any speculator or investor takes a huge risk when grubstaking a prospector or miner. Many was the investor who never saw a penny in return after their original investment disappeared into the hungry earth.

To further deepen the mystery surrounding Tom Cue, it would appear there has never been a gold lease or a claim with the name Tom Cue, Thomas George Cue, or simply T. Cue recorded anywhere in Australia. Not even the Woroonga mine which he sold.

Postscript: Since this story was published a reader has sent me the following wonderful photograph which includes the only photo that I have ever seen of Tom Cue and others. It is indeed a special image. Thank you to Paul Cribb.

Bayley’s Reward Mine 1893 L to R – Begleholem – Everard Browne – Sylvester Browne in the check shirt (Sylvester was the younger brother of T A Browne) – Harold Cockshott-  Gordon Lyon and Tom Cue. Photo Paul Cribb.