In 1988, I was contacted by a lady called Elsie Heitmann. She was trying to find out what happened to one of her relatives who went missing in Western Australia from South Australia. All she had to go on was the following photo, which was supposedly taken in Coolgardie by photographer Roy Millar. The man in the centre seated in the tent doorway is Christian Daniel Heitmann.
I posted the story and was recently contacted by another relative, Robyn Heitmann, who found a copy of the group photo in her father’s belongings. C. D. Heitmann was his great-uncle. Robyn does not know who Elsie is, unfortunately. She has also supplied me with a slightly better quality photograph of the same scene (below) and also the other two images, which she has allowed me to share with you.
Taken in front of the Red Bluff in Coolgardie – Seated in tent doorway is Christian Daniel Heitmann. (others unknown)
Red Bluff Coolgardie- 1901 – Image SLWA
Christian Daniel Heitmann aged 24yrs – Photo Robyn Heitmann
Christian Daniel HEITMANN — (sometimes known as Donald Christian Heitmann) born on the 27th April 1869 at Sheaoak Log, South Australia. He was the son of Jürgen Heinrich HEITMANN and Margaretha Dorothea KOEHNE. His occupation was given as ‘Tailor’ when he married Bertha Maria nee ENGEL in Norwood, Adelaide, South Australia on the 19th May 1900. The couple had two children: Henry Reginald ‘Reg’ Heitmann was born 6 Sep 1900, Norwood SA and Elvene ‘Venie’ Dorothea Heitmann was born 6 Feb 1902, Norwood SA.
When Christian adventured to Western Australia, unfortunately he accidentally took with him his mother-in-law’s cash box, hence the police interest in the notices below and possibly the alteration to his name.
In the Police Gazette: 5 Apr 1905 – Daniel Christian Heitmann aged 35yrs, height 5ft 7in, brown hair and moustache, a Miner, Cook, and a native of South Australia. Last heard of in Perth on 16 Dec 1902. Inquiry by his wife who resides in Sydenham Rd, Norwood SA. Information to the Criminal Investigation Branch Perth B2/7226.
Christian arrived in Fremantle on the vessel the ‘Marloo’ on the 5th March 1900. His wife is recorded as arriving on the vessel ‘Kalgoorlie’ at Fremantle on 11 Jan 1903. ‘Mrs. E Heitman and two children, 1 male and 1 female’. Perhaps she had come to find him herself. She was unsuccessful and returned to South Australia, where she died in her hometown of Norwood in 1915.
The Heitmann Home 1886 – 122 Kent Tce, (now Fullarton Rd), Norwood, South Australia – Photo Robyn Heitmann
Heitmann was last heard of in Kalgoorlie in the 1930s when he would have been in his 60s. It was said he went prospecting with a mate. Sometime later two skeletons were found, and one of them had a watch (or magnifying glass) with the initials C.D.H. The following is the article on the finding of the two skeletons:
Daily News 4 December 1930, page 1
OUTBACK TRAGEDY
TWO SKELETONS FOUND
What is believed to be a tragedy, involving the deaths of two prospectors, was revealed in a discovery made by Hughie King near Cue on November 26. According to a report received from that centre late yesterday, Hughie King, who is employed on Austin Downs Station, near Day Dawn, was out fox hunting, and when on the Wandarrie run, about 10 miles east of the Mainland, came upon two skeletons, which, upon a subsequent examination by Dr Cashmore, were stated to be the remains of two big-bodied men. When found, one skeleton had a magnifying glass, a penny dated 1877, a threepenny piece dated 1890, and the remains of a water bag alongside it, while alongside the second skeleton was a pipe, a Waterbury watch, and a magnifying glass with initials C.D.H. scratched on the cover. It is surmised that the men died from thirst while out prospecting.
In a newspaper article in March 1900, Christian appeared as a witness in the Supreme Court in Perth concerning a civil case, Monte Christo GM v Commissioner of Railways. In this article, he is described as an Alluvial Miner of Norwood, South Australia, formerly of Kalgoorlie. It said he was working with his brother at the time, which could be either Carl, Johann, or Henry Heitmann.
So even with advantages such as the internet, TROVE, and Ancestry.com in the intervening 33 years since first receiving this inquiry, I have still not been able to add very much to Daniel’s story. I would think it quite possible he was one of the remains found of the two men near Cue, but it looks like we may never know. I doubt that Bertha ever saw her wayward husband again after he left for Western Australia with her mother’s money.
Moya Sharp
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