The Eastern Goldfields Miners Memorial currently has the names engraved of 1492 people who have lost their lives due to a workplace accident on a mine. Each and every name has a story to tell. This story is just one of many.
Miners Memorial – Kalgoorlie
On Anzac Day 1932 an accident occurred at the Old Oroya GM (near Sandstone). A prospector named Sam Ure reckoned there was good gold left in the old mine and with the assistance of a young lad to lower him down he set to work. Much of the gold that he sought was left in pillars that supported the treacherous ‘sandstone’ ground. He managed to find a few traces of gold and was working hard to find a splash or a reef.
After a brief lunch on the surface, he was once again lowered into the maze of shafts and drives where he worked while his offsider waited patiently above for the signal to raise him to the surface. By evening there was no sign of him and his mate went into town and raised the alarm. The townspeople were quick to react despite their Anzac Day celebrations and a team of rescuers assembled, preparing to
risk their lives for a man they hardly knew.
Ernestine Hill was in Sandstone in July 1953 and was lucky to hear the story from Jack Tetlow who along with Jimmy Boase and Billy Pearse played major roles in the rescue attempt. Ernestine was to later write the following account in 1953 for the Walkabout Magazine:
“Sam Ure was just a little no account far out man who spent most of his life on the fields, looking for gold. he had not been long in Sandstone and until he was dead, the town scarcely knew his name. They remembered little about him except that he was thin and had a big beard when beards were long forgotten. This was because he had once tried to cut his throat. He may have been after a find or a spree, it may have been out on a perish track, no one knew! so he had
grown the beard to hide the scar.”
Jack Tetlow was an experienced miner who knew the dangers of mining having been hurt in the ‘Six Mine’ many years before. When he arrived at Black Range in 1901 he had gone prospecting and become lost in the bush and was almost dead when trackers found him. The three rescuers went down the mine until they came to a fall of earth and could hear Sam Ure calling. They worked hard to free the buried miner, talking to him to keep his spirits up.
They were within a few feet of him and Sam could see the flickering light of their candles when the ground gave way and he became hopelessly pinned. The ground continued to fall around the rescuers, threatening to trap them as well. Without regard for himself, Sam yelled, “I’m done! Put in a stick of dynamite and blow me up and go.”
Tetlow told Hill that:-
“We did all that we could, but she’d set in for a terrible drift. For years the winds had been shifting the heavy sands on top and it’s just a cracked honeycomb below. We nearly buried ourselves and with every slide, we could hardly crawl out. Sam gave one more shout. It was “Get out and get out quick! For God’s, sake go”.
That was the last thing that Sam Ure was heard to say and the men reluctantly abandoned their rescue attempt. A Mining Inspector was called and a properly equipped team tried for a week to get Sam out but it was all in vain. He is still there today, a constant reminder of the danger of old workings.
Jack Tetlow, Billy Pearce, and Jimmy Boase all received a Royal Humane Society medals for their acts of courage. Just north of the huge pile of shifting sands that marks the Oroya GM is a small plaque with the words, “In Memory of Samuel Ure, Died 25th April 1932.” The site is surrounded by a fence made of old mining rails and cable.
Plaque to remember Samuel URE
The above is from a book called:- Barb of the Spear, The History of the Black Range District on the East Murchison Goldfields of Western Australia ISBN 073161152 (Out of Print)
Further Reading:- ‘While Death Creeps On” A Tale of a Mine by I L Idriess from the book ‘Flynn of the Inland’.
Note: Samuel Ure’s remains were recovered in 1995 when the mine became an open cut and were buried in the Sandstone cemetery. His death was not registered until 2000.
Moya Sharp
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