The Glittering Fields: A powerful saga from the Australian gold mines by Patricia Shaw

Author:Patricia Shaw [Shaw, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780755389513
Publisher: Headline
Published: 2012-03-14T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

His name was Walter Addison. A qualified geologist and minerologist with the Department of Agriculture and Mines. He was a thin, bladey sort of fellow, who gave the impression that a gust of wind would blow him over, but Walter, in his quiet, self-deprecating way, had trodden the backblocks of West Australia, from the Kimberleys in the far north to the great forests of the south, at the behest of his employers, without a word of complaint. He had followed prospectors and miners into the fierce tropics to give his unemotional opinions on the value of mineral discoveries, and trekked hundreds of miles back to civilization to lodge his reports without fear or favour. He had seen gold strikes illuminate the land like lightning and just as soon die out, but he was unimpressed, for Walter was, at heart, a clerk. Folks might regard him as an expert, a whiz, and he supposed he was, having spent years studying his subjects and maintaining that interest, but the field work was, to him, simply an extension of his office duties no matter how hazardous. He had his own office in the Government Buildings in St Georges Terrace, and of that he was proud, therein lay status, real respect, despite shelves piled with dusty rocks and specimens and the constant odour of cheap cigars.

Walter had two homes. One was his office, the other the brick house in Hay Street that he and his wife had managed to buy with savings accumulated over twenty years. They were a frugal pair, content with their lot, and well liked in the neighbourhood, for Walter was a kindly man, devoid of artfulness, and Mrs Addison mirrored his quiet goodness.

When the gold rush began at Coolgardie, Walter’s superiors dispatched him to the warden’s office as government assayer, expecting this to be another short-term stint away from Perth for their valued employee. Contrary to expectations, the rush did not fizzle out; more and more gold was escorted back to the coast and more and more prospectors journeyed west.

Other assayers were sent out to assist Walter in competition with private assayers who’d set up shop, because it was essential to keep pace and assure the gold register was accurate. Government taxes on every ounce of gold discovered had begun with a trickle, and now they were pouring into the Treasury coffers, where they were received with absolute glee.

The rush widened to Kalgoorlie, to the Golden Mile of treasure, and money flooded in, boosting the flagging economy and creating more wealth than the battling treasury officials could ever have imagined they would control.

Doggedly, the Secretary of Mines kept adding staff to his offices at the front line, and it was finally decided to appoint Walter Addison as Chief Assayer, based permanently in Kalgoorlie.

This was a disruption Mr and Mrs Addison did not welcome, but dutiful as always, they closed their house in Hay Street and took up residence in a block of small flats that was hastily erected to accommodate government officials.

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