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Kalgoorlie Riots 1934—an eyewitness account
My uncle was in Kalgoorlie with Gavin Casey, a writer and journalist who was covering the Kalgoorlie events for the Mirror newspaper. Casey has a chapter about them in his book, The Mile that Midas Touched. Uncle Norm - Norman Robertson - was in Kal looking for work at the time. He gives his version of the events in these excerpts from a letter to his mother and sisters. I've removed only personal details which have no relevance to the history.
31st Jan 1934
9 Semaphore Chs.
Hannan St
Kalgoorlie
Dear Mum & Girls
...
I surpose you have read in the paper all about the wild time up here. They talk about China, it is not a patch on this the miners have gone absurlutelly mad. I did not see any of the first night's stunt when they burnt down the Home from Home & the wine saloon & smashed up all the Dago places in Kalgoorlie. I was home reading a book, I could have kicked myself when I read it in the paper next morning. The town looked as though [2] a Willie Willie had gone through it. There were beer barells beds paino's clash regesters till's chairs & tables fish & every thing you can think of laying all over the streets. When I got down to the Home From Home there were about twenty chaps trying to open the safe this was about 9.30 in the morning they were still there @ 3.30 & had not got it open so they just put it on a truck & took it out the bush some where to blow it open. The police were there watching all this but did not try to stop anyone.
Last night I saw everything it was hair raising I can tell you. The miners held a meeting out @ Boulder but halfway through the meeting the Dagos started leting of dynamite & firing guns @ some chaps over on Ding flat, "that is where all the Dago camps are, hundreds of them", of course all the crowd rushed up there to see what was doing but they soon rushed back again there were to many bullets flying around & three chaps had been shot there.
They came back into Boulder & broke into Bairds to get rifles & bullets & there were no guns there so they went into Kalgoorlie & got about eight or nine guns of all diferent sizes & away they went to clean the Dings out & bring back a couple of wounded chaps that were laying [3] out on the flat They had a real ding dong battle with rifles revolvers dynamite knives & pickets, they eventually chased the Dings out after they had shot one dead & two more miners were wounded & one cut about with a knife, I heard that the chap with the knife wound died this morning in fact I heard that three were dead. I know the Dago was dead we saw him ourselves shot between the eyes. Gav [Gavin Casey] was reporting for the Mirror & wanted to see everything so we were as close to thing's as we could get with out being in them. Snowy Sheriden was standing talking to a chap @ the Pub when all at once the chap fell over shot through the neck they were about a quater of a mile from the fight so you can gues how the lead was flying around. They burnt most of the Dings houses & what they did not burn they smashed to pieces & took any thing they wanted. There must have been @ least a square mile of houses & camps on fire @ once it was some sight I tell you I would not have missed it for anything, although I had the breez up of the bulets @ times.
[4]
Mrs Woulf Is going back to Perth tonight she said the town is to rough for her @ present.
I wish I could write well & make this letter more interesting but I think you will be able to get a fair idea how thing are up here by what I have told you & what you can read in the paper.
One little bit I must tell you about. It is most important. After we left Boulder last night, or @ least this morning for it was 1.30, they were still burning places when we left but could not find any Dings to shoot at so Bill Dunne, Gav & the chap I had [?] with today & I came back to Kalgoorlie.
We were just in time to see a mob smashing up a Dago boarding house, they had just got in side when seven Police arived & kicked them out, the crowd all retired to the other side of the street about 40 of them. Gav, Bill & I were sitting on the kerb watching to see what would happen next, when the Police drew there batons & charged the crowd. Bill & I took of like a couple of race horses & so did the rest of the mob but Gav got & was walking up the foot parth when a big copper about six ft six ran up behind him & hit him fair on the top of the [5] head with his baton & knocked him head over heals into the gutter, when he got up & [I] bet he broke even time round the corner, of coarse Bill & I thought it was a good joke when we saw he was not hurt much but Gav recons it was not up to much & next time he wont act the reporter but be one of the mob & the one in front when the running starts.
Apparently the mix up is not over yet for there are fifty Police from Perth on today's train. Anyway I sure walked into civil war when I walked in here. The mines are all shut down the men refuse to go back to work while there is a Dago working on the belt so there should be plenty of work when it is all over, so the quicker it is over the better it will suit me. All the Pubs are closed in the town today the miners dont like that & might decide to open them @ any minute. Well that is all I can put into words about the war this time.
...
Well I think that is all I can write now. The train is not in yet so I wil have to post this befor I see if there is a letter for me on it.
I remain
Your loving Son & Brother
Norm
XXXX ...
P.S. I hope you will be able to make sence out of all this.
References and Links
Casey, Gavin & Ted Mayman, The Mile that Midas Touched, Rigby, Adelaide: 187-197.
Volet, Jean-Marie 1986, 'Some of the reasons which led to a night of terror in Kalgoorlie and Boulder on Monday 29 January 1934', Early Days, vol. 9, part 4: 108-119.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 17 September, 2020 and hosted at freotopia.org/events/kal1934.html (it was last updated on 21 April, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.