Oct 20

Paynes Find – the truth

by in People we've met, Places we've been, Things we've seen

Cue wasn’t far. Just 80 k from Mt Magnet but in the wrong direction ie north, up the Great Northern Highway, back towards Newman and Meekatharra. Cue was on the radar cos Maggie said it should be and it was one of her most favourite places. And we weren’t far away. And it was on the wildflower trail. On the latter count it really didn’t work but it was certainly interesting. Plus it led us to Day Dawn, the town from whence the courthouse at Yalgoo came and Big Bell. Well Cue is good. An interesting old, reasonably well maintained piece of our history originated by gold fever back in the late 1800’s….

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This gaol around which the local caravan park is established in fact was used as the amenties block some time after its planned use was discontinued. Cue is full of historic buildings, mostly renovated and still in use. However, the Masonic Hall, now in private hands is not one ….

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described as Australia’s  oldest, largest corrugated iron structure still in use. Well not currently in use sadly. But many other buildings are…..

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and then out of town is Big Bell. Unfortunately not much left there now but if the pub can be an indicator of a towns stature, Big Bell had to be pretty impressive back in the early 1900’s….

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Not much left of the old town otherwise but the streets are still laid out and there are a few info panels around describing the occupancies. Also gold fever induced.

There is even less of Day Dawn left – really just the gold assay office….

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and these “cabins” now relocated to the Cue caravan park….

DSC08794 plus of course the courthouse now at Yalgoo. Nevertheless it was interesting to explore the old town site to find the footings and rubble of old buildings and get an overview of what was.

Well gold continues to draw us on. Back down the Great Northern Highway, back through Mt Magnet where still nothing much appeared on the streets on down to ….. PAYNES FIND. Well once upon a time a Mr Payne lodged a gold claim although he did cheat by beating his partner to it. Other claims followed and the government put in a gold stamper to process the ore. Some 70 or so years ago the Howard family bought out the Payne claim and continued fairly successfully until relatively recently. Also at some point the Howards bought the gold stamper and operated it until just 4 years ago. The current family member Elaine Howard took over operations from her father some time ago and she continued to operate the stamper till just recently. She also runs guided tours and does a bit of prospecting on the side – well travelled and now 72 years old….

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And then it was back to the wildflower trail. Continuing on the Great Northern towards Perth we pull up at Wubin and turn north again now towards Perenjori

 

One Response to “Paynes Find – the truth”

  1. From g@z:

    OMG Green grass! What a find!

    Regards,
    g@z.

    Posted on 22 October 2015 at 7:28 pm #

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