Week 29 A follow up from Hamburg

This Week in Wijnjewoude

Having been to Hamburg only the week before (to visit the grave of an unknown uncle), it was a pleasant coincidence that Cheryl was cleaning out her garage (as one does in Carona Lockdowns) and found an old letter from said uncle.

Written from Big Bell Gold Mines in Western Australia in 1940. It is now a ghost town, with the remains of the old hotel being still visible here...

Big Bell ghost town hotel   (link)

His (their) father had been to the Ballarat School of Mines - so there may be some link to him working at the gold mine (pure supposition on my part).

Gold was discovered in the area in 1904 by Harry Paton and a mine was quickly established. Ownership of the mine has changed a number of times through the years. Premier Gold Mining Company announced plans to develop the Big Bell Mine in 1935.

A township was established in 1936 close to the mine to provide accommodation for the mine workers. 36 blocks were sold in April 1936 and another 80 were sold in June. A population of about 850 soon inhabited the townsite and services included a number of shops, a post office and a hospital.

One of the proposed names for the town was "Townsend", with the main street to be known as "Coodardy Street".

The Big Bell Hotel was constructed and opened in 1937. It was a classic art deco style of the period and is now a ruin. The large two storey building of brick construction has brick colonnading to the north and east facades and a curved corner and once had a tiled roof.

Mining ceased in 2003 and the plant was dismantled and transported to the Westonia minesite in 2007.

It is a former railway branch terminus in Western Australia's Murchison Region. The first train arrived in Big Bell on 6 January 1937, however the line was not officially opened until 12 August that year. Services ceased from September 1944, but were revived the following year when the war in Europe was winding down and the gold mine reopened. The line finally closed on 31 December 1955. Not much of the buildings remain, but the roads stay visible in their original position as dirt tracks. It is very visible from an aerial view.

The Big Bell hotel reputedly had the longest bar in Australia

Searching further revealed that the mine is starting up again...

Gold miner Westgold Resources (ASX: WGX) has restarted operations at the Big Bell underground mine in Western Australia and expects it to become the “largest single mine in the Murchison region”.

The company today announced underground sub-level cave mining has recommenced at the site, which is located within Westgold’s Cue Gold Operations and has been idle and flooded since 2003.

Westgold said the first mass cave blast was initiated on Monday and “paves the way for the planned ramp up in mine output that targets steady-state production rates by the end of CY 2020”.

Westgold executive chairman Peter Cook said Big Bell used to be one of the largest single mine gold producers in the Australian gold sector.

“Big Bell is key to Westgold’s plans as it represents the last critical piece in our Murchison strategy.”

“Our dominant land position, three operating process plants, over 9-million-ounce resource base and our unique position as owner operator provides the strategic platform to underwrite more than 300,000 ounces of production per annum in the longer term,” Mr Cook said.

The letter.

1940

Big Bell Gold Mines

Big Bell, W.A.

Thursday

Dear Del,

               As Colin's brother I have taken the liberty of addressing you by your Christian name and of writing to you. I received a letter from Colin today which has upset my equilibrium. In it he has described you as posessing all of God's graces and I hope that you may pardon the things I feel I must say in this letter.

    Colin says he loves you and presumably you love him also, that in itself is fine and I'm sure that you could be happy, but he also wishes to become engaged before he leaves. Here lies the nucleus of this letter. You are both young, youth is no crime I know but the impressions of youth, although they seem enduring at the time, sometimes wane and are forgotten. You and Colin are at an impressionable age, Colin particularly. You see, Del, until he joined the army,he had never been away from home influences and all his present life is new to him and in the excitement of things he may make a mistake. I do not say that he has, that would be presuming to be a Deity.

    As far as your personal self is concerned I know Colin well enough to know that you are all he has said - good - kind - charming and generally a lovely girl  xxxx (hard to read, but could be "that does not concern me in the least").

    Life at present is to you both a lovely adventure and it depends on your next step whether it continues to be so or whether it becomes filled with heartache and regrets. For you see Del love is a funny thing, it has so many forms. First you can be in love with love, just the thought of being loved works on our sensibilities. Then you can be infatuated, it doesn't last, but it often lasts long enough to cause harm. There are numerous others Del, but last of all is the Real Thing. If that is what you and Colin have then you will never regret it, but please Del, be sure.

    You must think from this letter that I am sanctimonius and old. I am neither. As Colin will probably inform you I am easily the wildest member of the Copeland family in Australia and I am only 7 or perhaps eight years older than you, but in those years I have been around on my own all over the country. I've seen all the good things of life and most of the bad side. I only wand both you and Colin to have all the good things and unless you are sure, you won't have them, my dear.

    And now after all this which you will both totally disregard, I say that if you are really in love then go ahead and become engaged and you have all my best wishes with you and may God bring him safely home to us both.

                                                        Believe me, I am sincerely

                                                        Yours. Gerald W. Copeland

on the side of the letter (a sidenote rather than a footnote?)

May Colin's brother have a snapshot of the young lady who has run off with this young man's heart?

The last line gets me a bit - he was the one who didn't make it safely home.

I wonder if this is that photo? It was included with the letter but Mum looks much older than 18 or 19...

As I think about it, the photo referred to would have ended up in Western Australia - so this one is probably not it.

Included with the letter was this photo of Gerald Ware Copeland

I thought that photo might have made it easier to recognise him in the group photo - but I am none the wiser! So I'll stick with my first choice of bottom row, centre - most resemblance to Colin and now Paul.

Another long weekend on the boat...

We were the smallest boat in the harbour...

The boat on the right is 21 metres - from Cuxhaven.

First night, I didn't have to cook...in fact, the penningmeester decided that I didn't have to cook at all! (we walked so far on the saturday, that we were very late for lunch and so we just had an entree and a beer at the restaurant).

We had an interesting chat with the chef...we commented on how good the rhubard was and that it is served as a side to the main meal. I asked about serving it as a dessert - "aha - we Dutchies are strange eh? - yes we know - the Germans do it as a dessert as well". So, at least we know it is just a Dutch thing...

Janny taught Boeke how to swim - or he discovered that he can!

ah, all that walking and swimming...

A Lemster Aak

This one is called simply  "Roos" (Rose)... and has a bouqet of roses on the rudder...

Our walk around the lake included a ride across and back on the punt - the operator estimated that he had about 400 passengers at €1,00 per trip. Not a bad days work - and he was only allowed to take 4 at a time because of the Carona restrictions.