{"id":465910,"date":"2026-02-08T06:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T06:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/465910\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T06:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T06:36:12","slug":"wa-photographers-reminisce-about-bygone-goldfields-era-as-golds-price-surges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/465910\/","title":{"rendered":"WA photographers reminisce about bygone Goldfields era as gold’s price surges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photographers Roger Garwood and Trish Ainslie travelled to Western Australia’s remote Goldfields in 1989 to capture prospectors who had been to war for a long-planned magazine feature.<\/p>\n

It was a different era; the gold price was sitting at a comparatively modest $US350 an ounce, well short of the $5,000 it reached late last month.<\/p>\n

But their search proved more difficult than expected.<\/p>\n

“We started to scour the area \u2026 met a lot of different prospectors, incredible characters,” Mrs Ainslie said.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Trish Ainslie and Roger Garwood travelled to the Goldfields together in 1989.\u00a0 (Supplied: The State Library of Western Australia)<\/p>\n

There were a lot of prospectors, but none who had been to war.<\/p>\n

On their final day, they stumbled upon prospector Hector Pelham.<\/p>\n

He was sitting on his verandah at the old station house in Broad Arrow, 40 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With a patch over one eye and a slouch hat held together by wire, he was a pretty singular figure.<\/p>\n

He had enlisted in 1939, the day World War II broke out.<\/p>\n

After taking Mr Pelham’s photo, Mrs Ainslie asked him whether there were any other prospectors left who had fought in the war.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Hector Pelham holds his medals from World War II.\u00a0 (Supplied: Roger Garwood and Trish Ainslie)<\/p>\n

“He said, ‘Nah \u2014 dropping off like flies,'” she said.<\/p>\n

“And that’s where the title of the book came from.”Passed from one prospector to another<\/p>\n

It was not until after meeting Mr Pelham, and returning to Fremantle, that the idea for a book began to come together.<\/p>\n

Mrs Ainslie said the reaction of friends and family to her tales of the Goldfields inspired her.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Bill Bright has a shave in Kookyine.\u00a0 (Supplied: Roger Garwood and Trish Ainslie)<\/p>\n

Mr Garwood said there were plenty of interested rock kickers to be found once word of the project got out.<\/p>\n

“Even though they lived hundreds of miles apart \u2026 they all somehow kept in touch with each other,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"two<\/p>\n

The pair published Off Like Flies in 1990.\u00a0 (ABC Goldfields: Macey Turner)<\/p>\n

Their first book, Off Like Flies, was published in November of 1990 to great acclaim.<\/p>\n

Capturing a bygone era<\/p>\n

Mrs Ainslie said they had been lucky to capture the end of an era.<\/p>\n

By 1989, most of Western Australia’s state batteries, used by generations of prospectors to crush gold-bearing ore, had been shut down.<\/p>\n

Mrs Ainslie said many prospectors felt the closure of the batteries spelt a change for their way of life.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jimmy “Banjo” McKenzie sits in his house in Gwalia.\u00a0 (Supplied: Roger Garwood and Trish Ainslie)<\/p>\n

“A few of the prospectors said, ‘This is the end, this is it,'” she said.<\/p>\n

Additionally, many of the prospectors they photographed \u2014 who still used traditional picks, shovels and sieves \u2014 were at an advanced age.<\/p>\n

“There were so few of them \u2026 they already knew that was the way,” Mrs Ainslie said.<\/p>\n

Extraordinary stories<\/p>\n

Almost four decades since that first journey, Mrs Ainslie said she remembered the effect the Goldfields had on her.<\/p>\n

“It [was] the most extraordinary thing I’ve ever seen \u2026 these people out there still panning for gold,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I loved it, it was peaceful, the sunsets and sunrises.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mrs Ainslie says she loved the sunrises and sunsets. (Supplied: Roger Garwood and Trish Ainslie)<\/p>\n

The effect was even starker for Mr Garwood, who first travelled to the Goldfields in the 1970s on holiday from his native England.<\/p>\n

“It really was like a geography lesson coming to life,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It was just totally flat and barren \u2014 I couldn’t believe it \u2014 this was real desert country.”Gold nuggets under the bed<\/p>\n

Though the environment was awe inspiring, it was the prospectors themselves who stuck in Mr Garwood’s mind.<\/p>\n

“There was that incredible solidarity amongst these people, and camaraderie like you’ve never met,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If anyone was in trouble financially \u2026 a few of them would come together \u2026 and give this bloke a handful of nuggets \u2014 just to help him through.”<\/p>\n

\"nuggets<\/p>\n

A prospector holds gold nuggets.\u00a0 (Supplied: Roger Garwood and Trish Ainslie)<\/p>\n

He remembered the overriding “contentment” of the prospectors they met, many of whom lived in tin shacks with dirt floors and a gas stove in the corner.<\/p>\n

Mr Garwood recalled a specific character named “Kingy”, ” whom he met in Meekatharra.<\/p>\n

Kingy had invited Mr Garwood into his home and asked if he wanted to see some gold, before pulling a metal trunk from under the bed.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

“Kingy” and “Floss” had a camp near Meekatharra.\u00a0 (Supplied: Roger Garwood and Trish Ainslie)<\/p>\n

“He opened it up and it was literally full of gold nuggets,” Mr Garwood said.<\/p>\n

“I said, ‘Jeez Kingy \u2014 what the hell are you doing with this stuff here? Why don’t you get it in the bank?'”<\/p>\n

“He said, ‘Look, I’ve got half a million bucks in the bank \u2014 what do I need any more for?'”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photographers Roger Garwood and Trish Ainslie travelled to Western Australia’s remote Goldfields in 1989 to capture prospectors who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[143368,64,63,99,5284,86554,238384,6268,238385,40213,66236,6827,196229,238382,238383,45],"class_list":["post-465910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-1980s","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-gold","tag-gold-price","tag-gold-prospectors","tag-goldfields","tag-goldfields-book","tag-goldfields-news","tag-kalgoorlie","tag-mining","tag-prospecting","tag-roger-garwood","tag-trish-ainslie","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}