The History Lesson



From the swag in the morning

from the swag in the morning

  This morning we set off for Roebourne and Cossack, although not in that order.
I knew that a museum had been set up in Cossack, which was once the central hub of the Pilbara but is now a ghost town, with my ancestors being central to the story. This was therefore my opportunity to find out more of this as well as giving Max an opportunity to discover and appreciate part of where he comes from.
My knowledge was limited to knowing that my Mothers family (on her Mothers side) came out from England in 1830, bringing seven children with them and having one more after arriving. From there the children radiated out across the state with my particular ancestor ending up in the Pilbara. How that happened and what went on up here was pretty much unknown except for stories from my Grandma about growing up on Sherlock Station and taking a steam ship to Perth from Roebourne for school each year. Due to the trip taking a week each way she only got to go back home at Christmas holidays and had to stay in Perth for other school holiday periods.
When we reached Cossack we started at the cemetery, (sort of starting at the end I guess). Here we found a large marble slab erected in honour of William Shakespeare (Shaky) Hall (my ancestor), with his wife and three children all interred together. Interestingly the last of these sons died well after Cossack had all but disappeared so the importance of the place in their lives can be gleaned from the fact that his remains were brought back there.
Shaky’s importance to the area is probably explained from him being part of the original exploration team that travelled to the Pilbara before he headed back up to manage the first pastoral property.
Finding his own relatives in a cemetery seemed to really pique Max’s interest and he was quite engaged in the morning we spent in town, even though much of the information and artefacts were quite dry.
We started back down at the cafe, which also doubled as an information centre, where we picked up a heritage trail and a historic facts brochure. The old gaol was the starting point and Max found the whole idea of being able to lock me (and himself) up fascinating while the story boards of the town itself gave me a great overview before moving on. The fact that the major part of Cossack’s history fits into a 40 year period makes it much easier to present. Cossack was named in 1871 (although had slowly become a town over the preceding 5-8 years) and then a municipality in it’s own right in1877. At its peak it had over 1000 people residing in it, which is very significant given its remote location and the paucity of inhabitants across Western Australia at that time.
At this time it was the region’s only Port, with supplies being brought through it initially for the pastoral properties that were being developed and then also to supply the Pilbara gold rust of the late 1880’s. It also had up to 80 pearl luggers operating out of it (these subsequently moved on to Broome after the local pearl oysters were largely fished out).
The construction of better port facilities at Point Samson and the end of pearling effectively resulted in the death of the town although the last residents didn’t leave until after the 2nd World War.

Shakespeare Hall Social History Museum

We then headed on up to the old Court House which now house the Shakespeare Hall Social History Museum. The court house itself is still in largely original condition, as a re the majority of the remaining buildings and this was as interesting as the artefacts now contained within.
One of the interesting things for both Max and i was the opportunity to view photo’s of three generations of Hall’s, which effectively covered the generations who had lived in Australia up to my Grandmothers generation. Talking to Max he said he is now really interested in finding out more about the family history as having relatives involved made history much more interesting. Somewhere at home I have a book centred on the life of Sarah Theodosure Hall – Shaky’s mother, so I guess I better dig that out for him when we get home. His Grandad has also been doing his genealogy so Max might be able to go through that with him as well, although he has said that a lot of the reason he has got so interested in this has been the opportunity to actually visit a series of places they were associated with, meaning that deeper interest in his Grandad’s research might not happen without traipsing around England (I am sure he would be prepared to do so if the opportunity arose however!).

What is left of Cossack

After then touring around the remainder of town we headed back to the cafe for a drink and ice cream. Max found a table and started doing some more work on his journal while I was inside and when i came out I found him in a very animated conversation with a lady who also had ancestral links to the town.
Eventually we moved on to Roebourne and spent a significant part of the afternoon exploring the old gaol museum, including Max carefully reading the partial transcript of a royal commission into the treatment of Aboriginal prisoners conducted in the late 1800’s. While there I also picked up the full information on the Emma Withnell Heritage Trail. This trail is named after the first female European Settler and includes all the places we had already visited in Cossack – so gave us some additional information. Interestingly, when we were reading through the introduction we found that WS Hall, in addition to being part of the original exploration team, had been part of Walter Padbury’s team that established the first station in the region, had then assisted the second settler, John Wellard on his arrival, before becoming close friends with the Withnell’s – who were the third settlers, following leading them to water on their arrival in the district.
After this abundance of history we headed further down the road before stopping at Miaree Pool, on the Maitland River, for the night. This campsite was almost more attractive than the one the previous night on the Sherlock River, with plenty of water also in this river.