John McPhee Family - Blue Vapours

Macphee found strong indications of gold on the
head of the Ord and, around Christmas 1885, payable
gold on the head of the Mary River. Over the next six
months, he made occasional trips to Cambridge Gulf
to buy rations and pilot new arrivals up his track to
the diggings. One of these men, William O’Donnell,
a more entrepreneurial type than Macphee, found
some shortcuts on the way back, named one of the
creeks along the way after Macphee, and wrote out
a description of the track so that others might reach
the diggings without a pilot. 20 Macphee meanwhile
discovered payable gold at the spot known as
Macphee’s Gully and reinforced his reputation as one of
the more credible prospectors in the Kimberley. 21
As the water on the diggings dwindled during the
“Dry”, Macphee wrote to a friend in the Territory trying,
without success, to prevent an untimely rush to the
Kimberley. 22 He also called a meeting of the scattered
diggers to devise mining regulations, pending the
appointment of a warden… 23 Knowing that a rush was
inevitable, Macphee then promptly went back into the
meat business, purchasing cattle from the Duracks and
others to butcher them at the various camps on the
goldfield. 24 He persevered with this business for five
months before selling out to Peter Fox and going back
to prospecting. 25
Early in 1887, Macphee fitted out a strong prospecting
party and struck south-west from Halls Creek trying to
reach the head waters of the Oakover River. The route
was too dry for the horses and a deviation had to be
made via the Fitzroy River to the coast. 26 They reached
Mulyie station in April, went on to search for gold at
the head of the De Grey River, and finally reached
Roebourne in July. 27 With only their horses and tools
left, they nevertheless impressed local landholders
who, on the strength of Macphee’s reputation,
secured £300 from the government to subsidise the
continuation of their search for both gold and other
valuable minerals. 28
At this time, Macphee was described as a short, wiry
man who was unrivalled as a bushman and seemed ‘to
be cut out for a leader of men’. He and his party found
good prospects of gold on the De Grey in August and
then began prospecting southward from Roebourne. 29
Over the next three months, they found indications of
gold north of the Hardy River, between the Hardy and
the Ashburton, and on the eastern branch of the Lyons
John McPhee Family
River. It was concluded that these indications were
tending toward the south where other prospectors
had found good indications of gold on the Murchison
River. Macphee wanted to push on in that direction but
could continue to access the government subsidy only
if he took his party back to do more prospecting on the
Oakover River. 30
This life of prospecting continued, broken by the
occasional droving trip, as Macphee moved between
the remote mining camps and towns of the Pilbara and
the Kimberley. 31 He worked around Nullagine with
an old Kimberley mate, John Schlinke, and found an
alluvial gully on the De Grey River before returning
to the Oakover River. Another old Kimberley mate,
August Lucanus, joined them there in 1891, and they
prospected around Marble Bar, found Pantomine Patch,
and went to the Shaw River and Bamboo Creek where
Schlinke remained behind to work a quartz claim. For
the next six months, Macphee and Lucanus prospected
without finding gold and, early in 1892, they camped
on Cooks Creek, a tributary of the Nullagine, and were
forced to sit out two days of cyclonic conditions when a
willy-willy struck.
Macphee then developed inflammation of the bowels
and lay ill for several days before dying on 12 March. 32
His obituary spoke of his good-heartedness and, as
prospector A.D. Edwards observed in 1896, ‘no history
of the goldfields would be complete’ without reference
to the deeds of Macphee and the other ‘original
prospectors’ of Western Australia.’ 33
Cathie Clement
Footnotes on this article can be found on page 36.
Roper River, Kimberley and
Pilbara of RCS McPhee
Port Hedland
Roebourne
Nullagine
Pilbara Area
Wyndham
Derby
Broome Halls Creek
Kimberley Area
GREAT
SANDY
DESERT
GIBSON DESERT
WA
Kununurra
Darwin
NT
Katherine
Roper River Area
Alice Springs
SA
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