Key Dates

 

1891 January               

Death of Aunt Amelia Hall in Sydney

1891 February 8     

Death of George Bracher at Kangaroo Flat

1891                           

George Henry’s business ventures are devastated by the financial crisis in Victoria. The family moves into their parents house at Kangaroo Flat

1891                           

George Henry begins work on the Western Australia goldfields

1893 January              

George Henry sells his share of the Footscray business to A.G. Watkins

1890s Mid                   

The Bracher family moves from Kangaroo Flat into Golden Square, in a  house next to Sarah Fanny Bracher

1895                           

Sarah Fanny Jones (nee Bracher) retires from teaching

1897                           

Death of Laura Alexandrina in Golden Square

1897                           

George Henry Bracher returns from the W.A. goldfields

 

The 1890s not only started with a financial calamity for George Henry Bracher, but on February 8th, 1891 his father died of Cystitus and was buried the following day in the Kangaroo Flat cemetery. He was 74 and had been ailing for some time. His obituary of 14 February 1891 mentioned that while not contributing to his death, a recent incident in which he had been knocked-down by a buggy had given him a ‘severe shaking’, which had seemed to affect him until his death. The application for a grave described his latter day condition as ‘paralysis of the bladder’. While 74 is not considered an old age these days, it's worth remembering that in 1891 the average age of death for a male in Australia was 47.

 

It marked the end of the first chapter of the Bracher family in Australia, although Sarah Louisa outlived him by another 20 years. Another milestone death was that of Aunt Amelia in Sydney during January 1891, aged 82, after what was described as ‘a period of insanity’. Aunt Amelia had played a major, though indirect, role in the development of the family, primarily through the mentoring and education of Sarah Fanny. During the last decade of her life her mental instability had caused problems for her niece and nephew, who occasionally wrote to Sarah Louisa and Sarah Fanny about their frustration.

 

George Bracher’s death does not appear to have created a prolonged period of grieving among the family, though no doubt Sarah Louisa mourned the passing of her partner of 45 years. The more pressing problem for the family was the care of Sarah Louisa, who was now aged 72, although still in reasonable physical and mental health.

 

The children believed that it was best that their mother remained in her own home, probably remembering her distress when living in other people’s homes away from Kangaroo Flat. Sarah Fanny reassured her mother that, when the time was appropriate, both she and her husband would welcome her into their home. George had equity in the Kangaroo Flat house, but told his mother that he did not require the money and she could stay in the house as long as she wanted. This was prior to George Henry’s spectacular financial collapse. By the time he had been declared insolvent there was a new reason to keep hold of the Kangaroo Flat house.

 

The details of his financial collapse are not recorded and there is no mention of them in any of the letters. It was obviously a devastating blow to the whole family. George Henry’s investment success and bravado during the past decade had probably led them to believe that he was soundly on his way to a sustainable fortune.

 

Having lost ‘Boomville’ in Leeds Street, Footscray, the immediate concern was to find suitable housing for the rapidly growing family of seven children. It was decided that they would occupy the small house at Kangaroo Flat. Sarah Louisa took-up her daughter’s offer to live with them at Golden Square, about a mile closer to Bendigo.

 

In his 1969 memoirs, Harry Bracher wrote about the excitement for a five year old, suburban-bred boy travelling by dray into the country to reach ‘the Flat’. He travelled with the furniture on the two day journey. He described the house as “…an old double fronted weatherboard place, with four main rooms and a kitchen off the back verandah – not a very elaborate place, but to us a haven of refuge.”

 

With the family settled, George Henry’s mind then moved to securing a new income to enable them to crawl out of the large financial hole. News of the West Australian gold fields was filtering through to the east and, with few other prospects, George took a small steamer of 1000 tons to undertake the 10-14 day journey across the bight. The fare was eight pounds per head and the 400-500 men it carried had to sleep on deck alongside the winches, as there was little passenger accommodation. His departure was by no means uncommon among the male population of Victoria, indeed Australia. Tens of thousands headed over to the west, while others headed to New South Wales, New Zealand and South Africa. Historian Geoffrey Blainey says that “regiments of Victorians left home in the 15 years from 1891 to 1906. All in all, this emigration exceeded Victoria’s gain from immigration during the preceding 30 years (1861-91)….The structure of Victoria’s population was altered for the next generation. Victoria’s birthrate fell and, of the six states, it remained the lowest for several decades.” (Reflections: 150years of history, The Age, 2004)

 

George arrived six weeks before the great Kalgoorlie rush, then known as ‘Hannan’s Find’. According to the book “Footscray’s First Fifty Years”, George followed the several rushes of the area and held a quarter share in a mine, which petered out. He is said to have sold the first water on the diggings at 2/- per gallon and he survived two bouts of fever while over there.

 

He made only two return visits to see the family during his six years in the west. Another daughter, Ella Dorothy, was born on September 19th, 1893. On her birth certificate the father’s occupation is noted as ‘Traveller, 36’.

​

With Sarah Louisa now living with her daughter at their home "Woodside" in Golden Square, Bendigo, with the rest of the family just down the road, the rich source of correspondence that provided the glimpse into family life for the past 25 years began to dwindle. The major source of information about life in Bendigo is drawn from Harry Bracher’s 1969 memoirs. Although he was only a young boy, Harry’s memories were vivid and they paint an appealing picture of growing up in what he saw as a world of adventure and boyhood freedom in the country.

 

“…We lived a rather leisurely life at the Flat for 6 to 7 years during which time my father was away in Western Australia on the gold fields; in all he was away for 6 years. He would send across to us, instead of money, a matchbox of fine gold usually about 1 to 1 1/2 ounces. My mother or eldest brother would takes this gold to a bank in Bendigo where we would be paid money for it. We usually received about $8 per ounce and this money would have to keep us going for about 3 weeks to 1 month. As there were so many of us to keep it mean that we were often short of requirements and would then have to obtain credit from the Grocer and Butcher; at times we would be hard pressed to buy clothing, boots etc.

 

“ During these years my father was stricken with Typhoid Fever on two occasions and naturally unable to work for many weeks so you can imagine matters took on a very grim aspect, and of course we were not sure he would survive. I remember my father telling us that there were up to 15,000 men on the Goldfields at Coolgardie without any doctors, nurses, hospitals or anything in the way of sanitation and the only water was from water soaks (as the rainfall on the fields was almost non-existent) or from water condensed from saltwater out of the mines etc which was evaporated. This type of water contained no minerals and was a poor substitute for rainwater and cost 2/- per gallon”.

 

“ …he worked at many things, digging for gold mostly but one of his ventures was being in charge of a team of camels which were in common use on the fields as the railroad from Perth had not been constructed and goods came by road, either by horse and dray or by camel teams, or by manpower pushing a barrow….”

 

“…The first thing was to appear at the local school and I went along with my sisters Fanny, Louisa and Amy. My elder brother George had been despatched to the Diamond Hill School which was about 3 miles across the hills. My uncle was headmaster of this school and was a very strict man (North of Ireland). He was about 6 ft tall and had a magnificent beard of red whiskers and looked a very severe fellow. He was a very stern man and had a violet temper when aroused.”

 

The details of George’s life on the goldfields are very sketchy. It seems that his earlier years there didn’t generate a lot of income, though he was able to irregularly send the family a matchbox of gold to meet living expenses. An achievement of some note was George’s invention of a new rock crushing and dry blowing technique to extract gold, especially from the patches of very consolidated ‘cement’ that were scattered along the ridge, some of which were rich enough to warrant mining via shallow shafts and drives. ‘The Centenary History of Kalgoorlie-Boulder’ by Martyn and Audrey Webb makes mention of Mr Bracher’s new machine:

 

“ A Mr Bracher devised a new crushing and dry blowing contrivance which was described as consisting of a set of steel rollers through which the cement was first passed and crushed. The output was then divided into three grades of sizes with, in the process, a fan blowing away the dust. It was, therefore, essentially a combined crusher and dry blower, with the lightest fraction blown away at the beginning rather than the end of the process. Unfortunately, it weighed some three and a quarter hundredweights and was difficult to move around. Nevertheless, it was claimed that with the machine, two men could handle half a ton of the hardest cement in a day”

 

In September 1894 Sarah Louisa wrote to a nephew in Western Australia and the letter provides some glimpse into George’s success on the fields and confirms his new invention:

 

“…Lately I had a letter from my son George and he tells me that Gerald Hester is now working with him and that they are making 18/- per day each average and hope to do even better soon. It is a crushing machine that George invented for crushing cement which contains gold. They are crushing for the public and I suppose it is pretty hard work. Sometimes they do some prospecting for themselves. I do hope they will be rewarded by getting a good reef or some nuggets. Only a few weeks ago a man got a 40 oz nugget in the next hole to them.”

 

During his latter years he seems to have made more money out of saddle and harness making in the mining town of Menzies, 130 kms north of Kalgoorlie.

 

One of George’s letters to his mother during the mid 1890s mentions the rate of pay on the fields and his determination to make as much as he possibly can.

 

“ …although miners get 4 pounds a week here it is not as good by a long way as 2 pounds, 5 shillings on Bendigo for a married man but much better for a single man if he is a tee-totaller, as he can save more out of 4 pounds here than he could out of 2 pounds, 5 shillings in Bendigo, you mention that to anybody who is thinking of coming. I have not lost a single day since I came over except while travelling. I suppose 14 days for the whole year, although I was nearly four months travelling. I was being well paid Sundays and all part of the time 15/- a day and water. Xmas day and Boxing Day cost me 1/- for two hop beers. I don’t think many men on the fields will beat that record through the holidays.”

​

While in W.A. George made contact with his relatives. Letters sent to Sarah Louisa from the Perth relatives sometimes referred to family members and friends working alongside him:

​

“…We have not heard anything of your son for a long time, except indirectly. Gerald Hester came up from Coolgardie a few weeks before Christmas and he had left him in good health . Since then I have only heard of him through Flora, her husband Mr Stevenson is working with him…Your son was saying that he should like to bring you over here to see your old friends once more, I hope fortune will befriend him to gratify this desire. I am sure you would not recognise the place..”

 

George’s efforts both on and off the fields in the West must have generated a reasonable income, because during the mid 1890s the family was able to move into a brick house in Golden Square, which was located next to Sarah Fanny’s home. This allowed the children to attend the Golden Square State School, where their Aunt Fanny was First Female Assistant of the school of about 800 pupils. They lived in the house next to Aunt Fanny for about two years. Sarah and Robert Disney Jones had lived in various houses during the 1880s and 90s. In 1882 they were domiciled in Barkly Terrace, Sandhurst, then later that year moved to "Hillcote" in Sandhurst South. They were at Golden Point in Golden Square, Sandhurst by 1885 and then at some stage during the later 1880s or early 1890s they moved into 'Woodside' at Golden Square.

 

Methodism is a common denominator through the Bracher family from the 1840s to the early 20th century. Sandhurst (Bendigo) was a major centre for the Methodist movement, but right across Victoria it was the largest religious grouping for many decades. In 1872 Wesleyan Methodists had 356 churches or chapels across the state (Presbyterians had 266, Church of England had 229, and Roman Catholics had 189). Methodism claimed the largest number of adherents, having grown from 56,00 in 1863 to 122,000 in 1872 (Anglicans and Catholics could both claim 62,000 adherents in 1863).

 

The  younger Brachers participated fully in the religious life promoted by their aunt and uncle:

 

“ My Aunt and Uncle Jones were very strict Methodists as were quite 80% of the inhabitants of Golden Square, who were mostly Cornish or Welsh mining people or rather the descendents of the earlier settlers. It followed, almost automatically we, as children, attended the Methodist Sunday School, this school was a large brick building and was attended by quite 5 or 600 persons each Sunday, ranging in age from 18 to 2 or 3 years. These people were noted for their musical voices so this meant that we had a great feast of hymn singing every Sabbath, this was always a great pleasure to me. The main event on a Sunday was also to attend the Methodist Church, usually both morning and evening services and for those who wished to attend there was also a prayer meeting after Evensong.” (Memoirs of H.H.G. Bracher, 1969)

​

The pleasures of the local Methodist chapel had been one of Sarah Louisa’s great joys throughout life and it provided particular solace to her during her later years. She often wrote about attending two or even three services on a Sunday and remarked on the quality of singing in the choir, the scripture readings and the sermon. The regular Sunday School picnics were great highlights of the social calendar, as George Reginald Bracher wrote to his aunt in November 1899:

 

“ Last Wednesday the Sq Wesleyan S.S. held their annual picnic at Ravenswood, as did also the Forest St and Long Gully. There were about 2000 people on the ground and the weather was lovely. Ma remarked that I was the only one of the family that did not come home sun burnt, but I know a trick worth two of those, I will leave you to guess what that was…”

​

Harry Bracher remembers that it was within the Golden Square house that they suffered the most tragic event of their young lives:

 

“…the death of my sister Laura. She was a lovely little girl of about 5 or 6 years of age. One day she was taken ill with what appeared to be some type of fever. I was too young to really understand what was really the cause of her illness, but I now believe she had contracted pneumonia…Laura was only ill one week before her death which cast a heavy gloom over us for many months and I know it was an extremely sad time for my mother as my father was still away in West Australia”. (Memoirs of H.H.G. Bracher, 1969)

 

By this stage George had been in the West for nearly six years. He had written in one letter about the possibility of his eldest son George Reginald Alberto joining him, but the harshness of the environment, two severe bouts of ill health, and the death of Laura Alexandrina finally indicated to him that it was time to return home.

 

“ Laura’s death really decided his return as his own health was poorly, so some months later he returned for good. This was a great boost to our morale and we, of course, felt much more secure than formerly.” (Memoirs of H.H.G. Bracher, 1969)