Earth Sciences History Group (A Specialist Group of the Geological Society of Australia Inc.) Email Bulletin No. 47 April 8 2015
Items of Interest Geologist and war hero The February-March issue of WAG has an article by Roger Bateman about Leslie Russell Blake who carried out geological work on Macquarie Island while stationed there as part of a team providing a wireless relay service to Mawson's 1911 Australian Antarctic Expedition. He was on leave from the Geological Survey of Queensland to which he returned after his Macquarie work, before joining the AIF as an artillery officer and eventually being killed in action only about 6 weeks before the armistice in 1918. The link to the WAG newsletter is http://wa.gsa.org.au/WAG/WAG_Feb_Mar_2015.pdf For those interested in following up more about Leslie Blake, Roger’s article contains a useful bibliography, including references to the recently published book by HJG Dartnall, who has also published several journal articles on Blake and his Macquarie work. Dartnall HJG, 2014. Lost in the mists: Leslie Russell Blake, Mawson’s Cartographer and Hero of Pozières. Australian Scholarly Publishing (Kew, Victoria). The book can be purchased online from the publishers (cost $49.95). Mount Coolon (Koala) gold mine – one of Queensland’s forgotten mines The latest edition of the Queensland Government Mining Journal contains a brief article by Brice Mutton on the largely forgotten historical significance of an isolated gold mine in central Queensland, the Mount Coolon mine. It is not well known that Mount Coolon (Koala) Mine was the first mine of Gold Mines of Australia Ltd (GMA) which was incorporated in April 1930 and was a forerunner company to the formation of the once great Western Mining Corporation Ltd (WMC). Following examination of some 200 prospects, Mount Coolon (was chosen in 1931 as the company’s first project and mine. It was the rich profits from mining Mount Coolon from 1931 to 1939 that assisted its principals to develop the Kalgoorlie gold prospects and the formation of WMC in 1933. The first superintendent at Mount Coolon was James Coldham and other mining industry notables to work at Mount Coolon included Ian W Morley (later Queensland State Mining Engineer), Lou Westcott (later General Manager at Mount Morgan Mine), William M Morgan (later Managing Director of WMC), Haughton Dunkin and W B (Bill) Brown. WMC eventually went on to takeover or consume GMA in 1949. The link to the article is http://www.vision6.com.au/em/message/email/view?a=23788&id=1046341
AESC 2016 The website for AESC in Adelaide (26–30 June 2016) www.aesc2016.gsa.org.au is live and a flier is appended to the end of this newsletter. The email address in the flier: aesc2016@aomevents.com is the official convention email address managed by All Occasions Events and is also live. In the light of Roger Bateman’s interesting article on Leslie Blake in WAG (see above) and the ongoing remembrances over the next few years of World War 1, the Queensland Committee would like to propose that an
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