From riches to rags

By Barbara Peck

He was a popular man of his time and at one stage was even a Member of Parliament. Frank Stubley had it all, including a very generous nature, and that was his biggest problem. He couldn’t help himself. If he saw an old mate down on his luck, Frank would reach into his pocket and give all. Some were genuinely needy but a lot were flyby-nighters and Frank couldn’t distinguish between the two. But if the truth be known, he probably didn’t care. He had enough for everyone. Years later it would emerge who his true friends were but by then it was too late for Frank Stubley. In the heady days of the gold rush era of Charters Towers in Queensland in the 1870s, Frank Stubley was employed as a blacksmith at the “One And All” mill but dreamed of gold and riches as much as the next man. One day there was talk at the mill about a new reef called the “St Patrick’s” being full of potential but the syndicate of 20 miners who owned the mine were stopped just when they were in sight of the rich gold vein. The Queensland National Bank, which was financing the syndicate, cut off their cash advance because the limit of the loan had been reached. Frank had been waiting for his chance to get into a “good thing” and from his wage as a blacksmith had managed to save enough to immediately purchase 17 of the 20 shares in the St Patrick’s. In no time the St Patrick’s Block Mine was earning him £1,000 a week and another mine he invested in, the “Brian O’Lynne”, was also showing good returns.

Mosman Street, Charters Towers, c.1880

UNPROFITABLE VENTURES

But no sooner had Frank pocketed the cash than he let it slip through his fingers. Friends and strangers alike were always taking liberties with his kindness and happy-go-lucky nature. His cash flow was also at odds with some disastrously unprofitable ventures into horse gambling and a number of other wild speculations. But Frank lived for the day and could afford to because his mines were extremely profitable. He was so popular that from 1873 to 1878, he served as the Member of the Legislative Assembly for the seat of Kennedy. He also became the first patron of the newly founded Mining and Pastoral Association, and applied for and was granted the first of new squatting areas on the rugged and remote Evelyn Tableland, 60 kilometres from Atherton. These squatter’s blocks were for raising cattle, sheep and horses and Stubley sent a mining mate by the name of Willie Joss to manage “Evelyn Station”. By the mid-1880s the gold had all but disappeared from his once productive mines and Frank Stubley found he not only couldn’t afford his luxurious lifestyle, most of the people around him whom he thought were his friends had deserted him. He was no longer the life of the party and after losing his seat in Parliament, Frank became more and more disillusioned. He eventually started wandering around the outback towns hoping to find another Eldorado and was often seen humping his bluey with thousands of others who dreamed of what Frank Stubley had already won and lost.

DISCOVERED GOLD

It is not known if Stubley ever stayed to manage the 150 square miles of “Evelyn Station”, but Willie Joss is credited with having discovered gold at the headwaters of the Tully River in the area. If Frank Stubley had only known – his Eldorado had been in his own backyard all that time. But Frank Stubley didn’t know and one day in 1886, at the age of just 42, he was found dead and penniless along the track between Normanton and Croydon. He was buried where he lay. A man who had amassed a fortune of more than £300,000 (tens of millions in today’s currency) was simply another destitute gold seeker and nobody cared. The following appeared in the Warwick Examiner and Times of Wednesday, the 7th of April, 1886: Death of Mr Frank Stubley and Others from Heat Apoplexy. Writing of the late sudden deaths from heat apoplexy near Normanton, a correspondent to the Townsville Bulletin says: “We are now in the middle of March with every appearance of the dry weather continuing. The absence of rain causes the heat to be oppressive, and the result has been a number of sudden deaths lately from heat apoplexy. In most cases the constitution of the men whose deaths are recorded had been worn down by excessive drinking; but there have been exceptions to the rule, and even the strong and temperate have been stricken. Repeated wires coming in from Green Creek on Saturday, 6th instant, and Sunday, 7th instant, recording one death after another along the road to the Croydon, created some alarm in Normanton for a time, but when the particulars were ascertained the scare of an epidemic sweeping down upon the town disappeared; nor was there any reason to suspect that the blacks or anyone else bad poisoned the water holes along the road, as was also surmised.

The first death took place on the 3rd instant, about 40 miles above Normanton, the victim being John Thomas, usually known as Carriboo Jack, from his one time having had an hotel in Cooktown, called the “Carriboo Inn”. He was alone when he died, his mates having gone on before him to look for water. When the body was discovered it was swollen and discoloured, the swag being still strapped across the shoulders, and a piece of mosquito netting rolled round the head. The tracks about showed that the deceased had staggered like a drunken man for some time, and then fallen against a tree, injuring his head by the fall. The only valuables found on the body were nine shillings and sixpence in money, and a watch. The party who camo across the body buried it where it was, and afterwards reported the death to the police. On the following day, about five in the afternoon, Mr Stubley and two others had got as far as the Fifty-mile Lagoon, within ten miles of Green Creek, and they meant, after a short rest at the water hole, to go to the telegraph station that night. Stubley complained of not being well, but got on a horse to proceed, when he was noticed to lose the power of his hands, and was helped down. He then fell to the ground, complaining of his head, and in four minutes he was dead. This was the end of Frank Stubley, the successful reefer and member of Parliament, the wealthy squatter who went through two or three hundred thousand pounds in a few years, who came to Normanton almost a mendicant and died on the road to the Croydon, and there was buried.”