Hannan, Flanagan and Shea found alluvial gold near Mt Charlotte but it was F.W. Cammilleri, who found and developed the early successful Brown Hill lease.

In the same year (1893), two South Australians, Sam Pearce and Will Brookman, representing a syndicate of Adelaide businessmen, made the greatest discoveries.

Pearce, impressed by Brown Hill, began searching for similar rock formations on his own leases, eventually resulting in the Great Boulder and Ivanhoe mines.

The Adelaide syndicate became the Coolgardie Gold Mining and Prospecting Company and raised money in their home town, Melbourne and later London before floating the Ivanhoe, the Lake View and the Great Boulder to great profits.

Mines were abundant and other names of the era included:

• Boulder Perseverance
• Chaffers
• Golden Horseshoe
• Hainault
• Hannan’s Proprietary
• Hannan’s Star
• Kalgurli
• Oroya
• Paringa

After a decade of mining on the Golden Mile (1903), there were 42 companies and an unknown number of leases which produced more than one million of ounces of gold that year.

After World War I (1914-18), machinery was becoming out of date or worn out and costs were rising to the relative cost of gold (at that time: 3 pounds 17 shillings per ounce or $9.40oz).

A tributing system was introduced at Oroya and Kalgurli. Leases were worked by tributing parties, who provided a share of what they found to the companies. Perseverance, Ivanhoe and Lake View soon used this option and even the once mighty Great Boulder, which had suspended paying dividends, introduced a system where half the gold found went to the company and the balance in tributes.

Some of the first great efficiencies on the Golden Mile began to be introduced in 1929 when Joe Thorn became general manager of the Lake View. Thorn, a Californian, imported many North American colleagues and their mining expertise.

The ‘Yanks at Lake View’ introduced changes including a ‘pattern’ for drilling holes to fire out the stone. More ore was brought out using less explosive and less time was spent on the drills.

Leases began to amalgamate and, under efficient management using top mining geologists and engineers, they found the ore and got it out cheaper than before.

Under Thorn, Lake View and Star had taken the original Lake View Consolidated and swallowed up leases like Ivanhoe, Golden Horseshoe, Chaffers, Boulder Main Reef and Hannans Star. In 1934, the company took over the Associated lease to become the biggest gold producer in Australia.

During World War II (1939-45), mining workers became scarce and the Golden Mile suffered from an inexperienced and transient workforce after Australians returned from war.

Gold and the region were battling until England devalued its currency in 1949 and the price increased quickly from 10 pounds 15 shillings per ounce ($21.50oz) to 15 pound 10 shillings per ounce ($31oz). It was a short term boost but inflation bit in and the benefits soon eroded.

After 1950, technological improvements were of assistance to underground mining. Tungsten carbide drilling steel was developed and its introduction into drilling equipment made this light and more workable.

Steam winders on deep shafts were replaced by electric winders; loco haulage was introduced and scrapers and mechanical boggers were installed.

Four major companies owned most of the leases – Lake View and Star Ltd, Great Boulder Gold Mines Ltd, North Kalgurli (1912) Ltd and Gold Mines of Kalgoorlie (Aust.) Ltd – and continued to do so until these and others were united, first under the influence of Alan Bond ( Bond International Gold) and then the 1989 Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines joint venture between Normandy and Homestake.