A dealer in oddities( including Rhesus monkeys and Penny Blacks ) , a book from a garage sale , a famous cartoonist and James Cook University Special Collections combined to breed this Little Darwin brumby which romped home at odds of 100-1 . Puzzled stewards are still investigating .
Knowing this blog's interest in Australiana , ephemera and assorted oddities , no matter if grubby , a South Australian dealer recently sent a broken and battered copy of the 1904 edition of Phil May in Australia, being drawings by the British cartoonist for the Sydney Bulletin . One of the many great full-plate drawings, above , covered the toffs, bookies , jockeys , possibly politicians at the Randwick, Sydney, races.
Tucked away, almost overlooked , at the bottom right corner, was a panel showing a flash looking cove , possibly a bookie or punter -with a cravat?!!!- on settling day at the far away races in the booming goldmining town of Charters Towers , North Queensland , bearing a racy caption .
Things we see when we haven't got a gun was a line often used by May in his cartoons .
Horses which bolted during an electric storm led to the Charters Towers goldrush . A young Aborigine , Jupiter , out looking for them , came across gold and reported it to the group of men he was travelling with , on Christmas Day 1871 , who were searching for gold .
A jockey club was started early in the Towers and held its first race on Queen's Flat ; a racecourse was formed in 1874 . An assayer for the Bank of New South, the first bank on the field, Thomas Buckland ,above, was interested in horseflesh ; he cashed in on the boom , made pots of money, later knighted became president of the bank .
There was so much gold dug up at Charters Towers that one resident is said to have had a nag shod with golden horseshoes. The Towers became the state's second biggest city , supported 90 pubs , had its own stock exchange on which fortunes were won and lost. It had so many modern conveniences , including gaslighting in the streets , that it called itself The World.
Numerous sports were supported, including footracing . Fast off the mark between l887 and 1902 was Fred Erickson , nicknamed " Carbine " after the famous Melbourne Cup winner .
One of those who made a fortune was blacksmith Frank Stubley . He bought into a reef named St. Patrick, which proved extremely rich . His personal wealth was estimated to have been 400,000 pound . He invested in other mining ventures , was extremely popular, threw money about and became the MLA for Kennedy from 1873 to 1878.
Known to bet thousands on a racehorse , he eventually went broke , became a swaggie , died wandering along the track .
Between 1885-1911 the annual output of gold never fell below 100,000 ounces , 319,572 in 1899, yielding $60,000,000 during its lifetime . The Charters Towers 1872-1972 Centenary book , printed by the Northern Miner, had gold covers .
A surprise find turned up this week during a visit to Special Collections at the James Cook University Eddie Koiki Mabo Memorial Library - a ledger for the Charters Towers Amateur Hack Club from 1932 to the l950s .
The ledger , above , includes the names of members over the years and letters stating the balance of funds in the bank. On a marbled endpaper is the trade sticker of a Brisbane firm of book binders and stationers, the date 13.5.9 .
Annual races held by the club were written up in Townsville and Brisbane newspapers during the l930s. The grass fed hacks had names such as British Queen, Spanish Scholar, Bang Whiz and Gulf Boy . The Ladies Bracelet Race was a major event
