Charles Price
PRICE, Charles Danvers (1847-1934)
Charles Price was born in Bengal on May 18, 1847, the son of Captain Matthew Gaunt Price and his wife Elizabeth Donaldson Price née Traveller. In 1851, Charles was in Brighton, England with his mother and siblings. The family travelled to Victoria in 1853 where Matthew Price had been appointed a Police Magistrate, and later Resident Warden of the Ovens Goldfields at Beechworth. In 1861, the family moved to New Zealand where Matthew had been appointed Police Magistrate at Invercargill.
Charles Price had both a surveying and civil engineering background and met Malcolm Fraser when working as a surveyor on New Zealand’s west coast goldfields. Malcolm Fraser would later employ him in Western Australia.
In 1872, Charles Price arrived in Western Australia and joined the WA Survey Department in July 1874. He received an appointment as a surveyor in January 1875. Malcolm Fraser put Charles Price in charge of surveying and constructing the Albany to Eucla telegraph line in September 1875.
His work over the next two and a half years on successfully completing the Albany to Eucla telegraph line was recognised with a £280 gratuity and a vote of thanks from the WA Legislative Council. His brother, Matthew Price, had travelled to Western Australia and worked with Charles on the telegraph line.
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Charles Price married Clara Brockman at Upper Swan on August 29, 1878. Clara was the granddaughter of Swan Colony pioneer, William Locke Brockman, and daughter of Edmund Ralph Brockman JP, MLC and his wife Deborah Brockman née Slade. Charles and Clara had three daughters, Alice Amy (born 1881 Perth), Deborah (born 1883) and Ethel Audrey Clara (born 1884 Perth.)
In 1882, with John Forrest, Charles Price surveyed the rail alignment from Beverley to Albany that was used for the construction of the Great Southern Railway.
In January 1883, Charles Price resigned from the WA Survey Department to work with contractors J & W Bateman to oversee the construction of the 700 mile Northampton to Roebourne telegraph line. Learning from outages on the Eucla telegraph line, conditions of the contract included that all poles be of iron and that the route not be closer than two miles to the coast. The workforce for the telegraph line was supplemented by Chinese labourers; in November 1884, Charles Price was set upon by seven armed Chinese who were dissatisfied with their rate of pay, and by a threat from Price of loss of rations if they went on strike. The assault, near the Lyndon River, north of Carnarvon, was only stopped after two of the group were shot in the legs and the ringleader was knocked down. A few weeks later another worker on the telegraph line, having been dismissed, attempted suicide in Charles Price’s room at the Carnarvon Hotel and later died of the gunshot wound.
The Northampton to Roebourne telegraph line was completed on October 1, 1885 and Charles Price sailed to Melbourne on November 7, that year, with his wife Clara and one of his daughters for a holiday. He returned on December 30, 1885 and took up an appointment as Government Resident and Sub Collector of Customs for the East Kimberley District. He was also Justice of the Peace and sat in Perth Police Courts in February and March prior to sailing to the Cambridge Gulf on the “SS Albany” on March 29, 1886. On May 20, 1886, the Kimberley Goldfield was declared and Charles Price was appointed Warden.
Charles Price was a popular and effective public official in the challenging environment of the Kimberley in the 1880’s. Poor management of his personal finances led to bankruptcy, and his resignation from the position of Government Resident on May 24, 1888. He had arrived in Fremantle on March 1, 1888 from Wyndham to assist with the liquidation of his estate, which ultimately paid his creditors five shillings in the pound.
In June 1888, he left with an exploratory party on an 80 day round trip from York to Hampton Plains (near Coolgardie), whose purpose included assessing railway alignments from York and finding a water supply for a large area of leased land.
In 1893 and 1894 Charles worked as a temporary draughtsman for the WA Department of Lands and Surveys. In December 1896, he was appointed a linesman at Wallal. Over the next 38 years he lived apart from his wife and three daughters at La Grange Bay, near Wallal. When he retired from work as a linesman in 1912, he was employed by the Chief Protector of Aborigines to operate the La Grange Bay Relief Station, distributing food, blankets, clothing and medical treatment to aboriginal people.
Charles Price died at La Grange Bay on June 24, 1934 and was survived by his estranged wife, Clara, and their three children.
Charles Price had shown exceptional bushcraft, skill and endurance in constructing telegraph lines through challenging country. He was well respected by John Forrest and Malcolm Fraser. He occupied senior positions in the State Government as Acting Surveyor General, Resident Magistrate of the East Kimberley and Warden of the Kimberley Goldfields, but was broken by his bankruptcy and then largely lived a semi reclusive life.
References:
Cathie Clement and Peter Bridge (editors), Kimberley Scenes, Hesperian Press, Victoria Park, 1991
Daily News 28.5.1883, p3
Inquirer and Commercial News, 7.2.1883, p5
West Australian, 16.12.1884, p3
West Australian, 4.11.1885, p3
West Australian, 25.5.1888, p3
West Australian, 27.6.1888, p3
Inquirer and Commercial News, 19.9.1888, p2
Daily News, 3.6.1889, p2
https:www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/wa/WE01424 accessed August 11, 2020
West Australian, 29.6.1934, p25
Albany Advertiser, 8.10.1929, p3
