Janice Moy interviewing her father William

JM: How many Chinese families were up there?

WM: At Branxholm there was only ours.

JM: You were the only one?

WM: There was one at Weldborough and I think there was one at Gladstone and there were a few in Launceston.

JM: Most of the Chinese community were up at Ruby Flat, is that right?

WM: Yes Branxholm was the official place.

JM: What sort of houses did the Chinese community live in?

WM: Common palings and weatherboard houses, just ordinary.

JM: The same as the European community?

WM: They would construct it themselves. Bush timber and so forth and shingle roof and so on.

JM: Were there any differences at all between the way the Chinese and Europeans built their houses?

WM: Actually there were no special designs and construction, of course they used a fair amount of pitch on their roof on the account the water would run off.

JM: Most of the Chinese were men working for the mining company and living together in homes, that meant they were living a different kind of life to what they would in China?

WM: I wouldn't know. They were mostly like the European mines here.

JM: In China, they would live in a family life wouldn't they?

WM: I wouldn't know much about that. At home in China they would probably have to live with their families and so forth but out here they would live like the people around here. Some of the companies had machinery, but where most of the Chinese worked was in the shallow alluvial places.

JM: What type of machery did the large companies use?

WM: Steam

JM: Steam engines?

WM: At one place they had it driven by steam pump. To deep mine they would use a gravel pump as they used to call them. In one mine they would haul it up to the surface.

JM: How did they used to do their digging? Did they use the machinery to do that?

WM: They had gravel pumps driven by steam pump and they used to pump it up to the surface where it ran out you see. One mine, the Briseis out at Derby, had a water race cut I think from the river about twelve miles or so and they used the water power. At first they used a lot of hydraulic blowers and afterwards they used the pelting and that drive the pump.

JM: What about the Chinese, they didn't have the machinery, what did they use?

WM: They did it mostly by hand. In the early days they used wheel barrow because they only worked the shallower not the deep lines. They had a way of shifting the overburden and they used to get the washes as they called it - the sluice races to extract the tin from the wash and the over burden was wheeled aside in a wheel barrow. It was all pick and shovel work.

JM: That would separate the tin and so on?

WM: Through a sluice race and wash the sand away and extract the tin from that.

JM: I've seen some photos of your mine and you had water coming out at pressure. What did you use to get the water?

WM: The water race would be on a higher level and they would use pipe you see. On some mine they used a larger pipe, but we used a small pipe.

JM: Was there ever any other mining in the area apart from tin? Was tin the only thing mined?

WM: There was gold mining but very little, it wasn't sufficient. Eventually they had to work the tin.

JM: The tin eventually worked out and that is why a lot of people left?

WM: Yes. The Arbar Mine closed in 1920 or round about.

JM: When you get the tin out, where was it sent to?

WM: In the very early days it was shipped to Lefroy. There used to be a ship that transported it to Bridport.

JM: By road?

WM: Yes then by boat.

JM: Where to?

WM: Launceston. The railway came from Launceston to Scottsdale and that was pretty close to the field and that was sixteen miles to Branxholm.

JM: Who bought the mine from you?

WM: Mt.Bischoff on the west coast had a small smouldering works in Launceston.

JM: And they were the buyers were they?

WM: Yes there were two or three agents, but Mt.Bischoff was the main one. Different companies all went to the one works.

JM: Can you remember some of the prices you were paid for the tin?

WM: One stage it used to be worth about three or four pounds a bag. Different prices at different times. During the First World War the prices slumped and the Government made certain prices for certain times. Some of the miners at that time would only work three days a week; that was just sufficient enough to keep them going. The prices would go up and down - fluctuate a lot. I can't remember a lot.

JM: Three or four pounds a bag, that is a good indication. What did the tin mining do to the country? Did it make it pretty barren around there?

WM: A lot of the population depended on it for work and gradually they did farming. Families would have small holdings and they would gradually clear the farm and a number of them would have a mine as well. I can remember quite a lot of them getting their farm cleared.

JM: As the price of tin went down did you do other work as well?

WM: Some of the men worked around the farms and did odd jobs.

JM: You didn't do much mining in the summer as you had a water shortage.

WM: Most of the small holdings were depending on the sea and even the large companies had a large supply even then. Most of the miners in the summer time would do contract wood cutting. They used to stack the wood as well for the winter months. The Arbar Mine used to use a tremendous amount of timber.

JM: That was for their steam engines. Was that when you used to do your timber cutting in the summer? You used to make railway sleepers and...

WM: Mr Kincade and I do paling splitting and make posts and railing for a farmer and that sort of thing. Eventually we went tin mining. When the Arbar Mine closed down he took on a tribute of a certain section and I think that was in 1921. A lot of Chinese were old and went back to China and I left and Tas Kincade took over the plant. My brother-in-law offered me a place in Western Australia and I came over here.

JM: Did Tas Kincade keep going on the mine after you left?

WM: I think so.

JM: Are there any of the old workings still there. Can you still see any of the workings still there?

WM: Most of the places were grown up when I went back there. I didn't have much time to have a look around.

JM: What sort of Chinese custom would the men do in their spare time?

WM: They used to play dominoes and fan-tan (a sort of gambling) and that sort of thing. They would opium smoke and get together to pass the time away.

JM: Did they have any clubs to go to?

WM: There was a club formed called the See Ipp Club. It was actually in a store in a room for that purpose where the men used to gather to pass the time away and play dominoes and that sort of thing.