First Steps
THE story of Karratha’s development is tied closely to the history of settlement in the North West. From the first tentative steps by maritime explorers such as Dampier, de Witt and Baudin to pioneers such as Gregory, Padbury and Hedlund. StreetWise Media revisits the rich history of the Pilbara in ’50 Years of Boom, Bust & Red Dog – The Life & Times of Karratha City’. As the ‘powerhouse of the nation’ approaches its 50th anniversary since it was gazetted a mining town on August 8, 1969, StreetWise will publish a series of stories featured in the commemorative booklet. Today, StreetWise takes readers to the historic ghost town of Cossack, 51km east of Karratha.
ON December 1, 1969, just four months after Karratha was gazetted a mining town, the Hamersley News reported that, “Western Australia has its share of ghost towns mainly scattered across the State’s goldfields but none has a more fascinating history – and future – than Cossack, the first port to be established on the North West coast.”
In its heyday, Cossack accommodated hundreds of European and Asian workers in the pearl shell and pastoral industries of the mid to late-1800s. The remote townsite boasted a Chinese bakery, Congolese tailor, Turkish bath and hotel called Perseverance.
By the turn of the century, the once bustling gateway to the North West was abandoned, though a few people stayed on until after WW2.
Cossack (formerly ‘Tien Tsin’) was the pearl capital of the Pilbara, the picturesque harbour chosen after Lars Peter Hedlund, in the cutter Mystery, sailed into Butchers Inlet near the mouth of the Harding River in 1863. (Hedlund’s descendants still live in the Pilbara).
Gazetted in 1872, Cossack became the port of call for the pastoral industry, with nearly 40,000 sheep shipped out by 1869. More than 60 pearl luggers also operated here by the 1870s.
The gold rushes of the late 1880s saw a wave of new migrants move through Cossack on the way to gold fields in WA. The population at Cossack peaked in 1895, with 141 Europeans and 266 Asiatics registered residents.
A decline in pearl shell prices and new, more lucrative fields in Broome sunk the boom town, also eclipsed by Point Samson where a new jetty was built in 1904 for bigger ships. Samson was gazetted in 1909 and Cossack was dissolved in 1910.
Hamersley News reported while, “Cossack was doomed to become a ghost town”, it was, “destined for greater things, although a deserted haven for vandals for many years it is now to have a complete facelift at the expense of the Western Australian Government”.
By 1920, Port Hedland replaced Cossack and Samson as the major port of the North-West. Today, it is managed as a tourist destination by the City of Karratha, which in July held the 27th annual Cossack Art Awards.
Supported by the City, Woodside, SCOOP Property, Merenda Gallery and a number of local businesses, limited copies of ’50 Years’ are available at melnet@westnet.com.au.
