10. Kalgoorlie`s other industry

For some time after gold was first discovered in Coolgardie and then shortly after in
1893 by Flanagan, Shea and their mate Paddy Hannan at what became known as
Hannan’s Find, there was an overwhelming dominance of men in the Eastern Goldfields.
This is hardly suprising given the conditions.
There was little water for drinking, cooking, cleaning or washing.
There was little arable land for fresh food and all supplies had to brought in by horse and
cart or camel from Perth.
Home was a tent or rough hut and you can just imagine the heat and cold, the dirt and
dust and the flies.
It was no place for a respectable lady.
As the town developed and Kalgoorlie was gazetted in September 1894, more and more
women came to town. Huts and tents made way for timber and corrugated iron clad
buildings, lined with hessian and canvas (sooo much more appealing).
Some married women joined their husbands and there were barmaids and nurses but
still there was a majority of unmarried men…and to provide ‘comfort’ to those hard
working but isolated unmarried men there were prostitutes who formed the largest
occupationally identifiable group of women on the goldfields.
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Some of the girls had made their way to Kalgoorlie independently. They were usually
English, Irish or Australian born women.
There were also Japanese and French girls who had been brought to the Goldfields,
probably unwillingly, by syndicates.
It was generally acknowledged that the French and Japanese girls were being exploited
by the men who ran the brothels. These men were not popular around town.
The numbers of Japanese and French girls decreased after Immigration Restriction Act
1901 but even though brothels generally became concentrated in Hay Street, the
Japanese girls tended to continued to operate outside that area, mainly near the corner
of Maritana Street where the Court House is now.
WWII saw the last of the Japanese girls who were ordered back to Japan by the
Emporer. Any Japanese girls who didn’t return were likely to have been placed in
internment camps.
In Kalgoorlie, most of the brothels, many of which were disguised as another business
such as a laundry operated in the main business area of Hannan and Maritana Streets
but also on Brookman, Egan and Wilson Streets. Interestingly, and probably not
surprisingly, even today, a visit to Questa Casa comes up on your bank statement as a
visit from a mobile mechanic!
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In March 1900 the Kalgoorlie Miner reported that the Kalgoorlie Town Council had put
together of a list of ‘a certain class of houses’ in Brookman, Egan, Cassidy and Lane
Streets, ‘where the evil is especially at home’. The list identified that, of the 48 women
listed, 35 were from France and Japan and only 4 were Australian.
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It’s important to bear in mind that prostitution itself was not illegal.
Soliciting was and keeping a premises for the purposes of prostitution (that is – a
brothel) was too.
Prostitutes could operate legally from their own homes but this was generally
considered undesirable in respectable residential areas.
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Keeping or managing a brothel or ‘a house of ill-fame and repute’ was also contrary to
the by-laws of the Kalgoorlie Town Council.
But there’s little evidence that the by-laws were consistently enforced, and complaints –
which increased as the number of ‘respectable’ women and families moved into town –
were generally referred to the police.
However the police tended to turn a blind eye to prostitution unless it was associated
with other criminal activity or where alcohol was involved.
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From 1895 on there was a trend towards regulating prostitution rather than prohibiting
it. It was generally considered that, particularly in areas such as the Goldfields, that it
prostitution was a necessary evil and that it was for the safety of the women of the town
and for the town’s overall social wellbeing that the trade be allowed to continue.
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A number of the brothels were located on a section of Brookman Street, Kalgoorlie
between Lane and Throssell Streets – the same street as the Police Station and Court
House.
That portion of Brookman Street was renamed as Hay Street in 1902, although it
continued to be referred to as Brookman Street for quite some time.
Hay Street first appears in the Post Office Directories in 1903. A large proportion of the
listed residents in Hay Street at the time are women which would seem a little unusual
given the continued gender imbalance in the town at the time.
The establishment of Hay Street as the town’s red-light district was not easy and was
generally opposed by neighbours. However, from about 1905 it was general police
practice to prosecute those brothels and prostitutes operating outside of Hay Street and
thus the unofficial and unwritten Containment Policy and the famous Hay Street,
Kalgoorlie were born.
From around 1915, a Containment Policy operated in Perth, with prostitution localised
to Roe Street in Northbridge.
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Hay Street became an institution of sorts in Kalgoorlie.
Apart from its obvious function, it provided the townspeople with a source of gossip and
amusement. Read John Bowler quote here.
The brothels developed a distinctive appearance with high corrugated iron fences across
the front of each property. Each girl waited for her next client off the street at the rear
of a ‘starting stall’ or runway behind a gate. These are still in place today Questa Casa
and at the Red House. The fences now form the façade of the buildings.
Questa Casa’s madam Carmel, believes her premises to be the oldest and only original
brothel remaining in Kalgoorlie.
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From very early on it was determined that a system of ‘sensible segregation’ was
required.
The unofficial and unwritten containment policy required that the madams, brothels and
working girls be registered with the police. The girls must live on the premises and they
was to be no men involved.
It was quite clear that Goldfields society did not accept the concept of men living off the
profits of the degradation of women. The brothels of Hay Street were definitely women
only affairs – except for the obvious male visitors of course.
The women were required to visit the doctor weekly. If a girl did not pass her medical
exam – she was not allowed to work.
These rules could be considered essential for the health and safety of the women.
However, their social exclusion must have been harder to take. The girls were not
allowed to visit the town except for their weekly visits to the doctor, and according to
some sources – the hairdresser (priorities right!). They weren’t permitted to visit pubs,
cinemas or shops anywhere in Kalgoorlie. Sources indicate that they were often
welcome in the hotels of other Goldfields towns – but not in Kalgoorlie.
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The containment policy was ‘in full swing’ by World War II (RHP) and continued
in Kalgoorlie for decades. Similar rules had been established for Roe Street in
Northbridge around 1915. but hese had been dissolved by about 1958 but
continued in Kalgoorlie.
Containment Rules from around the 1960s.
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Brothels must be located on Hay Street
Brothels, madams and workers had to be registered with the local police
Brothels must be owned and managed by women only
Men are not to profit in anyway from the operation of the brothels
Workers must be 21 years of age
Workers must submit to a weekly medical examination
Workers must reside on the brothel premises
Workers banned from visiting the Kalgoorlie town centre including hotels,
shops, cinemas and the swimming pool.
The Madams were permitted out and about in town – but not the girls.
There were other rules too – girls could not change premises without leaving
town for three weeks.
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It’s never been really clear whether the ‘rules’ were put in place by the police or
by the madams. Given the resistance within the industry to the demise of the
Containment Policy it’s clear that the conditions were certainly supported by the
madams.
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In 1997, the brothel at 181 Hay Street, one of the most well known brothels in
Kalgoorlie and best known as Langtrees, run by Mary Anne Kenworthy, one of the state’s
most well known madams, was entered into the State Registration of Heritage Places.
The place was badly damaged in an ‘incident’ in which a car drove into it (LB find more
info) and in 1998 it was removed from the Register.
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It was later demolished and a modern building constructed in its place. It operated for a
short time as Langtrees, closing in 2012 after which it was opened as a boutique hotel.
However, because of her involvement in prostitution, Ms Kenworthy was not granted a
liquor licence and the hotel closed. It has more recently opened as a restaurant and
function Centre called Cecilia’s on Hay.
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Only two brothels continue to operate in Hay Street now – and only when the girls are
available.
Earning a living on Hay Street has changed. The Containment Policy has been abolished
– much to the delight of some madams and to the disappointment of others. Some
madams continued to operate their businesses essentially on the same basis as if the
Policy was still in place. Carmel, the madam at Questa Casa told me that there are times
when there are no girls willing or available to work there and that her business survives
on the still popular daily tours. In 2014 Mary Anne Kenworthy was reported as saying
that Kalgoorlie can support up to 20 girls and that there are still 20 working girls in
unregistered brothels in residential areas – exactly what the Containment Policy tried to
avoid.
However working girls now only need to own a mobile phone and put an advertisement
in the paper to operate wherever and whenever they like.
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I think it’s fair to say that Hay Street, Kalgoorlie has a definite place in the cultural
heritage of both Kalgoorlie and Western Australia.
The remaining brothels - Questa Casa and the Red House – are ongoing reminders of
Kalgoorlie’s long history as a male-dominated, large working mining town and they and
their predecessors at the same addresses and elsewhere in Hay Street were established
at the time of the containment policy in Kalgoorlie which was designed to regulate but
not abolish prostitution. In Western Australia, the continued operation of the
containment policy over a long period of time until early in the 2000s, is unique in
Western Australia.
Questa Casa and the Red House both still demonstrate the distinctive starting stalls for
which Kalgoorlie is well known.
A very quick search of InHerit indicates that there is only one other brothel on the
database – a house, and former brothel, at 137 Joel Tce in East Perth. Perhaps it’s time
that Kalgoorlie’s second most famous industry, be included on that database too.
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