The Coolgardie safe and its connection to my home town

Tweet

I’ve been reading a book of Australian stories and tales. In one section it talks about people who came up with innovations that helped people of the day have an easier life. One of these inventions was the ‘Coolgardie safe’, also often called a ‘meat safe’. In the 1890s, a man called Arthur McCormick was living in Coolgardie, a gold-mining town in Western Australia. He made a wooden box, covered it with hessian bagging with strips of flannel draped down the sides. A metal tray on the top was filled with water and water dripped down the flannel strips keeping the contents of the box cool by evaporation. To prevent ants from crawling up into the safe, the legs would be stood in tins full of kerosene or water. The old-fashioned canvas water-bag also operates on the same principle. The other interesting fact in the story says that Arthur McCormick later became Mayor of Narrogin from 1927 to 1930. Narrogin is the town where Vince and I both grew up. It was before my time of course but my mother would have been 17 when he was appointed. I wonder if she knew him. The photo shows typical Nullarbor/Goldfields scenery.