Theodore Krakouer, Convict "Mermaid" 1851

http://simchafreo.info/krakouer.html

The name Krakouer of course comes from Krakow, a town in Poland with a large Jewish community. With attacks on Jews in Eastern Europe increasing throughout the 1800s, many headed west to England and America. Unfortunately, jobs and economic opportunities were limited, especially for those that did not speak English, and found themselves in a city the size of London. For many of these Jews, like Fagin in Oliver Twist, petty crime was the only means of survival, and inevitably, this landed them on boats heading for Australia. Besides, the Crown seemed quite happy to relocate as many Jews and Irish as far away from England as possible.

So back to Theodore Krakouer. After a trial in Portsmouth and a stretch in Portland Gaol, Theodore arrived in 1851 in the Swan River Colony, as WA Convict no. 232 on the Mermaid. He arrived with a mate of his, Elias Lapidus. They were a great pair: Theodore was sentenced to 15 years in WA for stealing clothes and money; Lapidus was sentenced to 15 years for receiving stolen clothes and money. He was the 'fence.'

The language of the day was interesting: his convict papers declared that his state of mind was "hopeful", and he was counted in the 1854 WA census in the category 'Jews, Mohammedans and Non-believers', such was the high regard officials had for these groups.

Theodore married Brina Israel, who arrived two years after him by her own choice. She arrived here with her sister Esther, who married Lapidus. The two women had made the remarkable decision to leave London to start a new life in this colony. They were two single women on supported passage to a colony that was desperate for domestic servants and wives for its male population (some would say there was not much of a difference).

Theodore was a Ticket of Leave man, meaning he could go off to work each day. When the bell rang at the Round House, he had to be back home. Many of the T.o.L. families lived in cottages here around the Round House. He worked as a teamster, in livery stables around Fremantle, similar to the one that existed in the current Atwell Arcade. He also worked in the bush, out along the Williams Rd, and seems to have passed on this ability with horses to his sons.

And now we come to the story of two of Theodore's sons, Rudolph and David, both born in Fremantle. I would like to take this opportunity to correct an historical injustice; namely, that the Holland Track should, by rights, have been called the Krakouer Track.

At the start of the WA Gold Rush, there was no direct route to the Goldfields—a problem for prospectors and the merchants trying to supply goods and services to the area. Several groups had attempted to cut a direct route across from the end of the railway line at Broomehill to the Goldfields, but all had failed.

Rudolph himself had been prospecting at Coolgardie and realised that a solution was needed. He was a good bushman, and had been very enterprising in the development of Broomehill. So, it is not surprising that he decided to organise an expedition to Coolgardie. Contrary to the official version of the history, it is clear from newspapers at the time that Rudolph both organised and financed the expedition. The Australian Advertiser said on 26 April 1893:

Mr RT Krakouer and party have left here, striking a direct route through the bush for the Goldfields. The evening previous to their projected departure, a farewell social, initiated by members of the Broomehill Cricket Club, of which Mr Krakouer was for years a most prominent member, was held in the Alpha Hall.

On April 14 1893, Rudolph and David left with John Holland and John Carmody to cut a route across to the Goldfields. The group started from Broomehill, 302km southeast of Perth. The Krakouer Bros and Holland reached Coolgardie two months later. They had surveyed and cleared over 500 km of unexplored country, providing the catalyst for developing the Goldfields.

However, a combination of John Holland big-noting himself in speeches and newspapers stories, and official antipathy to the Krakouers, meant that all official recognition went to Holland. Even two geographic features, Krakouer Rocks and Lake Krakouer were later renamed by officials, on what became known as Holland's Track. Attempts by Abraham Krakouer, the oldest brother, to recover the £393 spent by his younger brother on the expedition were rudely rebuffed by the WA government.

In the end, the role of Rudolph Krakouer in the development of the mining industry in W.A. was relegated to a footnote in W.A. history. The Krakouer Brothers went on to start a string of hotels from Collie to Norseman. More significantly, they married local indigenous women, starting a dynasty of football players of Jewish-Aboriginal descent. And perhaps this is the most fitting legacy from that one enterprising convict who arrived in Fremantle 155 years ago.

https://freotopia.org/people/krakouer.html