James Frederick Porter (1855-1919) was an Australian engineer and mine manager of the

Gippsland Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers ...

region of Victoria.

Biography

James Porter (known as ‘Jim’) was born on 10 April 1855 in

Hindmarsh, South Australia Hindmarsh is an inner Suburbs and localities (Australia), suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is located in the City of Charles Sturt. The suburb is located between South Road, Adelaide, South Road to the west and North Adelaide. The Rive ...

. His father, Frederick Charles Porter, a miner and explorer of the Gippsland district, brought the family overland to Victoria in 1859. In late 1863, the family settled near the Fulton's Creek and

Donnelly's Creek Donnelly's Creek was a gold rush town located in the mountains of Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, approximately 40 kilometres north of Walhalla. In its heyday it was home to over 1,200 miners and other residents. Today the town is deserted; howev ...

alluvial goldfields. As a nine-year old, whilst fossicking, Porter discovered a high-yielding quartz-gold reef near his parents’ inn, which was named ‘Boy’s Reef’, after him. When Porter was just 14 years of age, his father died. While his widowed mother, Eliza, took the younger children to

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

to live, Jim Porter remained in the district, seeking work in the local mines. Over the next decade he honed his skills in the mines as a carpenter and engineer. In 1880, he married Sarah McGregor Sutherland, with whom he reared eight children. By 1899, Porter was the manager of the BB Quartz Gold Mining Company on BB Creek on the

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan ( ar, نَهْر الْأُرْدُنّ, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn'', he, נְהַר הַיַּרְדֵּן, ''Nəhar hayYardēn''; syc, ܢܗܪܐ ܕܝܘܪܕܢܢ ''Nahrāʾ Yurdnan''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Shariea ...

goldfields, which his father had helped open up, back in 1862. His engineering skills helped this mine produce a record yield in its first seven months of battery crushing (i.e. 1,694 ounces of gold from 1,952 ton of rock). Porter also worked on the nearby Argyle Mine, erecting its

poppet head In folk magic and witchcraft, a poppet (also known as poppit, moppet, mommet or pippy) is a doll made to represent a person, for casting spells on that person or to aid that person through magic. They are occasionally found lodged in chimneys. T ...

. In 1901 Porter was employed as an engineer and shift boss in the Great South Long Tunnel Gold Mining Company in Walhalla, one of the mines digging Victoria’s richest gold-bearing quartz reef with shafts over 3,300 feet deep. In 1912, with the gold depleted and the town dying, Porter moved to Bruarong near

Yackandandah Yackandandah is a small tourist town in northeast Victoria, Australia. It is near the regional cities of Wodonga and Albury, and is close to the tourist town of Beechworth. At the , Yackandandah had a population of 2,008. History The indigeno ...

, where he oversaw the local gold-dredging operations. Dredges had replaced the old sand pumps and were operating in the creek beds. He worked for the Briseis Tin and General Mining Company. Porter retired in 1917, when he was contacted by the

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (Austral ...

to collect his badly

shell-shock Shell shock is a term coined in World War I by the British psychologist Charles Samuel Myers to describe the type of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) many soldiers were afflicted with during the war (before PTSD was termed). It is a react ...

ed son, Alfred, who had been invalided home from the

Somme __NOTOC__ Somme or The Somme may refer to: Places *Somme (department), a department of France *Somme, Queensland, Australia *Canal de la Somme, a canal in France *Somme (river), a river in France Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Somme'' (book), a ...

. Porter died from

bronchial asthma Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, coug ...

, a common disease amongst miners, on 8 September 1919, aged 64 years.S.J. Porter-Sampson, ''Porter...They Be Thy People'', Adelaide, 1988, pp. 116, 121; J. and J. McDonald, ''Three William McDonalds'', Canberra, 2010, pp. 171-173.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Porter, James Frederick 1855 births 1919 deaths People from Adelaide Australian mining engineers Australian miners Settlers of Victoria (state) 19th-century Australian engineers People from the Colony of Victoria