Mickey Well, September 2024

The Wiluna Legends

This is gold country. We’re about twenty kilometres south of the tiny outback town of Sandstone, Western Australia.

We weren’t there to find gold, although we did give it a go. We were there to find something far more personally valuable – the remains of my murdered brother’s wife. 

We’ve been to this region many times in the past nine years. It is easy to become despondent – to say the search area is vast is a VAST understatement. The former WA commissioner for police and gaslighting has referred to this region as “about the most remote area you could find on the planet.” 

I wanted to share a video of this latest search conducted by ‘The Wiluna Legends’, three blokes who have taken on a mammoth task without want of acknowledgment nor accolades. They’ve been clearing mine shafts in this region since hearing news reports following the 2020 inquest and conferring: “What a crock of bullshit!” (with reference to certain expert and persons of interest’ accounts) 

These magnificent ‘members of the public’ have actively searched for Jennie over the space of five years now, for no other reason than to provide peace for her family. We only heard about them in 2022, in their third season of searches. 

Richard, Jed, and Paul can sniff out abandoned mine shafts, having lived and breathed this landscape for years. The last time they conducted a search, I sat by my phone in Perth and rode a monumental high and abysmal low of a roller coaster ride, thinking any minute there might be THAT call, thereafter vowing the next time they headed Sandstone way we’d join them rather than sit at home drinking seven litres of wine and smoking a thousand cigarettes of hope. 

Dumping …things… down mine shafts is easy; digging it all out again to check if it were all dumped on purpose is a task unto itself. The Wiluna blokes do not fornicate with spiders, as the colloquial saying goes, so their searches involve great effort and small duty of personal care. 

One particular Mickey Well shaft seemed a clear winner. Listed on 2007 DMP surveys as ‘10-20m deep’ yet since having tonnes of random rubbish dumped within, then a kangaroo carcass placed atop (a standard outback diversion), gave us an added anticipation of result. Two days it took to clear, winch by winch, rock by rock, rope by rope. Meanwhile, a myriad of unsurveyed shafts were also found and cleared. 

All up, more than a dozen shafts were searched and cleared over the course of this one last long weekend. Properly cleared, too; no stone left unturned. A monumental effort of which I’ll be forever thankful to have witnessed. 

All of the Wiluna Blokes searches have been conducted utilising their own equipment, resources and time. Their actions, especially given the scale and difficulty of the search area, we hold in the highest of esteem. 

I wanted to share a more elaborate video from the weekend, and have tried several times to piece together video with voiceover to explain what occurred. All those drafts went in the bin for sounding too melancholy or monologue. Instead, I threw all the weekend videos into iMovie and generated an AI ‘magic movie’, results shared below. 

If any young person could help create a more professional version, I’d be most grateful. 

Until then, my lovely wife has succinctly shared our heartfelt thoughts: “To think longer than a second about what was witnessed and achieved over a 4 day weekend brings an instantaneous well of tears, the devoted and somewhat insane actions of the most awe inspiring people we could ever meet is truly heart wrenching and inspiring. Miss you already - Richard, Jed and Paul . Forever in our hearts and in our debt. Can’t wait to the next time. X”