Death Of Mr George

Watkins

THE death has just occurred, on Wood lark Island, of Mr. George Watkins —who was everywhere known affec tionately as “Old George.” He was 82, and he had not left the island since he went there as a young man of 35, 47 years ago. He was a prospector in Queensland, and he followed the 1898 rush to Woodlark. He was highly skilled, and could find gold where other men missed entirely. He and Charles Coppard did much work together on the Busai field, when there were 500 miners there. His friends tried to persuade him to leave in 1942, when Jap invasion threatened, but he answered: “I’ve lived here most of my life, and I am not going to be driven out now by a lot of dirty little yellow-bellies.” He was generous to a fault, and would always lend a helping hand to people in trouble, whether black or white.