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Note: At birth Matthew was registered as Matthew McLaren. The witness to the birth was Ann McCallum who signed as grandmother to the child. Ann McCallum was the mother of William Henry Walker. William and Mary were married in 1875.
Matthew arrived in Western Australia around 1895-1897 from the Victorian Goldfields. He worked in the W.A. goldfields as a deep miner, "Sons of Gwalia" mine.
Matthew and Maud were married in Mt Morgans - This was a large town gazetted in 1899. It was about 40km South of Laverton and 70 km North of Leonora. There first son was born in Mt Morgans.
Matthew and Maud had planned to start up as shopkeepers after Matthew developed the lung disease silicosis. They went to stay with his brother William Henry Walker at his farm near East Wagin and never left the farm.
The farm was named Cootarring farm, now farmed by his grandson. A conditional lease was granted to William Henry Walker on 15th Feb 1905 and passed on to Matthew who stayed on the farm after the death of his brother in a firearm accident 14th Dec 1905.
It is known that he sent Maud home to her mother in Victoria after the shooting accident.
I would assume that she would have travelled by train to Albany and then by ship to Melbourne. The East West railway did not open until 1917. At that time Albany was the major port in Western Australia and the railway ran from Albany to York.
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