E Lee Steere and Co Merchants heritage sign in Austin Street Cue
Stories Above the Street  •  Cue

E. Lee Steere & Co.

From boots, saddlery and mining supplies in Cue to pastoral empires, champion racehorses and a knighthood — the story behind this Austin Street sign reaches far beyond the shopfront.

From Murchison merchant to Western Australian knight

This was much more than a general store.

The restored sign above Austin Street remembers E. Lee Steere & Co., merchants supplying boots, saddlery and mining requisites to a rapidly developing Murchison goldfield.

Behind the business was Ernest Augustus Lee Steere, a pastoralist who diversified into transport, stores, forwarding and merchandise during difficult years on the land. Those sidelines eventually became a commercial network stretching across the Murchison.

At a glance
Born: 19 March 1866
Birthplace: Near Beverley, WA
Belele: Joint owner from 1890
Mail contractor: 1895
Heritage sign: 1897
Cue premises: Photographed 1901
Later title: Sir Ernest Augustus Lee Steere
Knighted: 1948
Died: 22 December 1957
Before the shop

He came north looking at pastoral country, not gold.

Ernest Lee Steere began work young, first as a stockman and later as an overseer. In 1888, carrying his swag and riding an ageing racehorse named Star of the East, he travelled through the Murchison to assess its pastoral potential.

1888

Into the Murchison

Lee Steere travelled north to examine the country and was sufficiently impressed to return.

1890

Belele Station

He returned as joint owner with his uncle J. B. Roe of Belele Station, a vast sheep and cattle property near Meekatharra.

BELELE TODAY

Near Meekatharra

Belele lies roughly 50 kilometres north-west of Meekatharra. Lee Steere later expanded the pastoral company enormously and acquired other properties across Western Australia.

When the pastoral seasons failed

Instead of chasing gold, he built businesses around the people who did.

Drought made pastoral income uncertain just as gold was transforming the Murchison. Lee Steere was tempted by mining but chose another path.

He invested instead in mail transport between Nannine and Peak Hill, a local butchery, the Nannine general store and eventually a merchandise and forwarding business.

The gold rush therefore became an opportunity without Lee Steere needing to sink a shaft. Miners, pastoralists and new settlements all needed food, transport, equipment and reliable supply lines.

The mail must get through  •  1895

Lee Steere helped connect the scattered Murchison.

In January 1895 the Western Australian Government accepted Ernest Lee Steere's tender to carry the weekly mail between Nannine and Peak Hill.

The route ran through The Gap, Garden Gully, Abbott's, Belele, Moorarrie Cattle Yards and Mount Fraser. The contract paid £475 per year and specified that the service was to be undertaken in a spring vehicle.

£475 per year

Nannine to Peak Hill.

The same man later remembered for selling boots and saddlery in Cue had already been responsible for moving government mail through remote Murchison country.

E. Lee Steere & Co.

A commercial network spread across the goldfields.

Contemporary advertising described E. Lee Steere & Co. not merely as storekeepers, but as General Merchants & Importers and Stock, Station, Forwarding, Insurance, Mining and Transport Agents.

MERCHANTS

Goods for remote towns

Stores supplied equipment and everyday goods to communities far removed from the major ports and wholesalers of the south-west.

FORWARDING

Moving the supplies

Selling equipment was only useful if it could reach the customer. Forwarding and transport became a major part of the firm's regional role.

AGENCY WORK

More than retail

The company acted in stock, station, insurance, mining and transport matters — effectively becoming a regional business service as well as a merchant.

Across the Murchison

A surviving company advertisement listed representatives at Meekatharra, Abbotts, Chesterfield, Peak Hill, Star of the East, Burnakura, Quinns, Gabanintha, Gum Creek, Lake Way, Cue and Geraldton, with the firm's principal Murchison office identified at Nannine.

Austin Street  •  1901

The Cue premises survive in the photographic record.

This remarkable streetscape photograph leaves no doubt that E. Lee Steere & Co. was operating prominently in Austin Street by 1901.

E Lee Steere and Co premises in Austin Street Cue in 1901
Commercial Cue

E. Lee Steere & Co. — Merchants

The firm's large roof sign dominates the left of the photograph. Beside it are other traders whose names survive elsewhere in Stories Above the Street, giving us an unusually clear picture of how Cue's early businesses fitted together.

One photograph. Several stories.

The Lee Steere premises connect directly with H. F. Goss.

Immediately alongside the Lee Steere business in the 1901 photograph is the signage of H. F. Goss — Draper & Outfitter.

Another surviving photograph of Goss identifies his early shop as forming part of Mr E. Lee Steere's premises in Austin Street.

Together, the photographs show that Austin Street was not simply a row of isolated shops. Buildings, landlords, merchants and neighbouring businesses were closely interconnected.

E Lee Steere and Co branch at Nannine around 1900
E. Lee Steere & Co. branch, Nannine, c.1900.
Nannine

Cue was one branch of a much larger Murchison operation.

Nannine had particular importance in Lee Steere's business life. His early investments there included the general store and the mail service north to Peak Hill.

The Australian Dictionary of Biography describes his merchandise and forwarding agency as operating successively through Cue, Nannine, Meekatharra and Geraldton.

The surviving Nannine photograph helps place the Austin Street shop inside that broader network rather than viewing it as a standalone local store.

The company

Lee Steere did not build the merchant network alone.

Official partnership records list Ernest Lee Steere of the Upper Murchison together with Eustace Lane of Cue, their occupations recorded as pastoralist and agent.

In 1903 Lee Steere and Lane announced that the firm's Geraldton business had been sold to Frank E. Davis.

E. Lee Steere & Co. would continue its business on the Murchison.

That notice neatly captures where the firm's commercial strength still lay: the inland pastoral and mining districts that had created it.

A much bigger stage

The merchant became one of Western Australia's leading pastoral figures.

As his pastoral holdings expanded, Lee Steere became increasingly prominent in Western Australian agriculture and business.

He became a foundation member and later president of the Pastoralists' Association of Western Australia, chaired major commercial organisations, served as a director of Western Australian Airways and was president of Perth's Weld Club.

From Cue to State leadership

Pastoralist. Merchant. Director.

His interests ultimately included pastoralism, wool, meat export, finance, aviation and racing — a remarkable expansion from the regional businesses that helped him survive the difficult early years at Belele.

Newspaper report on Ernest Lee Steere overseas tour and pastoral matters
From the Murchison to the world

The Austin Street merchant eventually represented Australian pastoral interests overseas.

A later newspaper report on one of Lee Steere's overseas journeys shows just how dramatically his sphere of activity had expanded.

As president of the Pastoralists' Association of Western Australia he planned to represent Australian woolgrowers at a conference in Bradford, discuss migration and Fairbridge Farm School matters and study the British wool market.

And even among wool conferences and pastoral affairs, another of his great interests remained firmly on the itinerary: horse racing.

Another great WA connection

He married into the family of C. Y. O'Connor.

On 16 December 1909, Ernest Lee Steere married Bridget Yelverton O'Connor at St Mary's Church of England in West Perth.

Bridget was a daughter of engineer Charles Yelverton O'Connor — C. Y. O'Connor, whose work included Fremantle Harbour and the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme.

It created another fascinating connection between the early Murchison merchant and one of the most important engineering families in Western Australian history.

The turf

From selling mining supplies in Cue to taking on Phar Lap at Flemington.

Horse racing became Lee Steere's great recreation and one of the areas in which his name became known nationally.

He chaired the Western Australian Turf Club from 1919 to 1940 and owned a succession of outstanding racehorses.

The progression is extraordinary: within a few decades, the Murchison businessman whose company supplied miners and pastoralists had become one of Australia's best-known racehorse owners.

Champions in the all-red colours

Eurythmic, Maple and Second Wind.

1920

Eurythmic

Lee Steere's champion won the 1920 Caulfield Cup and later the Sydney Cup, becoming one of Australia's outstanding racehorses of his era.

1928

Maple

Lee Steere returned to Caulfield Cup success when his mare Maple won the race in 1928.

1930

Second Wind

His horse Second Wind finished second in the 1930 Melbourne Cup. The horse that beat him was one of the greatest names in Australian racing history: Phar Lap.

Flemington  •  1930

Second only to Phar Lap.

The 1930 Melbourne Cup belongs permanently to the legend of Phar Lap. Crossing the line behind him in second place was Second Wind, owned by Ernest Lee Steere.

It is an extraordinary endpoint to a story that began with a pastoralist diversifying into mail runs and general stores on the Murchison.

1930 Melbourne Cup

1st — Phar Lap
2nd — Second Wind

The name above a small Austin Street shopfront ultimately became connected with one of the most famous races in Australian sporting history.

Later years

The merchant became Sir Ernest Lee Steere.

Lee Steere's later life was marked by leadership in pastoral, commercial and community organisations across Western Australia.

In 1946 he gave his Yanda property at Mingenew to the State for the War Service Land Settlement Scheme.

Having previously declined the honour, Ernest Augustus Lee Steere was knighted in 1948.

He died at his Perth home on 22 December 1957, aged 91.

From Beverley to the Murchison and beyond

The life of Ernest Augustus Lee Steere.

1866

Born

Born near Beverley in Western Australia.

1888

Murchison

Travels north to assess the pastoral country.

1890

Belele

Returns as joint owner of Belele Station near Meekatharra.

1895

Mail contract

Wins the Nannine–Peak Hill mail contract.

1897

Merchants

Date remembered on the restored E. Lee Steere & Co. sign.

1901

Austin Street

Cue premises photographed beside H. F. Goss.

1909

O'Connor family

Marries Bridget Yelverton O'Connor.

1919–40

WA Turf Club

Serves as chairman for more than two decades.

1920

Eurythmic

Wins the Caulfield Cup.

1930

Phar Lap

Second Wind runs second to Phar Lap in the Melbourne Cup.

1948

Sir Ernest

Knighted after decades of pastoral and public service.

1957

Aged 91

Dies at his home in Perth.

Modern E Lee Steere and Co Merchants heritage sign above Austin Street Cue
Stories Above the Street

The merchant's name is back above Austin Street.

The restored sign remembers E. Lee Steere & Co. — Merchants and specifically advertises boots, saddlery and mining requisites.

Those goods perfectly reflect the world in which Lee Steere operated: miners requiring equipment, pastoralists depending on horses and saddlery, and remote communities linked by transport and supply networks.

What the sign cannot show is just how far the man behind the name would travel — from a Murchison pastoral station and Austin Street merchant business to the leadership of major Western Australian organisations and, ultimately, a knighthood.

Historical note

This page draws on the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Western Australian Government Gazette records, State Library of Western Australia material and surviving photographs of E. Lee Steere & Co. The Australian Dictionary of Biography records Lee Steere travelling through the Murchison in 1888 and returning in 1890 as joint owner of Belele Station; some older accounts give 1888 as the acquisition date. The restored Cue heritage sign carries the date 1897, while the surviving photograph independently confirms the Austin Street premises in 1901. The Nannine branch photograph is presented with the approximate date supplied with the historical image collection.

Stories Above the Street

From boots and saddlery in Cue to a knighthood — with Phar Lap somewhere in between.

Ernest Augustus Lee Steere never made his fortune by chasing the Murchison's gold. Instead, he supplied and connected the communities that grew around it. Mail contracts, stores, transport and forwarding helped build a business network across the region. Pastoralism later carried his name onto the national stage, while champion racehorses and decades of public service added entirely new chapters. The modest merchant sign above Austin Street is the beginning of a much larger Western Australian story.