Maurice Shaumer
Maurice Shaumer at Lightning Ridge. It is unknown which man in the photograph is Maurice. Photograph: Lightning Flash Newspaper, 25 August 1988.
Maurice Max Shaumer (sometimes Schaumer) was an opal buyer in the early days at White Cliffs, and later at Lightning Ridge. Born in Kraków, Poland in 1869, son of Caroline and Bernard, Shaumer had found his way to Australia by 1892 — apparently on a ship that had been twice resurrected from the bottom of Sydney Harbour. He was married in 1893 in Prahran, Victoria, to wife Zara (nee Gerschel) with whom he had four children.
Maurice Shaumer was an opal buyer at both White Cliffs and Lightning Ridge, and also had exploits in other gemstones including diamonds and pearls. He was trained by jewellers prior to coming to Australia, his first occupation on arrival was as a jeweller for Drummond’s in Melbourne. He quickly became fascinated with Australian Opal.
This fascination lead him to Adelaide, and eventually north to White Cliffs in New South Wales, where he bought opal directly from the miners there. He found the industry lucrative, also buying opal at Lightning Ridge.
Shaumer continued to travel a great deal, not staying in one place for very long. Between 1895 and 1921 he traveled to: Gibraltar; Melbourne, Australia; England; White Cliffs, NSW; Fremantle, Western Australia; Singapore; Broome, Western Australia; Adelaide, South Australia; Cape Town, South Africa; Dulwich, England; London, England (where he resided for a time), then finally returning to Australia to settle at Armadale, Victoria for the remainder of his years.
In 1905, Shaumer delivered the eulogy for fellow Pole Mr. Mark Leibglid, who was murdered at Broome. In 1907, Schaumer was again adjacent to a murder when his relative and business partner Mr. Bernard Bauer, a Melbourne diamond merchant, was killed during a jewel heist.
In the 1910s, Shaumer ran a pearling operation out of Broome, which was apparently quite successful.
Maurice Shaumer passed away on 10 October 1952 at Windsor, Victoria and is buried at St Kilda, Victoria.
Article: Research by Russell Gawthorpe and Leisa Carney, edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz. Sources: ‘No Title’, Dampier Despatch, 2 September 1905, pp. 3-4; ‘The Melbourne Murder - Sensational Development - Notorious Criminal Suspected - Tracing his Movements’, The North West Post, 13 June 1907, p. 3; ‘Social Gossip’, The Sun, 21 December 1913, p. 20; Lightning Flash Newspaper, 25 August 1988.