A Most Determined Suicide – John Philp

Mental health is today something that we are much more aware of. In 1898 it was still a crime to attempt to kill yourself and was so until the mid 1960’s in most Australian states. This would be why Sergeant Sellenger said he would take no further action. Western Australian Goldfields Courier 8 January 1898, […]

The Man in a Mining Camp – by N E Gledhill

Men In A Mining Camp  – A tale by N.E. Gledhill This ‘Ripping Yarn’ from the pen of N E Gledhill is kindly shared by his Great Nephew Allen Gledhill with thanks:  As soon as I had explored the empty, hollow-sounding rooms of our new house in Boulder, I saw with delight that a huge […]

Life in the Australian Backblocks

THE BOUNDARY RIDER by Edward S Sorenson Life in the Australian Backblocks. The bush claims many lonely lives, none lonelier perhaps than that of the boundary rider, who is posted on the outskirts of a run to look after the stock, to watch the tanks and waterholes, and keep the boundary and intermediate fences in […]

A Dastardly Deed in Lefroy Street –

Coolgardie Miner 28 December 1897, page 5 SENSATIONAL SHOOTING. Attempted Murder by Four Armed Men A party of shop workers was held up in Forrest Street Coolgardie by two armed and masked men. There is so far no known motive for the dastardly crime and no arrests have been made. The police are baffled. One […]

The Donkey Man

The Mirror 14 December 1935, page 25 The Donkey Man – Sun-Tanned Outbacker Who Travelled 19,000Miles Now Cooks for Well-Sinkers on W.A. Station Most Western Australians retain vivid recollections of ‘the man with the donkey’ — the gallant A.I.F. man who with a donkey in the Hades of Gallipoli’s shot and shell conveyed wounded men […]