The people of the Goldfields

The Goldfields of Western Australia was and still is made up of many people, from poets to politicians, from saints and sinners and everything in between. I hope to tell you the stories of some of these people either famous or infamous or just the ordinary folks. Sometime the most ordinary people do the most extraordinry things

Murder or Suicide – that is the question

Albert Lockner, a prospector who supposedly died of thirst within 2 miles of the later famed ‘chain of water holes’, making the tragedy particularly distressing. Norman K Sligo who had joined in the search for the missing man met the police at the Donkey Rocks, about 120 miles from Coolgardie. Sligo said that in his […]

The I.O.U – Bulong Cemetery

Bulong’s ‘Second’ Cemetery – Reserve 3978 102 Burials GPS Coordinates – 30.76511, 121.79686 Tis sad to see these friendless graves And think of those who lie therein Their mute appeal some tribute craves For love which in the past had been. ASHWOOD Thomas – d 3 Apr 1906, at Bulong Hospital, 58yrs, Occ: Clerk/Labourer, Cause: Heart […]

Tommy Ningebong by Phil Bianchi

My good friend and fellow historian, Phil Bianchi, recently wrote a book on the well-known bushman, tracker, drover and pastoralist Tommy Ningebong. Tommy was a highly regarded Aboriginal man from the Wiluna district. Phil tells me that every person he interviewed about Tommy for the book spoke of how Tommy was a such a genuine […]

So All’s Well that Ends Well –

Western Mail Perth 30 January 1941, page 9 – The Dollypot Over the Plates – A Lucky Shot. by Big Jim Allanson. All sorts and conditions of men were to be found on the Murchison goldfield in 1893.  A number of prospectors were camped at a rocky pool on the west side of the Cuddingwarra […]

Joanni Fidele Scattini – grave tales

Joanni (Joseph) Fidele SCATTINI was born on the 17th Dec 1879 in Strathfieldsaye, Victoria to Giovanni Antonio Fidele SCATTINI (Born in Brione, Verzasca, Switzerland) and Mary Elizabeth GOOD (born Sheep Wash, Victoria). He married Martha Wilson in Kalgoorlie WA on the 5th Aug 1908. Martha was from Adelaide Lead VIC and was the daughter of […]