A Most Prestigious Hotel:

  When driving to Perth from Kalgoorlie you may have seen a sign on the left not long after the Yellowdine Road House and before Moorine Rock, directing you to Mt Palmer. But have you ever ventured there??? In 1935 it was thought that Palmers Find (AKA Mt Palmer), 23 miles from Southern Cross, would […]

F E Randell & Co – pioneer profile

Weekly Times 10 September 1898, page 48 F. E. RANDELL & CO. Messrs F. E. Randell and Co. are well known on the West Australian goldfields as carrying and forwarding agents. Their head office is at Fremantle, having lately been transferred to that rising port, from the goldfields, and there are branches at Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie, […]

My dearest Lottie – letters home

Several years ago I received a letter from Ian Hopley regarding some old correspondence he found amongst his late mother’s papers. They were written by his Great Grandfather William Webster, first from Victoria and then from Malcolm in the Murchison of Western Australia. The letters mention his daughter Delia, nicknamed Deanie, who was Ian’s Grandmother. […]

The Murder of the Duke of Sutherland:

John Sutherland, better known as the ‘Duke of Sutherland’, died on the 26th of February 1895 in his own camp at Nannine, in the Meekatharra district. His age was not known. He was a miner who was shot dead by an old friend, Henry Augustus Muller, who then killed himself. Both men were old identities […]

The Healthy Ways of the Goldfields by Amanda Lovitt

Dr. Edward Willis WAY was born in England on 6th October 1846. He travelled to South Australia with his family as a small child, arriving on 14th November 1850.  Dr. E Willis Way as he was commonly referred to, studied at both Guys’ Hospital London and the University of Edinburgh. He was involved in a […]