Kathleen Valley – ghost town

Kathleen Valley  –  Western Australia Located in the Leonora District Latitude : 27 31 S Longitude : 120 34 E Kathleen (Kathleen valley) is an abandoned townsite in the East Murchison Goldfield, located about 50 km north of Leinster. Gold was discovered in the area in 1897, and a townsite was gazetted in 1900. Locals […]

The Women of the West –

They left the vine-wreathed cottage and the mansion on the hill, The houses in the busy streets where life is never still, The pleasures of the city, and the friends they cherished best: For love they faced the wilderness -the Women of the West. The roar, and rush, and fever of the city died away, […]

The Queen of White Feather –

The Queen of White Feather A true story of the introduction of the first barmaid in Kanowna in 1896 by John Drayton. Smith’s Weekly Sydney – 2 September 1922, page 24 TOM DOYLE, licensee of the Kanowna Hotel (White Feather) in 1896, introduced the first barmaid to the fields. There were, women in the camp, […]

Snake’s Opals by W Watkins

Western Mail Perth – 29 December 1949 Snake was afraid! It was dangerous to have ‘struck it rich’ when Harrod was around . . . Snake Sherwood was just beginning his after-tea smoke when he heard the horse approaching through the mulga scrub that bordered the old opal cut. “Damn!” he muttered “Just as I […]

The Death of Stephen Grace

Western Mail Perth -19 October 1907, page 16 AN EAST MURCHISON TRAGEDY THE DEATH OF STEPHEN GRACE – MURDERED BY NATIVES A telegram was received this afternoon from Constable Walker, who proceeded from Wiluna to bury the body of Stephen Grace, one of Kirkpatrick Bros party of prospectors who was speared through the chest by […]