The Farren’s of the Falls Hotel – by Jill Peady

The Prologue:  Thomas Farren was born in 1857 in Seascale in the west of England where the Sellafield nuclear power station is today. Mary Elizabeth ‘Polly’ Farren nee Saunders, was born in Birmingham in 1863. They were married in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1879, at which time Mary could not read or write. They lived […]

The Mysterious Case of the Missing Doctor –

A Wandering Pommy the story of Dr Dale OBE “Search Parties Unsuccessful” The mysterious disappearance of Dr Dale, who has been missing from Kookynie since Saturday last, has caused his friends in Kookynie great uneasiness. It appears that the doctor, who has been practising at Mr M. Schneider’s pharmacy during the past five months, went […]

A Tonsorial Dynasty – the Mickle boys

The Mickle family has established a dynasty of Hairdressers (Tonsorial Artists) and tobacconists in Western Australia. Starting in the Murchison and Northern Goldfields of WA, the four brothers and a nephew had premises in Menzies, Mt Magnet, Kookynie, Laverton and Wiluna, and Meekatharra. They would also open a business in Narrogin in later years. The […]

The Quantock Girls – grave tales

Ida was one of five girls from the Quantock family that lived in Kookynie at the turn of the last century. She died at the age of 19 yrs, 10 months on the 12th of May 1908 in the Kookynie Hospital from Typhoid fever. The above photograph was taken not long prior to her death. […]

A Case of Mistaken Identity –

While recently doing my daily post on the WAVMM ‘The Western Australian Virtual Miners Memorial’ I found that it was the anniversary of a disaster which caused the death of three men at the Englishman GM in Kookynie. These are the names of the men:- BOURKE John, Miner 3/02/1900 Age 35  Englishman  GM Kookynie MCKELVIC […]