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 […]
The Cole Boys – a family story
02/09/2023 By 2 Comments
Sunday Times: 6 June 1920 COLE’S FIND NEAR WILUNA – HOW A RETURNED SOLDIER DISCOVERED A GOLDFIELD – By Horace Stirling George Cole, the discoverer of Cole’s Find, 11 miles south of Wiluna, Is a scion of a family of 15, four of whom first saw the light within an interval of eleven months. […]
The Parched Dry Desert of Tragedy
29/04/2023 By Leave a Comment
The Truth Perth 11 January 1931, page 11 GRISLY SUICIDE PACT OF THE OUTBACK Parched, Sun-Scorched and Mocked By The Cruel Phantom Of Water TRAGIC END OF KANGAROO SHOOTERS Henry Dyer, 55, of New Zealand and Laurie Raunio/Raunis, 31, native of Orimattila, Finland, died on November 3, 1930 about 100 miles north-west of Wiluna from […]
Coles’s Find – a fair prospect
28/01/2023 By 5 Comments
Sunday Times 6 June 1920, page 1 Cole’s Find Near Wiluna How a Returned Soldier Discovered a Goldfield by Horace Stirling George Cole, the discoverer of Cole’s Find, 11 miles south of Wiluna, is a scion of a family of 15, four of whom first saw the light within an interval of eleven months. His […]
The Woes of Jimmy Wongawol –
19/11/2022 By Leave a Comment
Daily News 1 October 1955, page 8 – by Bob Chambers Jimmy WONGAWOL, anywhere within 100 miles north, east or south of Wiluna, is a man with a problem. He has too many lives — those of his 2 wives, 11 children and 7 dogs He loves them all in his own way, and in […]
