Charles Robert Ogilvie ‘Jack’ Cumbrae-Stewart – grave tales

Charles Robert Ogilvie Cumbrae-Stewart was born on 17 February 1867 in Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand. He was the son of Francis Edward STEWART and Agnes Catherine PARK. His father Francis Edward Stewart came to New Zealand as a child with his parents in the 1830’s from Bristol, England. There he met and married on the […]

Tragedy and Bravery on the Black Range

The Eastern Goldfields Miners Memorial currently has the names engraved of 1492 people who have lost their lives due to a workplace accident on a mine. Each and every name has a story to tell. This story is just one of many. On Anzac Day 1932 an accident occurred at the Old Oroya GM (near […]

Dunnsville’s Postmistress – they were first

Western Mail – Perth – 25 January 1908, page 27 EARLY GOLDFIELDS DAYS. Mrs. Arthur Dusantoy was the first woman in Dunnsville, and kept the first Post Office at that place, a rude structure, but typical of the buildings of the early goldfields days of Western Australia. Mrs. Dusantoy’s experiences may be best told in […]

The Black Tracker – a verse

The Black Tracker Swart bloodhounds of the fenceless West, Black gallopers that lead the Law, To whom your victims stand confessed By every lightest line they draw; The hawks that high above you sail Have eyes less keen to pierce the blue, The dingo on his hunting trail Runs slacker in the chase than you! […]

The Prospector who dug his own grave-

Sunday Times –  22 September 1940, page 10 The Prospector Who Dug His Own Grave The story of Franz Horneg (AKA Franz ERDMAN), a German and Anthon Johansen, called ‘The Swede’ (but was Norwegian), is a true story, yet if it had occurred to a fiction writer, the author would have probably rejected it as […]