There are many ‘Firsts’ that have occurred in the Goldfields and one of them is that we had the first female police officer, Helen Blanche Dugdale who was appointed from Kalgoorlie. The Police Historical Society have recognised the contribution of Helen Dugdale and in 2006 the Goldfields Family History Society had a plaque placed on […]
Bridget Delia OATES – grave tales
24/06/2022 By Leave a Comment
The following photograph is of the headstone and grave of Bridget Delia Oates, who was the beloved wife of Richard Knight Oates, born in County Clare Ireland on 28 Jan 1873. She died at Kalgoorlie on the 17th Sep 1909 aged 37 years. This photograph was taken just after the headstone, ledger, and grave fencing […]
Merchants -v- Miners ‘when there’s a gold rush, sell shovels!’
24/06/2022 By Leave a Comment
“When there is a gold rush, ‘Sell Shovel’s’ was a term coined in the California Gold Rushes but it can be said to be true of the Gold Rushes in Australia. Many merchants selling everything from mining equipment to ribbons made more money than most miners ever dreamed of. The following is a snapshot of […]
Goolam Badoola of Bulgarbardoo –
18/06/2022 By Leave a Comment
Goolam Badoola of Bulgarbardoo was the only ‘Afghan’ camel teamster in Western Australia, to transfer from the declining transport industry and successfully developed a new industry for himself — a sheep station to which he gave the name Bulgarbardoo. Many of his countrymen, although tough, capable, and enterprising pioneers of Australia’s arid interior, stayed with […]
Medicine Corner Coolgardie –
18/06/2022 By Leave a Comment
The south-eastern corner of Forrest and Lefroy Streets Coolgardie was the scene of a transaction in the early 1890’s that gave the site the name of ‘Medicine Corner’. An old prospector and a young man fresh from Broken Hill camped on the site to which came an old man – he was ‘slab-chested, bow-legged, windmill-armed, […]
