Towns and places

The Eastern Goldfields is made up of hundred towns both big and small. Outback Family History would like to bring you a collection of stories about some of these abandoned towns which you may never have heard of. Some may only have been there for a few years and now very little remains of the small thriving communities.

Bardoc Cemetery – ghost towns

I recently had the good fortune to be take out to the two Bardoc Cemeteries by Kellie Carter from Mt Vetters Station. The first Cemetery has only has one headstone, that of L J Dudley, and there is a memorial stone to Kellie’s Grandfather, Wesley Wallace CARTER. This was the original cemetery which never ended […]

Killed by Lightning – Rody Schwan

Kalgoorlie Western Argus 20 September 1904, page 12 KILLED BY LIGHTNING – R SCHWAN, PROSPECTOR – LAVERTON Sept. 14, 1904 News has just reached Laverton that a well-known prospector, ” Rody Schwan, was killed by lightning yesterday afternoon at the Daisy Belle, a prospecting show about 12 miles west of Duketon. The weather during the […]

The Sons of Gwalia Sunbeam

The following article was written by Peter Ransom and first appeared in the February edition of the journal of the Vintage Car Club Of  Queensland. It is now reproduced with his kind permission. This is one for the car enthusiasts! Apologies in advance for anyone living in Leonora ie ‘The Middle of Nowhere’ (: THE […]

The Bulletin Hotel – by Henry Lawson

I was drifting in the drizzle past the Cecil in the Strand Which, I’m told is very tony – and its front looks very grand And somehow fell a-thinking of a pub I know so well Of a place in West Australia called The Bulletin Hotel Just a little six-room shanty built of corrugated tin […]

Merchants -v- Miners ‘when theres a gold rush, sell shovels!’

“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 that most miners ever dreamed of. The following is a snapshot of […]