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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.

St Anthony’s – Coolgardie Convent

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We have been fortunate indeed to have been given access to the admission records of St Anthony’s, Coolgardie or The Coolgardie Convent. The records are being made available to us by the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of Australia and Papua New Guinea Archives and Heritage. We very much appriciated their assistance. The first […]

Dead Men’s Gold:

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A Story of the Early Days of Hannans. Written in Nov 1904. I’m full up of Hannans Find,” remarked my mate. ” I’m off back to Coolgardie”. “You’ll go alone,” I laconically added. I felt a bit disappointed in Dick. I was a curious fellow in those days  and usually without a mate, but I […]

Where is Quinns – ghost towns

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xgy z vxsd+632. Many of you may not have heard of the small settlement of Quinns in the Murchison of Western Australia. It is described in 1895 as ‘A picturesque spot, half way between Nannine and Barambi, and was at one time the largest alluvial field on the Murchison. The Phoenix is the main mine, […]

The Coolgardie Safe – a family story

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Several members of the McCormick family were to emigrate from South Australia to Western Australia in the late 1890’s but the most well know of them, was Arthur Patrick McCormick who was the inventor of the ‘Coolgardie Safe’. The following photographs are connected to this family but are also valuable in their own right, as […]

Broad Arrow snapshot – all the little children

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I have just completed entering the  biographies on the people who are buried in the Broad Arrow Cemetery. Every cemetery provides a social and family history snapshot of the town where its located. Accident and disease show no favorites. I hope that this small section of deaths will provide a good example to compare to […]