Employees on Tramways – 1908 to 1960

The Kalgoorlie Electric Tramway Co was started in 1908. The following is an example of the employment record of three of 517 men (no women are listed) employed by the K.E.T. These original documents were copied by me with the kind permission of Trans Goldfields. There are five pages missing however, which is unfortunate. Some […]

Gus Thorn – pioneer profile

AUGUSTUS LOFTUS ‘GUS’ THORN by Lyn Beard The death of Augustus Loftus ‘Gus’ THORN does not appear to have been registered and the burial did not show up on any of the usual resources for graves. The only record of his death in 1932 seems to be this small article in The Goldfields Observer of […]

Mr Schumann – a man of enterprise

Margaret Hartley’s ancestors had a long and varied history in the Murchison district of Western Australia. She has very kindly sent me the following photographs and details of her Schumann family. The Schumann family outside their house at Day Dawn about 1907 GULLEWA  GOLDFIELD The WA Record 27th Feb1897

A Woodline Childhood by Ron Matthews

From the late 1890s until the early 1950s because all heavy machinery was steam-driven, vast quantities of wood were required to fuel the boilers, coal was too expensive. Consequently, Wood Lines were born. The last surviving company was “The Western Australian Goldfields Firewood Supply Limited” which ceased operations in 1964. From early 1946 until the […]

Woodarra – now your but a memory blurred !

The town of Woodarra was surveyed and gazetted on January 14, 1898. It was also known as Darlot, Lake Darlot, or Ballangarry, all names were used at different times. It was located between Laverton and Leinster. Woodarra is the name given by the local Aboriginals to a line of Granite rocks from which a supply […]