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THE FATE OF DICK BRANDON: A Goldfields Story of Mystery and Madness

25/04/2026 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

Sun Kalgoorlie Sunday 16 March 1902 Brandon’s fate A TALE OF DARLOT by Pharisee. The eager, excited crowd that thronged the long dry stage to the Darlot diggings in the first blush of the new discovery included Dick Brandon and his mate, Jimmy Spiggot. That dreary and waterless track skirting the edge of desolate Lake […]

Filed Under: People, Places & Towns, Ripping Yarns & Tragic Tales Tagged With: Australian History, Coolgardie, Darlot, Goldfields History, Western Australia

Married in Name Only: Kalgoorlie Union That Never Began

25/04/2026 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

 Daily News, 13 June 1928 — retold for Outback Family History A Kalgoorlie marriage so brief it never made it past the church steps Kalgoorlie has seen its fair share of whirlwind romances, but few were quite as brief — or as baffling — as the union of miner Francis Nelson ELLIS and his bride […]

Filed Under: People, Places & Towns, Ripping Yarns & Tragic Tales Tagged With: Australian History, Church, Goldfields History, Kalgoorlie boulder, Marriage, Western Australia

The Language of Mules: Learning the Bush from One-Spur Dick

18/04/2026 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

The Herald Melbourne VIC  – 13 January 1934, page 24 My Life Outback as a Mule Driver’s Offsider On The Track With One-Spur Dick by Arthur W Upfield To One-Spur Dick, I owe a debt never to be repaid. Here on Tearle Station, Western New South Wales, set down in the middle of the night […]

Filed Under: People, Places & Towns, Ripping Yarns & Tragic Tales Tagged With: Australian History

The Secret Life of Major Pelly – Gentleman of the Road

18/04/2026 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

Four years after the establishment of the Department of Mines in 1894, it bore little resemblance to the tiny Mining Branch which had started operation within the Department of Lands and Surveys in Perth Western Australia. Mr. Patrick Pelly, a clerk with the Department, was remembered as a reserved, courteous and obliging old fellow; however, […]

Filed Under: People, Places & Towns, Ripping Yarns & Tragic Tales Tagged With: Australian History, Bushranger, Goldfields History, Western Australia

The Roll-Up at Lindsey’s Store: Gold, Betrayal, and Bush Justice.

11/04/2026 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

The Truth Perth – 14 April 1906, page 4 ROLL UP AT KURNALPI by the EMINENT EXPLORER As I entered the precincts of the camp at Kurnalpi the dishes were rattling with a venomous din that would have caused a new chum to look around with a view to keeping clear of where the bees […]

Filed Under: People, Places & Towns, Ripping Yarns & Tragic Tales Tagged With: Australian History, Goldfields History, Kurnalpi, police history, Western Australia

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