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The Great Unwashed Preserver of the Peace

10/06/2023 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

Sunday Times Perth – 7 November 1909, page 1 Jolly’s Bath – by Spinifex It was hot, something like 100 deg in the Victoria Hotel passage, and about 120 in the police tents. The ‘cosmopolites’ of the old camp were as cool as they could get in common khaki, pants and soft shirts, the latter […]

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

Tom Riseley – a man who blazed the track

10/06/2023 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

Sunday Times – 16 January 1910, page 3 THE DEATH OF TOM RISELEY A MAN WHO BLAZED THE TRACK Tom Riseley (Thomas Randle Riseley) one of the men who helped materially to make Westralia what she is today, went on the last “long journey” from the Perth Government Hospital on Thursday night. Twenty-one years before, […]

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

Dryblower Jack – pioneer profile

10/06/2023 By Moya Sharp 1 Comment

John Carins know as Dryblower Jack John was born in Newcastle on Tyne, in Northumberland, England in 1890 and was educated at Rutherford College in that town. He was said to have come to Australia in 1913, he had a discharge certificate from the British services. As a young man, he worked in various trades […]

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

Billy Frost – the seeker of shadows

20/05/2023 By Moya Sharp 2 Comments

Western Mail Perth – 16 September 1926, page 19 THE SEEKER – THE LATE BILLY FROST Prospector and Explorer By John Meiklejohn. Round the campfires of the various diggings during the 1890s, no name was more prominent than that of the late Billy Frost. He never had the fortune to make any sensational gold discovery, […]

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

The Man Who Cheated The Hangman

20/05/2023 By Moya Sharp 3 Comments

Leonard Charles Jackson was to be the first man executed in the Fremantle Gaol for murder in 15 years since the execution of the infamous Snowy Rowles in 1932. I was recently contacted by Kevin Matthees who is Leonard’s Great Grandson. He has kindly given me permission to share the story as Leonard was from […]

Filed Under: People, Ripping Yarns & Tragic Tales Tagged With: Australian History, Kalgoorlie boulder, murder, Western Australia

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