On the 11th Sep 1928, the ‘Rainbow Argus’ in Rainbow, Victoria, reported the death of John Watts Gregson. It said he was a highly respected resident of the town. He was born in Chepstone, Victoria, in 1871 and was the eldest son of Mrs Elizabeth Gregson nee LUMSDEN of Ararat, Victoria and Charles Gregson from […]
Darlot – Centenary Celebrations 1994
Former residents of the abandoned townsite of Darlot, 130 km north of Leonora, returned to celebrate the town’s centenary in December 1994. Darlot gold mine manager, David Hatch, said that the earliest known Darlot Mining tenement was registered on December 3 1894. This is the date to mark the town’s centenary. Plutonic Resources, which runs […]
Echoes of Wooroloo: A Doctor’s Family in a Time of Change
I was contacted by Helena Britt, who very kindly shared with me a copy of a section of her mother’s memoirs. Her grandfather, Dr Robert Mitchell, was the first Chief Medical Officer at Coolgardie Hospital and the first Superintendent of Wooroloo Sanitorium. He was in this post until his retirement in 1941. Helena’s mother and […]
Gold Fever Dreams: An Amateur Prospector’s Journey
I was seized with gold fever in early 1894. I started off with a few friends in quest of fortune and reached Perth after a voyage of little interest, ten days out from Melbourne, to find the place with a large population of tent dwellers. They were either preparing their equipment to start out into […]
Reedy – ghost town of the Murchison
REEDY (Murchison Goldfields) Population in 1937 = 1300 of which 350 were Miners. Latitude 27° 08′ S Longitude 118° 17′ E The abandoned goldfields townsite of Reedy (AKA Reedy’s) is located in the Murchison Goldfields, 721 km northeast of Perth and 70 km northeast of Cue. Gold was discovered in the area by H. Reed […]