The people of the Goldfields

The Goldfields of Western Australia was and still is made up of many people, from poets to politicians, from saints and sinners and everything in between. I hope to tell you the stories of some of these people either famous or infamous or just the ordinary folks. Sometime the most ordinary people do the most extraordinry things

Paddy Hannan’s Statue –

14/10/2023 By Moya Sharp 4 Comments

Paddy Hannans Statue Early in 1928, The Sun newspaper in Kalgoorlie directed the attention of the residents of Kalgoorlie that although a plaque and a tree existed to make the first place where gold was found in Kalgoorlie no permanent memorial to the man who found it, Paddy Hannan, existed. The article suggested that a […]

Five Marriages and a Murder Trial –

14/10/2023 By Moya Sharp 1 Comment

The following story has many twists and turns and has been difficult to trace in a timeline with various marriages and children born. If anyone has any further details to add I would love to hear from you so that the story is told correctly. Daily News Perth 7 March 1936, page 1 Sensational Disclosures […]

Mrs Walshaw of Comet Vale

14/10/2023 By Moya Sharp 3 Comments

Mrs Walshaw of Comet Vale Story and photos by Bernie Morris First Published in ‘The Westland’ 2005 For a few months in the year 1895, the terminus of the new railway thrusting east from Southern Cross to the twin Eldorado’s of Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie stood at Boorabbin with strings of half-piled wagons, sullen afghans cruising […]

Home Made Adventures by Stan Gratte

14/10/2023 By Moya Sharp 2 Comments

Stan Gratte (OAM) has just released a book called “Homemade Adventures – My Expeditions, In the West Australian Bush and Desert”. Extracted from the foreword: I’ve been asked many times by family, friends and people who travel our outback, to write about my expeditions, particularly in the desert. I kept a diary or field notebook, […]

First Impressions Count – by Wiero

07/10/2023 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

Western Mail Perth 23 December 1937, page 86 Jack Lawson was having difficulty with his hair. Since yesterday’s swim in the none too clean water-hole, it had departed from its usual submissiveness and now insisted on standing straight on end. “Just the one day of the year when I wanted especially to look my best,” […]