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

Crooks at Crooked Shoot Mine

29/07/2023 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

Geraldton Guardian 12 September 1925, page 3 Crooks at Crooked Shoot Mine by C.P.J ‘Coo-oo-ey! Coo-oo-ey!’ sounded faintly through the semi-darkness of a cloudless night, which enveloped the ‘Crooked, Shoot’ gold mine, situated in a hollow between two low-lying hills in a remote part of the Murchison Goldfields. A field of mulga spread as a […]

The Wild Girls – a family in pictures

22/07/2023 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

The following photographs are from the family album of Sandy Koushappis and she has kindly shared them with us. The first of the Wild girls in Australia was Esther WILD nee MILLS. She was born, possibly in Lancashire, England on the 8th June 1838. When she was 23 years old she married James WILD in […]

Yellowdine Finder Tells His Romantic Story

22/07/2023 By Moya Sharp 2 Comments

Daily News 19 January 1935, page 12 Yellowdine Finder Tells His Romantic Story A horse with teeth missing makes history and New Goldfield Rewards Years of Prospecting. PALMERS GRAPHIC STORY – If it had not been that an old horse, to be exact 25 years old, was four teeth short and could not pick up […]

The Boulder Hammer Murder –

22/07/2023 By Moya Sharp 9 Comments

Daily News 28 November 1951, page 1 Hammer Murder In Boulder BOULDER – With head injuries allegedly caused by a hammer blow, a Yugoslav miner was found dead in a Boulder house at 4 a.m. today. A man living in the same house has been arrested and charged with wilful murder. He is labourer called […]

Only a Flesh Wound – Coolgardie 1894

22/07/2023 By Moya Sharp 1 Comment

In Coolgardie in 1894 there was an influx of British nobility and for a time there were more Lords, Dukes, Baronets and others in Coolgardie than had or ever has been, in any one Australian town at the same time. These Britishers packed more guns than any Yankee film hero and regular revolver practice was […]