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

Thomas Joseph Tobin – pioneer profile

06/05/2023 By Moya Sharp 4 Comments

I was recently sent the following story by Mary Mayenfisch about her Grandfather, Thomas J TOBIN, in her words of “the whole story reads like a film! “Outlander” in Australia…. “ On Easter Sunday in the time of Covid 19 – when in the throes of James Joyce “Ulysses” the Jesuit schools in Ireland came […]

The Strange Case of Baby Quinn

06/05/2023 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

As we all will know, when an illegitimate child was born to a young woman in the early part of the 1900’s there was not the support available to her that there is today, and many young women were forced by circumstances to give up their baby. Also, the laws concerning the adoption of children […]

Not a Gold Rush but !!

06/05/2023 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

Mirror Perth 15 August 1931, page 19 NOT A GOLD RUSH BUT !! A Rush On Richmond Beer Continuous Streams Of People Now Flow Daily Into The Grand Hotel, Kalgoorlie And Shamrock Hotel, Boulder. RICHMOND beer has captured the Goldfields as it has done every other part of Australia. The popular beverage is now so […]

The Parched Dry Desert of Tragedy

29/04/2023 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

The Truth Perth 11 January 1931, page 11 GRISLY SUICIDE PACT OF THE OUTBACK Parched, Sun-Scorched and Mocked By The Cruel Phantom Of Water TRAGIC END OF KANGAROO SHOOTERS Henry Dyer, 55, of New Zealand and Laurie Raunio/Raunis, 31, native of Orimattila, Finland, died on November 3, 1930 about 100 miles north-west of Wiluna from […]

James “Carbine” Gullan – a Good Fellow all Round

29/04/2023 By Moya Sharp 2 Comments

While many of you have enjoyed several verses from the pen of John Terrell on the Outback Family History Blog, many of you will also be familiar with his books on the sporting history of the Goldfields. He recently sent me the following story which I’m sure you will find most interesting. You may think, […]