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

Gold and Ghosts –

11/09/2021 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

The murder-suicide tragedy of Nurse Elizabeth Gold and Kenneth Snodgrass, is a tale quite widely known about but I have not before told the story on the Outback Family History Blog. In Coolgardie in the 1890’s, Elizabeth Gold, Kenneth Snodgrass, and Charles Gold were living in Coolgardie. As with many tragedies, the interest lies within […]

A Mothers Despair – grave tales

11/09/2021 By Moya Sharp 5 Comments

While recently researching the lives of those buried in the Peak Hill Cemetery, I came across this very sad and tragic story. Catherine and George Howard had married in 1895 and, up to the time of her death in 1908, Catherine and George had six children. Children: George Charles born 1896, George James born 1898, […]

A Most Prestigious Hotel:

04/09/2021 By Moya Sharp 1 Comment

When driving to Perth from Kalgoorlie you may have seen a sign on the left not long after the Yellowdine Road House and before Moorine Rock, directing you to Mt Palmer. But have you ever ventured there??? In 1935 it was thought that Palmers Find (AKA Mt Palmer), 23 miles from Southern Cross, would become […]

Lulu Benstead – ‘The Westralian Warbler’

04/09/2021 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

Lulu (Lucelle) Stuart Benstead was born in Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory on the 5th February 1891. The daughter of goldfields pioneer, Bill (William) Benstead and Triphenia Lucelle Willesee nee RAINS. She travelled to Coolgardie with her family, arriving in about 1895. Lulu is believed to be the first white child to be born […]

Cemetery Snapshot Leonora – all the little children

04/09/2021 By Moya Sharp 3 Comments

Back in August 2017, I had just finished transcribing the first section of the Leonora Cemetery records. I had finished the first decade when I published the first ‘Snapshot’ focusing on the number of deaths of children under the age of 5 years. As you may know, the first five years of a child’s life […]