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

Bailie Bros Union Bakery –

09/09/2018 By Moya Sharp 4 Comments

Weekly Times, Melbourne VIC, 10 September 1898 Bailie Bros Bakers – KALGOORLIE. The large business now being conducted by the Messrs Bailie Bros, at Kalgoorlie, affords a striking instance of the success which perseverance and hard work, added to personal popularity, can attain in a comparatively new gold mining town. Prior to […]

The Club Hotel – Coolgardie hotels

09/09/2018 By Moya Sharp 1 Comment

When Bill Faahan was granted one of the four Wayside licences in April 1893, he erected the first hotel – a rough shelter of bush timber and hessian with a bar consisting of series of packing cases on forked sticks – which he called the Club Hotel. The first load of beer and spirits brought […]

The Remarkable Potter Sisters – a family story

07/09/2018 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

I was recently contacted by Dorothy Maude Rodoreda (nee McMeikan). She told me of her very interesting family history story from Yunndaga (Woolgar). Her great-uncle, Richard Goninon, was the mine manager of Menzies Consolidated Goldmine for some 25 years from about 1900 to 1925. She had photos of the Manager’s Residence next to the mine and […]

The Gallant Mrs Taylor –

07/09/2018 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

From The Sunday Times , Perth, Sunday 9 June 1940 Mining for gold is usually looked upon as a mans game, in which muscle and endurance are needed to wrest the gold-bearing stone from the earth and to keep the machinery moving. It calls for grit, a brave heart and ability to withstand all the […]

The Denver City – Coolgardie hotels 4

03/09/2018 By Moya Sharp 4 Comments

The Denver City was the first hotel in Coolgardie and the first building on the site was in 1894. A more substantial building was constructed by the firm of Philip and Doyle in and was destroyed by fire in 1897. The current building of two stories in the Federation style was built in 1898. It […]