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

Swearin ‘n’ Spittin – by Arthur Dunstan

07/02/2018 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

Swearin ‘n’ Spittin – Kalgoorlie Goldminers were a great bunch of blokes. Their work was hard and dangerous and most of them spent their leisure time in one of the 37 pubs. They drank beer as if it was their last day on earth. Sometimes unfortunately it was. Besides living from day to day, the […]

Death of a Bushman – a family story

02/02/2018 By Moya Sharp 4 Comments

I was recently sent this most poignant story from OFH reader Ray Jackson. Although it occurred in Queensland, there are many incidences like this in Western Australia. It tells a tragic family story:- Life was very hard in the Charleville area of Queensland in the late 1800s and work was very hard to get. Two […]

The Old Soldier – father and son

14/01/2018 By Moya Sharp 1 Comment

This is the most amazing photo don’t you think? It is of Amadeo GALLE aged 99yrs and his son Raffael aged 67yrs taken c 1936 at their home at 1 Hamilton Street, Boulder. Raffael was a bootmaker!! Amadeo fought with Guiseppi Garabaldi’s Redshirts in 1859 and helped in the unification of Italy. he wears his hat […]

A Bushranger of Note – where did Joe go?

12/01/2018 By Moya Sharp 1 Comment

Although this is not a ‘Goldfields’ story it is one that I have always had a soft spot for as ‘Joe’ came out on the same convict ship as my husbands Gt Gt Grandfather. I had fondly thought that they may have met on the ship, both being the same age, who knows, maybe they […]

Ratepayers Gazetteer -1900

12/01/2018 By Moya Sharp 2 Comments

The following is an extract from an excellent online Gazetteer sent to me by an OFH reader, John Pritchard. In the foreword the publishers confidentially exclaim that this, the first issue, will be an annual production. Each year getting bigger and better. Sadly this never came to be and it appears that this was the […]