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

In the line of Fire – the brutality of War

30/12/2017 By Moya Sharp 1 Comment

I was recently sent this following extract from a new publication, ‘In the Line of Fire’ by Ian Townsend ,by Merv Kennedy who noticed the connection of the family to the Goldfields. This extraordinary true story has almost been forgotten, a young mother & her son Dickie caught up in a difficult situation & totally […]

The Cole Boys – a family story

29/12/2017 By Moya Sharp 1 Comment

Sunday Times: 6 June 1920 COLE’S FIND NEAR WILUNA – HOW A RETURNED SOLDIER DISCOVERED A GOLDFIELD (By Horace Stirling) George Cole, the discoverer of Cole’s Find, 11 miles south of Wiluna, Is a scion of a family of 15, four of whom first saw the light within an interval of eleven months. His […]

George Edward HARRISON – grave tales

28/12/2017 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

Several years ago I was sent the following two photographs by Lucy Hamilton. She was trying to find out how her Great uncle, George Harrison, had died. She had thought it was from a mining accident. However this doesn’t appear to be the case. It is most unusual, but I have not been able to […]

The Cork Tree and McCann’s Rush

28/12/2017 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

Cork Tree was situated 24 miles from Laverton on the Erlistoun Road, and about 4km from Ularring. There was also a ‘Cork Tree Bore’ near Yundaga. The township was gazetted in 1896. In that same year Jack Bain and Ben Miller set up a ‘Pioneer Store’ called Bain & Miller Produce Store. In 1898 they […]

Matron Sadie Canning – people profile

28/12/2017 By Moya Sharp 1 Comment

In Sep 2008 Western Australia’s first Aboriginal nurse/Matron died at the age of 78. Sadie Canning was a member of the Stolen Generations was taken away fro her parents at the age of four, she was placed in the Mt Margaret Mission, in the north eastern goldfields where she grew up. At 19 she travelled […]