From the late 1890s until the early 1950s because all heavy machinery was steam driven, vast quantities of wood were required to fuel the boilers, coal was too expensive. Consequently Wood Lines were born. The last surviving company was “The Western Australian Goldfields Firewood Supply Limited” which ceased operations in 1964. From early 1946 until […]
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
Child of the Woodline – grave tales
Some years ago I posted the following photograph and although I said I had no idea who was the child buried in this sad little grave in the Kalgoorlie Cemetery, it was shared many thousands of times. It evokes all the sadness of a family who were unable to afford a proper memorial so they […]
Tom McMillan and the Wobblies – by David McMillan
As we commemorate the ANZAC battles of a century ago, it is not generally appreciated today that Australia was bitterly divided over its commitment to the war effort. The Labor Prime Minister, Hughes, had promised Britain another 80,000 men but was unable to get the necessary legislation through the Labor-controlled senate; two thirds of the […]
Killed by Lightning – Rody Schwan
Kalgoorlie Western Argus 20 September 1904, page 12 KILLED BY LIGHTNING – R SCHWAN, PROSPECTOR – LAVERTON Sept. 14, 1904 News has just reached Laverton that a well-known prospector, ” Rody Schwan, was killed by lightning yesterday afternoon at the Daisy Belle, a prospecting show about 12 miles west of Duketon. The weather during the […]
An Old Timer Remembers
OLD-TIMER’S LETTER – Employee in First Post Office in Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie Miner 17 May 1950, page 2 Mr. Lionel J. Dudley, an old-timer, sent an interesting account of some of his experiences in the early days of the goldfields to Mr. J. D. Teahan, Mayor of Boulder. Once an employee in the first post […]
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