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

Indigenous Veteran to be Honoured.

19/02/2017 By Moya Sharp 4 Comments

Just over a year ago, I was contacted by historian, Maureen Roberts to ask if I could take a photograph of a headstone (if there was one) in the Kalgoorlie Cemetery. She had been researching the family of Hubert Lawrence and found he died in Kalgoorlie in 1970. When I visited the cemetery I found […]

An Extraordinary Tale

19/02/2017 By Moya Sharp 1 Comment

I have often mentioned, the regular occurrence, of what you may call ‘synchronicity’ where two related things come together for no apparent reason. It seems to happen with amazing regularity and I have lost count on how many time I have received an enquiry on a particular person or place only to have another person […]

Scandal at Murtagh’s Private School

18/02/2017 By Moya Sharp 1 Comment

The following story is about a teacher who went from town to town setting up schools for a short time then leaving under a cloud of suspicion. First in Perth in 1892 then to Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie then on to Perth again then Bunbury with the same results. However Mr Murtagh was in no way […]

THE PRIEST AND THE POLICEMAN

18/02/2017 By Moya Sharp 2 Comments

THE PRIEST AND THE POLICEMAN by Peter Conole (WA Police Historian) (Retired 2013) with permission from the Police Historical Soc @ http://www.policewahistory.org.au/HTML_Pages/Museum.html The above photograph is a fairly well known West Australian image, one which deserves a greater degree of fame. This fine relic of the Gold Rush days has been in the possession of the […]

The Kathleen Maud

13/02/2017 By Moya Sharp 3 Comments

Murchison Times and Day Dawn Gazette 4 September 1902, page 2 DAY DAWN NOTES. The ambulance waggon for Day Dawn arrived on Saturday last, and is a very handsomely finished vehicle. The waggon, which has been christened ” Kathleen Maud,” has been built from an American design of the latest and most up-to-date principles, with […]