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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

From Woolgar to Yunndaga: A Forgotten Chapter of the Gold Rush

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YUNNDAGA Latitude 29° 45′ S Longitude 121° 03′ E Yunndaga is an abandoned town on the Western Australian goldfields located 7 km south of Menzies. Gold was discovered in the area in the mid-1890s, and in 1898, a business and residence subdivision was laid out at what was then referred to as Woolgar. Business and […]

The Woodchopper’s Tune: A Childhood Friendship – by N E Gledhill

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A tale by N.E. Gledhill This ‘Ripping Yarn’ from the pen of N E Gledhill is kindly shared by his Great Nephew, Allen Gledhill, with thanks:  As soon as I had explored the empty, hollow-sounding rooms of our new house in Boulder, I saw with delight that a huge drain passed right by the side […]

The Lake Eva Oil Hoax: A Tale of Deception on the WA Goldfields

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In the early days of the WA Goldfields, there were, as there are now, conmen who wanted to make a dollar without working. This is one such story. In May of 1923, Robert ROTHKEHL and Ernest THOMPSON claimed that they had struck oil at Lake Eva, 55km south-east of Southern Cross, in Prospecting Area 1135. […]

Gold Fever Dreams: An Amateur Prospector’s Journey

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I was seized with gold fever in early 1894. I started off with a few friends in quest of fortune and reached Perth after a voyage of little interest, ten days out from Melbourne, to find the place with a large population of tent dwellers. They were either preparing their equipment to start out into […]