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

Goldfields ‘without’ Chrysanthemums – by Catherine Bond

Goldfields and Chrysanthemums – Notes of travel in Australia and Japan by Catherine Bond I have always loved reading the personal diaries of people who have come to the Goldfields in the early days. It gives you a description of the day-to-day problems that people encounted and their impressions of the place and time. In […]

A Dastardly Deed in Lefroy Street

Coolgardie Miner 28 December 1897, page 5 SENSATIONAL SHOOTING. Attempted Murder by Four Armed Men A party of shop workers was held up in Forrest Street Coolgardie by two armed and masked men. There is so far no known motive for the dastardly crime and no arrests have been made. The police are baffled. One […]

A Pioneer Remembers – Charlie Counsel

Daily News 2 February 1935, page 13 Pilbarra Shows the Way to the Gold Rushes Pioneer Recounts his Romantic Story By ‘Westerner’ A man who went to the Kimberleys and its goldfields in 1887, and on the morning of his 21st birthday was doing the last 18 miles of a 300-mile walk with his swag […]

From Wales To Gwalia – Book Review

A Swansea Editor and his Australian Goldmine by Alwyn Evans A long-awaited history of the Sons of Gwalia goldmine at Leonora. Assiduous research into the Welsh and Australian origins of this famous mine by Alwyn Evans for a thesis, now modified for general reading has resulted in an essential reference for any and all interested […]

Boney Brims Contract –

Sunday Times: 22 December 1907 OLD “Boney Brim” and his old mate Jolly, walked deliberately into the bar of The Miners’ Arms, at Cue, and each drank a pint of beer. The contract for sinking the main shaft of the Old Warden mine another hundred feet had just been let, and the two mates had […]