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

Certificates – take with a pinch of salt

Certificates – take with a pinch of salt Have you ever purchased a copy of a family death certificate in Western Australia? I am sure many of you will have done so. I have been asked about the following topic a few times over the years so I thought I would explain things and then […]

Dead Man in a Mine Shaft –

Kalgoorlie Miner Wednesday 31 August 1898, page 4 A Dead Man In A Mine Shaft BELIEVED TO BE A KANOWNA RESIDENT. A gruesome discovery was made at about 2 o’clock yesterday afternoon by Mr. H Colin. That gentleman was walking over the ground about three-quarters of a mile to the southwest of the southern end […]

The Murder of a Bad Tempered Man

Evening Mail – Fremantle 23 March 1908, page 1 No one will deny that Harry Goninon Smith, who at 8 o’clock this morning paid, on the scaffold at the Fremantle Prison, the last penalty for the supreme crime in the criminal calendar, was the murderer of the man, William John Clinton at Day Dawn. No […]

Amy Josephine Solly – by Yvonne Solly

Amy Josephine Solly 1912 -1999 “Pulvis et umbra sumus.” Horace. with thanks to Yvonne Solly for this wonderful story: Our Nanna – Amy Josephine Solly – was a dust collector. Not that she knew it or intended to become such, yet nevertheless she was. Her dust collection began about 1890 before she was born. Amy’s […]

Bessie Jordan – a pioneering woman

Elizabeth Jane Ann ‘Bessie’ Jones was born on 17 AUG 1877 in Sandhurst, Victoria. She was the daughter of James Jones (1849-1892) and Harriet Jones nee Harry (1851-1925). She had only one sibling, James Henry Jones born 15 Aug 1882. At the age of 20yrs, she married Richard Michael Jordan on the 27th of August […]