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

Elphinstone Davenport Cleland – a mining man

27/04/2024 By Moya Sharp 1 Comment

Elphinstone Davenport Cleland, what a wonderful name, was born on the 5 Dec 1854 in Beaumont, Burnside City, South Australia to John Fullerton CLELAND and Elizabeth nee GLEN. On 16 Jan 1879, he married Susannah Blood DAVIS in Auburn South Australia. They were married at the home of the bride by the Rev W Davis, […]

Parker Range on the Yilgarn

27/04/2024 By Moya Sharp 9 Comments

by Maxine and Pat Callahan Parker (Parker’s) Range WA Goldfields 31° 37′ 58” South , 119° 35′ 6” East Parker Range was named after William Mercer PARKER. William who was the son of Stephen PARKER and Susanna WYBORN, was born in Lyminge, Kent England on 17 Aug 1821. The Parker family, who were part of […]

My Country by Dorothy MacKellar

20/04/2024 By Moya Sharp 4 Comments

I am sure that just about everyone would know or has heard the second verse of this wonderful verse beginning with ‘I love a sunburnt Country’ but not many would have read the full poem which is beautiful. I have given a short biography of the author below: My Country First Know as ‘Core of […]

Dewsnap Family Bakery – Coolgardie

20/04/2024 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

William Thompson Dewsnap was born on the 23 Dec 1865 in Ancrum, Roxburghshire, Scotland, the son of John Dewsnap and Isabella Murray. He arrived in Bundaberg, Queensland aboard the Nairnshire on the 9 Jul 1884 aged 18 yrs with his brother. Two years later he was to marry Annie Cecelia Matthews, a recently widowed lady […]

When the Law Came to Niagara –

20/04/2024 By Moya Sharp 1 Comment

Smith’s Weekly 26 November 1927 – by John Drayton How “Justice” was served out on the Goldfields. Niagara was one of the little towns worth a column in the WA Post Office Directory of 1899 following Bob Menzies strike in September 1894. The town’s life was short, but while it was alive, it ‘LIVED’. Menzies […]