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From Gold to Milking Cows – in memory of Helen Astrand

11/07/2026 By Moya Sharp 4 Comments

While I was recently away, I was deeply saddened and quite shocked to hear of the unexpected passing of Helen Astrand. Although we were not close friends, we had known each other for many years through our work on the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Cemetery Board and our shared passion for local history. Helen, a proud Boulder girl, […]

Filed Under: People, Places & Towns Tagged With: Australian History, Goldfields History, Western Australia

Outback Joe – a verse

11/07/2026 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

The Sun, Sunday 11 June 1899, page 5 OUTBACK JOE A LEGEND OF THE 25-MILE. You miners of Westralia! attention grant, I pray, While I relate in doggerel, a plaintive sort of lay, Wherein a sharper kind of bloke— a half Finn-German Jew — Was introduced to Out-back Joe and shown a point or two. […]

Filed Under: Poets Corner

The Woman Behind the Headlines: The Story of Catherine May Davis

11/07/2026 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

The photographs in this story were kindly supplied by Catherine and George’s Granddaughter, Jan Hale. This photo shows Catherine ‘Kate’ Davis in a nurse uniform outside her private hospital in either 1898 or 1899. The occasion was Jan’s mother Dorothy’s 4th or 5th birthday. She is the little dark-haired girl in the front row, 4th […]

Filed Under: People, Places & Towns Tagged With: Australian History, Goldfields History, Western Australia

Captain Kettle and the Toorak Hotel

11/07/2026 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

Built in 1899. On June 25, 1903, a fire destroyed the whole of the front of the hotel. Situated on the 90 Mile Road, in the early days, this was the road out of Coolgardie on the North side. It closed some time in 1910. Coolgardie Miner  – 3 July 1903, page 2 LETTER OF […]

Filed Under: Hotels, People, Places & Towns Tagged With: Australian History, Coolgardie, Goldfields History, Hotels, Western Australia

The Forgotten Architect of the Goldfields –

02/07/2026 By Moya Sharp 3 Comments

The Man Behind Kalgoorlie’s Grandest Buildings Geoffrey Oswald Hawkins Geoffrey Oswald Hawkins (1870-1936) was born on 10 July 1870 at Sandhurst (the town regained the name Bendigo from 1891), Victoria.  He was the third of twelve children born to Edward Jackson and Eliza Rebekah (nee Annear) Hawkins, who had married at Sandhurst in December 1866. […]

Filed Under: People, Places & Towns Tagged With: Architect, Australian History, Bulong, Goldfields History, Western Australia

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