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The Man Who Found Goldfields Fortunes — Death of Alf McDonnell

23/05/2026 By Moya Sharp 1 Comment

I was in correspondence with a lady way back in 1996 (yes, I do keep my research letters that far back😊). This was in the pre-Internet days when all research had to be done by letter (possibly strapped to the leg of a dinosaur). The lady’s name was Susan Salvair, and at the time she […]

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

From Grief to Despair: The Doyle Family Tragedy

23/05/2026 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

On the 23rd of September 1903, in Gwalia Street, Leonora, Western Australia, an event would take place that would start a string of family tragedies. The event was the death of a little girl, Eileen Margaret Doyle. She died of Tonsillitis and Bronchitis and was only 2 ½yrs old. She had only been ill for […]

Filed Under: Grave Tales, People, Places & Towns Tagged With: Australian History, Cemeteries, Coolgardie, Goldfields History, Suicide, Western Australia

Shot in His Sleep — The Day Dawn Murder That Shocked the Goldfields

16/05/2026 By Moya Sharp 3 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: People, Places & Towns, Ripping Yarns & Tragic Tales Tagged With: Australian History, Day Dawn, Goldfields History, murder, Western Australia

The Ballad of the Bloke Who Backed Bad Luck

16/05/2026 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

Northam Courier – 2 Dec 1910, page 6 UNLUCKY JIM Thus he spoke, in tones lugubrious, “Life is but an empty dream” And its joys are just as fleeting, As projections on a screen. Naught remains but plenty trouble, Disappointments, quite a heap, Punted years on singles, doubles, Nuff to make a feller weep. Thus […]

Filed Under: People, Poets Corner Tagged With: Australian History, Bullfinch, Goldfields History, Western Australia

St Albans at Menzies — The Man Who Made the Desert Bloom

16/05/2026 By Moya Sharp Leave a Comment

The information in the following stories was kindly supplied by Gary Cowans and is reproduced with his permission. In 1876, at the age of 19, Gustave Schmidt moved from Victoria, where he was born, to NSW and purchased land 8 miles SW of Moulamein. He married Emma Rebecca BICKFORD in 1884, and his first three […]

Filed Under: About Outback Family History, People, Places & Towns Tagged With: Australian History, Goldfields History, Menzies, Mt Ida, Western Australia, Yalgoo

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