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A Woodline Childhood in the 1940s – by Ron Matthews

09/03/2017 By Moya Sharp 5 Comments

From the late 1890s until the early 1950s because all heavy machinery was steam driven, vast quantities of wood were required to fuel the boilers, coal was too expensive. Consequently Wood Lines were born. The last surviving company was “The Western Australian Goldfields Firewood Supply Limited” which ceased operations in 1964. From early 1946 until […]

Filed Under: People Tagged With: Australian History, Goldfields History, Western Australia, Woodline

Child of the Woodline – grave tales

08/03/2017 By Moya Sharp 3 Comments

Some years ago I posted the following photograph and although I said I had no idea who was the child buried  in this sad little grave in the Kalgoorlie Cemetery, it was shared many thousands of times. It evokes all the sadness of a family who were unable to afford a proper memorial so they […]

Filed Under: People Tagged With: Australian History, Cemeteries, Family History, Goldfields History, Kalgoorlie boulder, Western Australia, Zadkivich

Killed by Lightning – Rody Schwan

04/03/2017 By Moya Sharp 2 Comments

Kalgoorlie Western Argus 20 September 1904, page 12 KILLED BY LIGHTNING – R SCHWAN, PROSPECTOR – LAVERTON Sept. 14, 1904 News has just reached Laverton that a well-known prospector, ” Rody Schwan, was killed by lightning yesterday afternoon at the Daisy Belle, a prospecting show about 12 miles west of Duketon. The weather during the […]

Filed Under: Grave Tales, People, Towns and Places Tagged With: Australian History, Duketon, Goldfields History, schwan, Western Australia

An Old Timer Remembers

04/03/2017 By Moya Sharp 7 Comments

OLD-TIMER’S LETTER  –   Employee in First Post Office in Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie Miner 17 May 1950, page 2 Mr. Lionel  J. Dudley, an old-timer, sent an interesting account of some of his experiences in the early days of the goldfields to Mr. J. D. Teahan, Mayor of Boulder. Once an employee in the first post […]

Filed Under: People Tagged With: Australian History, Bardoc, Family History, Goldfields History, Post Office, Western Australia

East-West Telegraph Line -Eucla

01/03/2017 By Moya Sharp 5 Comments

Outback Family History Reader, Gary Cowans, recently sent in the following wonderful photographs from his PMG collection. They are reproduced with his permission. To build the East-West telegraph Line supplies were dropped off at the nearby Eucla Jetty. Then the Post and Telegraph crews began the job of scaling the nearby sand-hills before following the […]

Filed Under: People Tagged With: Australian History, Eucla, Goldfields History, Western Australia

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