Black Range Pioneers – Where is ”Frenchy?

Sunday Times 28 June 1908, page 3 BLACK RANGE PIONEERS       “Where is ”Frenchy ?” There appeared in a recent issue of the Sunday Times, a paragraph relating to the original discoverers of Black Range, fourteen years ago in 1892. It was founded on the statement of one of them, McIntyre, as was published […]

The Breakaway Brewery:

The Black Range Brewery, or the Breakaway Brewery as it was also known, began trading in August of 1907 with the proprietor as Joseph Vincent Kearney, an Irishman born in 1873 at Ballymoon, Co Carlow Ireland. The manager was Michael ‘Mick’ Dempsey. It was located on the Maninga Marley Road, 4.8 kilometers from Sandstone. What […]

Alistar Douglas Calder – grave tales

CALDER Alistar Douglas, d 2 Mar 1907 at Berrigin via Black Range, Age 14 months: Father:- Neil CALDER (Mine Manager) Mother:- Mary Jane Priestly, Cause: Natural Causes. Born: Perth WA, buried Nungarra Cemetery. Sacred to the memory of Alistar Douglas Calder The Beloved son of Neil and Mary Calder Died at Birrigrin Black Range March […]

Where was Birrigrin – ghost towns

Latitude and Longitude – 27° 30′ 14” South , 119° 31′ 13” East Birrigrin is 120 km from Wiluna and is in the Black Range District near Sandstone. It was known in the early days as the ’50 Mile’ as it was about 50 miles from Nungarra. The main mining in the district is gold […]

Nungarra Cemetery :

The Black Range district in the East Murchison Goldfields was a promising field in the early 1900s, with the first real township, Nungarra, being established in 1902. By 1903 the population had risen to 900-1000 with 500 men on the alluvial patch alone. It was said only 1 in 10 were ‘making tucker’. It wasn’t […]