Coolgardie was booming, diggers who had struck it rich were as common as sand flies; money was easy to come by and even easier to lose. If you wanted to part with what you had in a hurry, ‘Hughie the Baker’ or ‘Handsome Jack Wilson’, the town’s leading professional gamblers would assist you in your […]
Frederick Vosper – firebrand and agitator
The son of a civil engineer, Charles Watson Vosper, Frederick Charles Burleigh Vosper was born in St Dominick, Cornwall in England and educated at Truro. He immigrated to Bolivia at the age of 15. Few other details of his early life are known, but in 1885, he was at Devonport serving with the Royal Navy on […]
From Gold Rush to Hospital Wards: Coolgardie’s Story
The following excerpt is from the book by Mrs Arthur H Garnsey called ‘Scarlet Pillows: An Australian Nurse’s Tales of Long Ago’ and is about her memories of being a nurse in Coolgardie in the early days. The tale of the house that Jack built has his counterpart in Coolgardie in the tale of all […]
Tragedy at East Toorak: The Christmas Day Fire of 1896
A Christmas Tragedy The Death of Henry Joseph Marnham In the early days of the Goldfields, death by fire was sadly all too common. While researching deaths in Coolgardie, I came across a heartbreaking case that led me to the old newspaper archives for more details. The cemetery entry reads: MARNHAM, Henry Joseph – Born […]
Gold Fever Dreams: An Amateur Prospector’s Journey
I was seized with gold fever in early 1894. I started off with a few friends in quest of fortune and reached Perth after a voyage of little interest, ten days out from Melbourne, to find the place with a large population of tent dwellers. They were either preparing their equipment to start out into […]
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