Barcroft Henry Thomas Boake (26 March 1866 – 2 May 1892) was an Australian Stockman and poet who wrote primarily within the ‘bush poetry’ tradition. He was active for only a few years before his suicide at the young age of 26. He belived that ‘bush life’ was the only life worth living. Boake was […]
The Spirit of the Fields –
29/03/2025 By 6 Comments
The Spirit of the Fields by Suter Abis On a stifling summer afternoon in 1910, a mournful procession crept down Hack Street in Sandstone, a small outpost clinging to the edge of the Western Australian scrub. It was a pitiful sight: a spring cart so dilapidated its wheels—lashed together with chaff bags and fencing wire—threatened […]
Harold Cocking – a plucky pioneer
29/03/2025 By 1 Comment
Southern Cross Times – Christmas Eve – 24 December 1904, page 25 Harold Cocking A Plucky Pioneer Mr Harold Arundle Sidney Cocking was born at Latchley near Plymouth, Devon, England, and is a typical son of an English yeoman. It is slightly over 13 years since he landed in the West, and was extremely surprised to find that […]
Death of a Desperate Man –
29/03/2025 By Leave a Comment
Munarra Gully is located 52 kilometres from Meekatharra, close to Tuckanarra. On the old Munarra Station (now Byro Station), three graves rest within a fenced, ungazetted burial ground. Among them lies Michael Koningas, Suig AH, a labourer who passed away from natural causes on May 9, 1904, along with one unidentified individual. Michael KONINGAS Cause […]
One Crowded Night of Life – by John Drayton
22/03/2025 By 4 Comments
That day Mount Margaret was as quiet as a cemetery on a Sunday morning in Melbourne. Andy Flannagan, the ‘Learned Bushman’ and his mates, had reported a strike of alluvial gold 18 miles east, and all the prospectors not on good shows, and had pulled out for the new find, from which Flannagan’s party had […]
