I was recently contacted by Helena Britt who vary kindly shared with me a copy of a section of her mothes memoirs. Her grandfather, Dr Robert Mitchell, was the first Chief Medical Officer at Coolgardie Hospital and the first Superintendent of Wooroloo Sanitorium, he was in this post until his retirement in 1941. Helena’s mother […]
When there’s a Gold Rush ‘Sell Beer’
29/10/2022 By Leave a Comment
Coolgardie Pioneer 24 December 1898, page 38 THE MAYOR AND HIS ESTABLISHMENT “I don’t want no pioneering life, take me back to Collingwood.” This was the strain sung by an Eastern states poet who visited and was disgusted with these fields in the early days. Fortunately for the country, the majority of the old-timers, although […]
Walter Lindrum – the greatest cueman of all time
29/10/2022 By Leave a Comment
I was recently sent the following story by Andrew Ricketts about one of our more well-known members of the Goldfields Sporting Hall of Fame, Walter Lindrum, he was in fact one of the original inductees in 2005. About the author:– Andrew Ricketts, the author of the Walter Lindrum Billiards Phenomenon, the only biography on Walter […]
The Swearful Dryblower – a verse
29/10/2022 By Leave a Comment
I am a digger at Mulgabbie and I’d like to rise and say Dryblowing is a swearful game to most diggers anyway. You work for days without a color, then have a lengthy swear that takes two solid windy days to cleanse the atmosphere. If an angel down from heaven had to dryblow for a […]
The Norris Family on the Goldfields
29/10/2022 By Leave a Comment
The Norris Family on the Goldfields by Chris Clark The journey from the east coast of Australia to the booming goldfields of Western Australia was a path taken by many from the 1890s. For most hopefuls the trip was one-way, signifying a migration that was irreversible, but for others, it was only a matter of […]
