Wooden Overcoat Makers-

In Coolgardie, as late as April 1894, self-styled undertakers were making a fortune by making coffins from old jam cases and boxes and blackening them over to give a semblance of respectability. Only the destitute and friendless were packed away in plain deal coffins, and Jews whose religion demanded austerity in their last rites.

WA Post Office Directory 1898

By 1896, coffins made from jam and milk cases became a thing of the past, according to an advertisement in the Coolgardie newspapers, which announced considerable advancement having been made from the days

‘when those requiring a wooden overcoat were accommodated with an ill-fitting shell composed of a shoddy combination of milk and gin cases held together with tacks’.

Readers were invited by Alf Read and Fritz Zimmerman to view two unique specimens of the undertaker’s art – ‘coffins of polished cedar lined with pure silk, with gorgeous trimmings to match’ – in view at their showrooms in Hunt Street, Coolgardie.

Coolgardie Miner 22 May 1895, page 3

When Ernest Giles the explorer died, his body was encased in a hermetically-sealed coffin, the first in Coolgardie.

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Moya Sharp

Owner at Outback Family History

My name is Moya Sharp, I live in Kalgoorlie Western Australia and have worked most of my adult life in the history/museum industry. I have been passionate about history for as long as I can remember and in particular the history of my adopted home the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. Through my website I am committed to providing as many records and photographs free to any one who is interested in the family and local history of the region.

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