John Minden Caulfeild – grave tales

On the evening of Monday 20th October 1896, three men of Kanowna, Open Call stockbroker Thomas Moore Fletcher, 22-year-old photographer John Minden Caulfeild, and Richard Baugh, cycled out to Lake Gwynn and set up a camp on the western shore of the lake about 5 miles from Kanowna. They had hired ‘The Gwynn’, a flat […]

Black Dennis – a respected man

The following story is published with the kind permission of Dennis Aartsen and is an excerpt from his four-volume set of books, Hotels of the Barrier Ranges. Black Dennis On the 28th of August 1911, a passerby stopped by a modest shack just north of Coolgardie on the Bonnie Vale Road. He found the occupant […]

Coolgardie Leidertafel & the Durston family

The following family story and photographs were kindly supplied and reproduced with permission of the late Mrs Bernice Peters of Wembley, WA with thanks. Robert Groves Durston is the father of Bernice Peters. He was born in 1863 in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England and sailed for New Zealand as a two year old with his parents, […]

Alec from Auckland Remembers –

Western Mail 21 April 1938, page 11 OVER THE PLATES – Dolly Pot Conducted by Non-Com A water problem A Canine Burial The Siberia Rush Slugs from Kurnalpi Water was a serious problem in the Old Camp before the famous water scheme came to fruition. Washing of oneself or one’s clothes was looked upon with […]

A Golden Wedding in a Goldfields Town

The Sun, Kalgoorlie 8 March 1914, page 7 A GOLDEN WEDDING IN A GOLDFIELDS TOWN On Wednesday last Mr and Mrs Thomas Hickey of Burbanks celebrated their Golden Wedding at the village hall. Dancing was indulged in and the veteran joined in all the dances with the enthusiasm of a boy despite his seventy years. […]