The first commercial find of gold in Western Australia was made on 14 July 1885 at Hall’s Creek in the Kimberley District, and the Kimberley Goldfield was proclaimed in the following year, on 19 May 1886. This discovery, and the dramatic rush that followed, marked the beginning of our gold-mining industry, which was to transform […]
Jim Carey – explorer, prospector and drover
27/07/2024 By 1 Comment
Western Mail Perth 24 February 1912, page 5 JAMES CAREY AND NEPHEW by J.T. Of the band of hardy adventurous explorers who accompanied the late Alexander Forrest on his memorable expedition from the De Grey River to Port Darwin, 32 years ago, only three now remain. One is Arthur Hicks, at one time Warden of […]
John Minden Caulfeild – grave tales
27/07/2024 By Leave a Comment
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
20/07/2024 By Leave a Comment
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
20/07/2024 By Leave a Comment
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, […]
