The Sunday Times 5th November 1911 Recently in the Old Coolgardie Cemetery a kindly hand repainted the lettering on a rough wooden tomb slab erected to the memory of Arthur Court the son of the late Dr Court, the once well-known philanthropist of Melbourne. The young fellow had been drinking heavily for months in mid […]
A Case of Mistaken Identity –
10/12/2022 By Leave a Comment
While recently doing my daily post on the WAVMM ‘The Western Australian Virtual Miners Memorial’ I found that it was the anniversary of a disaster which caused the death of three men at the Englishman GM in Kookynie. These are the names of the men:- BOURKE John, Miner 3/02/1900 Age 35 Englishman GM Kookynie MCKELVIE […]
“Burly” McLean Drops in – by Allen Gledhill
03/12/2022 By Leave a Comment
from Allen Gledhill. John Gary’s great-nephew Claimed To Be Strongest Digger On three Fields “BURLY” McLEAN DROPS IN by John Gary They’re among the men who tell you that the gold rush days – the days of overnight fortunes, bare-knuckle fights, and chamois bags of gold are gone. Those days still live! They’re as rip-roaring […]
Kurnalpi Jack – on his lonesome
26/11/2022 By Leave a Comment
The Sun Kalgoorlie – 12 June 1904, page 10 KURNALPI JACK One of the Early Day Men Always operate on his Lonesome by J Drake We regret to hear that Jack Reidy (Kurnalpi Jack) is, as our American cousins would say, playing in hard luck, and as it is proposed by Government to benefit, one […]
“Can I shave you. Mr. Smiler.” ???
26/11/2022 By Leave a Comment
From the pen of ‘Smiler Hales’ – Alfred Arthur Greenwood HALES (1860-1936) “You can’t whip a mining camp for novelties”. I was walking along Bayley street the other afternoon, feeling like a poet and looking like a tramp out of luck, when I saw a shingle hanging from a tent, which bore the information that […]
