Merchants -v- Miners ‘when there’s a gold rush, sell shovels!’

“When there is a gold rush, ‘Sell Shovel’s’ was a term coined in the California Gold Rushes but it can be said to be true of the Gold Rushes in Australia. Many merchants selling everything from mining equipment to ribbons made more money than most miners ever dreamed of. The following is a snapshot of […]

Goolam Badoola of Bulgarbardoo –

Goolam Badoola of Bulgarbardoo was the only ‘Afghan’ camel teamster in Western Australia, to transfer from the declining transport industry and successfully developed a new industry for himself — a sheep station to which he gave the name Bulgarbardoo. Many of his countrymen, although tough, capable, and enterprising pioneers of Australia’s arid interior, stayed with […]

Medicine Corner Coolgardie –

The south-eastern corner of Forrest and Lefroy Streets Coolgardie was the scene of a transaction in the early 1890’s that gave the site the name of ‘Medicine Corner’. An old prospector and a young man fresh from Broken Hill camped on the site to which came an old man – he was ‘slab-chested, bow-legged, windmill-armed, […]

Lennonville ‘Warramboo’ Cemetery –

Following on from last week’s article on Lennonville: Lennonville (Warramboo) East Cemetery  – 1st. Reserve: 6842 gazettal date 16 Mar 1900 35 deaths 27 of whom were children. There are two cemeteries at the abandoned town of Lennonville which is about 10kms north of Mt Magnet. The cemeteries are located on either side of the […]

The Miners Institute –

Did you know that our present Mechanics ‘Miners’ Institute building was designed to accommodate a third story with a domed roof? The building is one of the many buildings in Hannan Street, Kalgoorlie that have changed very little over the years. Kalgoorlie Western Argus 21 October 1902, page 20 The Miners ‘Mechanics’ Institute The New […]