Lulu (Lucelle) Stuart Benstead was born in Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory on the 5th February 1891. The daughter of goldfields pioneer, Bill (William) Benstead and Triphenia Lucelle Willesee nee RAINS. She travelled to Coolgardie with her family, arriving in about 1895. Lulu is believed to be the first white child to be born […]
Cemetery Snapshot Leonora – all the little children
04/09/2021 By 3 Comments
Back in August 2017, I had just finished transcribing the first section of the Leonora Cemetery records. I had finished the first decade when I published the first ‘Snapshot’ focusing on the number of deaths of children under the age of 5 years. As you may know, the first five years of a child’s life […]
The Wool Cheque:
28/08/2021 By Leave a Comment
THE WOOL CHEQUE told by Rod Teal This came from a confession by a colleague who trained as a Postal Clerk in the early 1950’s. The job of a Postal Clerk was complex. Besides the usual things you might expect to happen in a post office, in those days, money orders were used where today […]
A Sensational Narrative of Adventure:
28/08/2021 By Leave a Comment
The following account of an interview with Messrs. Bayley and Ford, the discoverers of Coolgardie, is taken from the Australian Mining Standard of November 18th:- The West Australian – 1 Dec 1893, Pg 7 THE DISCOVERERS OF COOLGARDIE. Bayley and Ford Firstly a word of personal description may not be out of place just here. […]
Matron MacKenzie – a duty nobly done
28/08/2021 By Leave a Comment
Murchison Times and Day Dawn Gazette 24 January 1919, page 2 Death or Matron Mackenzie. The news of the death of Matron Florence MacKenzie, at the Cue Hospital on Sunday night last, came as a shock to the residents of Cue and Day Dawn. Miss MacKenzie, who had only recently been appointed as matron at […]
