The Railway Arrives in Boulder – a quiet affair

The following paper was written by Douglas C Daws J.P. and presented to the Eastern Goldfields Historical Soc on the 8th Nov 1997 for the centenary of the arrival of the railway to Boulder. It is reproduced here with his kind permission. PRECIS:  Railways were introduced to Western Australia in the early 1880’s and developed […]

Beware of Victorians Bearing Gifts –

Western Mail 29 September 1938, page 11 OVER THE PLATES One Day in Early Kanowna. A couple of young Victorians blew into camp one morning with a spring cart loaded with fresh vegetables, no more than a week old at least. Every man on the field was troubled with ‘Barcoo Rot‘, so the half-withered green […]

Andrew Barr – and impressive funeral

Coolgardie Miner 6 February 1911, page 3 DEATH OF ANDREW BARR AN IMPRESSIVE FUNERAL Few men in Coolgardie were better known and respected than Andrew Barr, and when the news was circulated early on Saturday that he had gone to his rest, many a kindly word of good feeling was uttered. We all knew him […]

A New Town Hall for Southern Cross –

Western Mail – Perth  24 December 1936, page 16 THE PROSPERITY OF SOUTHERN CROSS THE NEW TOWN HALL OPENED SOUTHERN CROSS was in a gala mood last Wednesday. The cause of many arrangements, official and festive, was the opening of a new ornament to the district’s civic architecture, an imposing Town Hall surmounted by a […]

Eh! but she was a good girl – grave tales

It is a far cry from Coolgardie to Corbie in the Somme Valley in France. Still, in 1916, a Salvation Army Chaplin, Benjamin Orames, who as a boy had been on the Goldfields of Coolgardie, found himself in Corbie seeking the town mayor who he located in a dugout. While shells blasted the historic building […]