Of Christmas Past Often in my dreams I hear voices- Whispering tales of shady places With music in the air And old friends calling joyously To join the festive fail And Oh! My heart is thumping fast A-longing to be there Whispering tales of Hannan Street Of whiskey and cigars Of dainty shopgirls are hurrying, […]
Woodarra – now your but a memory blurred !
06/12/2021 By 2 Comments
The town of Woodarra was surveyed and gazetted on January 14, 1898. It was also known as Darlot, Lake Darlot, or Ballangarry, all names were used at different times. It was located between Laverton and Leinster. Woodarra is the name given by the local Aboriginals to a line of Granite rocks from which a supply […]
Damper and Dog-
13/11/2021 By Leave a Comment
The early miners’ staple diet consisted of ‘Damper and Tinned Dog’, washed down by the inevitable mug of black tea – a meal sufficiently filling to satisfy the cravings of appetites blunted by protracted periods of roughing it in the bush. Apparently, tinned meat, or tinned dog as it was mainly called, must have agreed […]
New Chum Johnnie Raw-
06/11/2021 By Leave a Comment
Geraldton Express and Murchison and Yalgo Goldfields Chronicler 23 December 1898, page 20 The New Chum Johnnie Raw or Bill McGee’s Mate As told by a miner He was an English new-churn, a reg’lar Johnnie Raw, His fresh complexion told it, and the English coat he wore. I was the first he spoke to. He […]
The Desert Secret by Jules Raeside
30/10/2021 By Leave a Comment
There’s a shaker up the gully, There’s a paddock partly stripped And a shovel, pick and dishes lying round And a little heap of tailings Lying underneath the sieves And a heap of hopper stones upon the ground. But the hand that shook the shaker Nevermore will raise a ‘run’, O’er the ripples of the […]
