Over the years, gold stealing has been going on as long as mining has been. Many and varied have been the cunning plans and schemes to outwit the gold stealing officers and the mining companies. One such plan became very popular until it was noticed that there was an unprecedented rise in the purchase of […]
Carrie of the Miner – a lady first !!
Carrie of the Miner Columnist, ‘Carrie of the Miner’ may not have been as widely known as Carrie Bradshaw of a certain TV show but in the Goldfields she is by far more important and arguably more impressive. Carrie’s real name was Amy Augusta Buscombe who was born in Daylesford Victoria in 1862 to James […]
In Search of Mordaunt Reid:
More than one-third of the 62,000 Anzacs who died in WW1 are still listed as missing with no known graves. This is the story of one woman who never stopped looking for her soldier. Lieutenant Mordaunt Reid was paid the ultimate accolade by war historian and correspondent, Charles Bean, on the morning of the Gallipoli […]
The Murchison – on dust storms and barmaids
Murchison Times and Day Dawn Gazette – 25 September 1897, page 4 The Murchison Author unknown (From the London Financial Times) The Murchison was the earliest explored field in West Australia, not the first goldfield—that was Yilgarn, discovered by my friend Anstey—but the first upon which development work was undertaken. It went with a boom […]
The Prison Log and “Sky Blue Goannas”
In the early days of Coolgardie, there was no provision for holding prisoners pending their appearance in court, so Corporal McCarthy chopped a four-foot log from a three-foot thick trunk of a blown down salmon gum to which they were chained by a strong steel staple at one end and handcuffs at the other. (A […]