The Storming of Grants Groggery:

Roaring Days in Old Broad Arrow 1908 A Pioneer Publicans Troubles The Storming of Grants Groggery There used to be some purple hued hours in the now decadent old ” Arrow,” in tho devil-may-care and open handed Nineties. No one cared about the troubles of today, nor went out of his road to meet those […]

“Can I shave you. Mr. Smiler.” ???

From the pen of ‘Smiler Hales’ – Alfred Arthur Greenwood HALES (1860-1936) “You can’t whip a mining camp for novelties”. I was walking along Bayley street the other afternoon, feeling like a poet and looking like a tramp out of luck, when I saw a shingle hanging from a tent, which bore the information that […]

Robert MacKey Pioneer Cordial Maker:

Several years ago I was contacted by Roderick Martin from the Tavistock Museum in Devon, England.  Roderick was researching local cordial makers in his area for an upcoming book. he had found an inscription on this grave stone in the Plymouth Road cemetery in Tavistock. Sacred to the memory of Louisa MacKey, beloved wife of Robert […]

The Ghosts of Red Flag Well

Sophie Chapman died at the Ajax GM lease at Red Flag on the Mt Margaret Goldfields. 12 miles south west of Laverton and 2 miles from the Hawks Nest Rail Siding. Buried alongside Alexander McDONALD (age 27)  100 meters ESE of the old Red Flag Well. Sophie Chapman and Alexander McDonald were killed by the […]

Underworld Character – conviction in Kalgoorlie

Infamous Sydney crime figure, Tilley Devine, portrayed un the TV series Underbelly, had a link to Kalgoorlie Boulder after being arrested and jailed on the Goldfields. Matilda ‘Tilley” Devine, was born in England in 1900 and became a prominent crime syndicate crime figure involved in sly grog dealing and razor gangs, but most notably as […]