The Mickle brothers have established a dynasty of Hairdressers (Tonsorial Artists) and tobacconists in Western Australia. Starting in the Murchison and Northern Goldfields the five brothers had premises in Menzies, Mt Magnet, Kookynie, Laverton and Wiluna and Meekatharra. They would also open a business in Narrogin in later years. Laverton Mercury (Laverton, WA : 1899 […]
The people of the Goldfields
The Goldfields of Western Australia was and still is made up of many people, from poets to politicians, from saints and sinners and everything in between. I hope to tell you the stories of some of these people either famous or infamous or just the ordinary folks. Sometime the most ordinary people do the most extraordinry things
Farther Afield – the Gaffney family
The following plaque was photographed in a cemetery in Clunes Victoria by Wendy Broomfield. What a wealth of information on one plaque for the Gaffney family, it even gives the mothers maiden name, MARK, which is rare. Elizabeth GAFFNEY When Elizabeth MARK was born in 1845 in Providence, Rhode Island, USA, her father, Edward, was […]
Brutal Butchery at ‘The Boulder’:
Fix this text ‘The Truth’ Saturday 11 April 1908, Westralia had hardly done ringing with the climax of the Day Dawn murder sensation of Harry Smith of his crime of murdering his mate Clinton—the hanging only took place three weeks ago—when there occurs a tragedy in the very heart of a thickly populated centre. Boulder […]
The Bush Undertaker by Henry Lawson
In The Bush Undertaker by Henry Lawson we have the theme of isolation, connection, friendship, curiosity, happiness, survival and control. Taken from his ‘While the Billy Boils’ collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and after reading the story the reader realises that Lawson may be exploring the theme […]
The Mysterious Case of the Missing Doctor!!!
A Wandering Pommy: the story of Dr Dale OBE “Search Parties Unsuccessful” The mysterious disappearance of Dr Dale, who has been missing from Kookynie since Saturday last, has caused his friends in Kookynie great uneasiness. It appears that the doctor, who has been practicing at Mr. M. Schneider’s pharmacy during the past five months, went […]