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

Death of a Bushman – a family story

I was recently sent this most poignant story from OFH reader Ray Jackson. Although it occurred in Queensland, there are many incidences like this in Western Australia. It tells a tragic family story:- Life was very hard in the Charleville area of Queensland in the late 1800s and work was very hard to get. Two […]

The Old Soldier – father and son

This is the most amazing photo don’t you think? It is of Amadeo GALLE aged 99yrs and his son Raffael aged 67yrs taken c 1936 at their home at 1 Hamilton Street, Boulder. Raffael was a bootmaker!! Amadeo fought with Guiseppi Garabaldi’s Redshirts in 1859 and helped in the unification of Italy. he wears his hat […]

A Bushranger of Note – where did Joe go?

Although this is not a ‘Goldfields’ story it is one that I have always had a soft spot for as ‘Joe’ came out on the same convict ship as my husbands Gt Gt Grandfather. I had fondly thought that they may have met on the ship, both being the same age, who knows, maybe they […]

Ratepayers Gazetteer -1900

The following is an extract from an excellent online Gazetteer sent to me by an OFH reader, John Pritchard. In the foreword the publishers confidentially exclaim that this, the first issue, will be an annual production. Each year getting bigger and better. Sadly this never came to be and it appears that this was the […]

Drawn to Mt Magnet

As you will know we have done some recent ‘snapshop’ posts on various town such as Leonora and Abbotts. I had at first decided to review each town page on the OFH web site in alphabetical order but thats a bit dull don’t you think?? So I’m now jumping to Mt Magnet for no other […]