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

Our Flag – Flown for the first time 114 years ago today

This day, 3rd September in 1901, 114 years ago, the Australian Flag was flown for the first time. Following the proclamation of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901, the Commonwealth government held a design competition for a new national flag. There were 32,000 entries in the competition, and most featured the Union Jack, […]

Book Review – Walk for me Elsie – The Maffina Family

This book was hard to track down but I now have my own copy. I first heard about it from my dear friend Criena Fitzgerald who is currently writing a book on the ‘Italian and Slavs’ on the Goldfields of Western Australia. She had been loaned a copy to help with her research but we both […]

East Perth Cemetery – Coolgardie People

While staying with my daughter recently who lives in East Perth we had the occasion to visit the East Perth Cemetery on Cemetery Hill which I had always wanted to see but as it is only open on Sunday afternoon between 2-4 I have not had the chance to before.  This old cemetery which operated […]

An Irish Romancer – The Search for the Real Walter Robert Fitzgerald-Moore

AN IRISH ROMANCER: THE SEARCH FOR THE REAL WALTER ROBERT FITZGERALD-MOORE Walter Moore, if that was his real name!, was my grandfather, but he died 25 years before I was born.  His origins are shrouded in mystery and even the circumstances of his death – “in the arms of his mistress” as my father so bitterly put it – […]

All Blacks Player – George Maber

To mark the occasion of :- Bledisloe Cup 2015: Australia v New Zealand, ANZ Stadium in Sydney Aug 8th Last year, 2014, marks the 120th anniversary of the death of George Maber, one of the very first All Black Rugby players . He was to play his first All Blacks game at Christchurch in 1894. […]