Kambalda Pioneer Cemetery Beresford Rd, Kambalda
L 31.204984 – L 121.650983
A recent post on Facebook about the suicide of an early miner who is buried in the Red Hill (Kambalda) Pioneer Cemetery raised a few comments so I thought it would be of interest to research a bit further on the few who have memorials in the cemetery. Further details Kambalda residents who were buried in Kalgoorlie Cemetery
Kambalda Pioneer Cemetery Photo by Carol Judkins
EUPELI George — d 13th June 1904, at the Butterfly Mine, Red Hill, Miner aged 43 Years, Cause: Heart attack, a post mortem examination was conducted (not very common on the Goldfields at this time). He was buried in the Kambalda Cemetery on 15th June 1904. He had lived in Victoria for 13 years and had been in WA for about 3 years. He is supposed to have been married in Melbourne VIC but his wife’s name is not known. Reg 42/1904 Coolgardie.
Mine Death: www.wavmm.com
Butterfly Mine, Kambalda 1905
HASSELL Edward Lindsay AKA Edward CLAYTON 12 May 1905 — 40 yrs, d 12 May 1905, at Red Hill, Cause: Suicide while temporarily insane, by Verdict of the Coroner, His Father: William Lindsay HASSELL (Miner), Mother: Elizabeth nee MORRIS. He was born in Heathcote Victoria in 1862.
MAN BLOWS HIS FACE AWAY
Kalgoorlie Miner 13th May 1905
Towards 5 o’clock yesterday afternoon a man named Henry Colley describing himself as a miner, residing at Red Hill (Former name of Kambalda), reported to the Kalgoorlie police that about 10 o’clock that morning a man named Edward Clayton (whose real name was supposed to be Hassell) came to where the motorman was at work on the Shotover lease and asked him to take charge of two letters, which were duly handed over. Clayton or Hassell then left but after going a short distance he sang out to Colley. “Don’t let those letters, go put it with your possessions”. Colley, who then looked at the two letters, saw that one was marked ‘Police’ and the other was addressed to ”Mrs. Hassell, Heathcote, Victoria”
Colley further stated that he lost sight of the other man for the time being, as he (Colley) went below into the hole in which he had been working. He then climbed out of the shaft and gazed around him. He heard an explosion, and ran towards the spot where it had occurred. There he found Clayton (or Hassell) lying on his back. The front portion of the man’s head had been blown clear away.
Colley said that he did not stop to make any investigations, but started, almost immediately from Red Hill to bring news of the occurrence to the police in Kalgoorlie. Colley has handed to the Police the two letters which were entrusted to him by the now-deceased man.
Note: In the cemetery, there is a headstone for both Edward Hassell and for Edward Clayton but they appear to be one in the same person.
Grave of Edward L Hassell – Photo Find a Grave
Grave of Edward Clayton – Photo Find a Grave
HASSELL Edward sent in by Paula Sinclair
PRENTICE Elizabeth: Commonly known as Elizabeth GAUNT — 47 yrs, d 23 Dec 1899, at the Commercial Hotel, Larkin Street, Kambalda (Red Hill), she was a married woman. Cause: Burns. Father: John VORBACH (Farmer), Mother: Unknown, Her death was registered by a friend, John Gaunt. She was born in Manchester, England and arrived in Australia as a child. She had lived in Victoria for 35yrs and in WA for 4 years. She married John PRENTICE in Daylesford, Vic at the age of 25yrs.
Grave of Elizabeth Prentice – Photo Find a Grave
The West Australian 25 Dec 1899
Commercial Hotel Kambalda – Photo SLWA
HYLAND John — 26yrs, d 21 Dec 1899, Born: 25 Oct 1873, Chester, Cheshire, England, Occ: a miner working at Block 48, Cause: Through a fall of earth at Block 48 Mine. Father: Patrick HYLAND (Soldier), Mother: Elizabeth STRONG, The police went out from Kalgoorlie and arranged for his burial. A coroner’s inquest was held on the site of the fatality, and a verdict of accidental death was returned. Reg: East Coolgardie 25/1900.
John Hyland – Photo Ancestry.com
Kalgoorlie Miner, Sat 23 Dec 1899
WENZEL Friedrich Wilhelm ‘German Bill’ — 65yrs, d 2 Jun 1897, Born: Brandenberg, Germany, Father: Gottlieb Gottfreid WENZEL (Farmer), Mother: Johanna Dorothea NEUMANN, Cause: Typhoid, Married to Anne FARMER on the 13 Mar 1866 at Penhurst VIC, the couple had 10 children, his wife and family stayed behind in VIC, he came to Red Hill to start a newsagency. Reg 300/1897 (registered as William WEUZELL).
WENZEL Friedrich Wilhelm ‘German Bill’ – Photo Ancestry.com
Coolgardie Miner 8 Jun 1897: is about the very first death and burial at Red Hill. The cemetery shows his name as WENZELL but James Balzano “The Barrow Man’ writes to the newspaper that the man was called William WENZEL and was a German storekeeper at the Lake Lefroy diggings (near Kambalda) and that he had a wife and several children at home in South Australia. He was fondly known as ‘German Bill’ in Coolgardie.
Coolgardie Miner 8 Jun 1897
Moya Sharp
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Hi
I am searching for the buried site of Bartholomew Jopling Armstrong Born 1870 Vctoria came to the Goldfields in the late 1800’s he went missing from Kalgoorlie after 1906 and was never heard of again.(His wife was Elizabeth (Bessie) Daughters Clarice and Ethel
Cheers
Jean P Saunders