The Bicycle and the Bush by Jim Fitzpatrick – Fitzpatrick spent years researching this book, which looks at the bicycle’s use in rural Australia from 1890-1920. It is one of the most unusual, innovative explorations ever undertaken into the role of a transport device and its relationship with a society and its environment. This book surveys the […]
A Woodline Childhood in the 1940s – by Ron Matthews
09/03/2017 By 5 Comments
From the late 1890s until the early 1950s because all heavy machinery was steam driven, vast quantities of wood were required to fuel the boilers, coal was too expensive. Consequently Wood Lines were born. The last surviving company was “The Western Australian Goldfields Firewood Supply Limited” which ceased operations in 1964. From early 1946 until […]
Child of the Woodline – grave tales
08/03/2017 By 3 Comments
Some years ago I posted the following photograph and although I said I had no idea who was the child buried in this sad little grave in the Kalgoorlie Cemetery, it was shared many thousands of times. It evokes all the sadness of a family who were unable to afford a proper memorial so they […]
Killed by Lightning – Rody Schwan
04/03/2017 By 2 Comments
Kalgoorlie Western Argus 20 September 1904, page 12 KILLED BY LIGHTNING – R SCHWAN, PROSPECTOR – LAVERTON Sept. 14, 1904 News has just reached Laverton that a well-known prospector, ” Rody Schwan, was killed by lightning yesterday afternoon at the Daisy Belle, a prospecting show about 12 miles west of Duketon. The weather during the […]
An Old Timer Remembers
04/03/2017 By 7 Comments
OLD-TIMER’S LETTER – Employee in First Post Office in Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie Miner 17 May 1950, page 2 Mr. Lionel J. Dudley, an old-timer, sent an interesting account of some of his experiences in the early days of the goldfields to Mr. J. D. Teahan, Mayor of Boulder. Once an employee in the first post […]
