Grave Tales – Tom Flanagan

Paddy Hannan has long been  recognised as the first person to find gold in the region in the June 1893 with Irishmen Tom Flanagan and Dan Shea. The men found 3 kg of gold in one day, the equivalent of an average year’s wages, at a site originally named Hannan’s, close to what was later […]

The Cricketer – Andy Dressa – Grave tales

  This wonderful photograph was sent to me by Trish Ward who has kindly given me permission to show it to you. These hansom fellows were part of a cricket team and the man in the back left is the only one that can definitely be identified. He is Andy Dressa who was a champion cricketer, […]

G R Brown & Co – The Fashionable Tailor

The company of G R Brown and Co was stated as a ‘Very salubrious Establishment’ as this photo below will show. There seemd to be a great numbert of staff employed there and the building not only occupied the premesis as seen today in the ‘Burt Street Presinct’ but also a double story building to […]

Turning Men Into Stone – Book Launch

Just wanted to say a big congratulations to my dear friend and fellow researcher and historian Criena Fitzgerald on the launch of her latest book “Turning Men Into Stone’ a Social and Medical History of Silicosis in Western Australia. It was launched last night at the Hannans North Tourist Mine where an appreciative crowd listened […]

The Prison Log and “Sky Blue Goannas”

In the early days of Coolgardie, there was no provision for holding prisoners pending their appearance in court so Corporal McCarthy chopped a four-foot log from a three-foot thick trunk of a blown down salmon gum to which they were chained by a strong steel staple at one end and handcuffs at the other. (A […]