Southern Cross – Update

Outback Family History page for Southern Cross An OFH reader recently contacted me to say that part of the Southern Cross Cemetery register was missing. It only went as far as ‘P’. So today I have devoted the day to fixing the register and working on the data to make it easier to read and […]

A Case of Mistaken Identity –

While recently doing my daily post on the WAVMM ‘The Western Australian Virtual Miners Memorial’ I found that it was the anniversary of a disaster that caused the death of three men at the Englishman GM in Kookynie on the 3rd February 1900. The names of the victims were:- BOURKE John, Miner 3/02/1900 Age 35 […]

An Eerie Premonition – Michael Madden

I had been researching the accidental death of this miner because of an entry I found in the Annual Report from the Department of Mines for 1897 which stated, that a miner called ‘John Madden’ had been killed in an accident on the Goongarrie GM. As this name was not one I had listed I […]

Black Flag – ghost towns

BLACK FLAG:- R H Henning and party pegged the Black Flag lease which in October 1894 was reported to be ‘doing very well.’ The property was sold the following year to Lord Sudley’s syndicate for $48,000. By this time men were opening up their claims, many with good results. In December, the following year, there […]

Distressing Complications – grave tales

Yerilla Cemetery The First Burial Distressing Complications On Monday morning 22 March 1897 Mr Simon Elliott, age 63 yrs, manager of the Yerilla Claims died suddenly at GM Lease 64R. He was at work but died as a result of a rupture of the heart and was buried the next day. Death certified in writing […]