Earlier this year you may recall, we were fortunate in being granted access to the admission records for St Anthony’s Convent In Coolgardie. Because of the privacy laws of the Catholic Church records we were given permission to access up to 1925, which fortunately for us is the pertinent period for the town. The archives […]
The Shamrock Hotel -Coolgardie hotels
Next in our series of Coolgardie Hotels is Colreavy’s Shamrock Hotel: When the Shamrock Hotel, on the corner of Sylvester and Jobson Streets, Coolgardie was opened in September 1895, the licensee, Mrs Cath Colreavy, announced her best efforts would be used to ‘promote the comfort and convenience of patrons and visitors’. Despite having twenty bedrooms […]
In Search of Mordaunt Reid:
More than one third of the 62,000 Anzacs who died in WW1 are still listed as missing with no known graves. This is the story of one woman who never stopped looking for her soldier. Lieutenant Mordaunt Reid was paid the ultimate accolade by war historian and correspondent, Charles Bean, on the morning of the […]
First WA Union and Labor Congress 1899:
Back Row: John Reside (A.C.D.C.A), R Hancock (Trades and Labor Council), Robert Hastie (AWA), William Fraser (AWA), James W Nevill (AWA), M H O’Connor (AWA), L Larney (Loco Drivers Assoc), William Stewart (AWA), J McCarthy (Bootmakers Union) Middle Row: R Balmire, R Pugh (Bakers Union), S R Hill (Boilermakers) , Fergie Reid (AWA), W Diver […]
Typhoid : digging for gold often ended in digging a grave
Typhoid Lives on the waterless goldfields were lost not only from thirst alone but also from typhoid. In the 1890s, typhoid was endemic throughout Australia. It struck at Perth, Western Australia’s capital itself, in established outlying centres such as Northam and at temporary townships on the road to the goldfields such as Woolgangie. But the lack […]