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 Golden Graveyard:
12/10/2019 By Leave a Comment
Western Australian Goldfields Courier, Coolgardie 9 February 1895, page 4 WESTERN WANDERINGS. CAMP FIRE and FOREST TRACK. A GOLDEN GRAVEYARD. [BY A. G. ‘Smiler’ HALES] Michael William Kelly had thrown a seven. No one knew exactly what it was that killed him. Some of the boys at Kurnalpi, where he had worked long and well […]
My Own Dear Boy:-
11/10/2019 By Leave a Comment
Murchison Times and Day Dawn Gazette 29 July 1897 SUICIDE AT SMITHFIELD Last Saturday week a miner, Thomas McKileen (MacKileen), living by himself in a tent at Smithfield, committed suicide by blowing his brains out. At an inquest held on Monday afternoon before the acting-Coroner, Mr E. O. Butler, J.P. it was elicited that on […]
A Gentleman of the Road-
11/10/2019 By Leave a Comment
Four years after the establishment of the Department of Mines, it bore little resemblance to the tiny Mining Branch which had started operation within the Department of Lands and Surveys in Perth WA. Mr Patrick Pelly, a clerk with the Department, was remembered as ‘a reserved, courteous and obliging old fellow’, however he was without […]
A Field of Paper Daisies:
08/10/2019 By Leave a Comment
I recently received this wonderful photo from a fellow historian who lives in Wales, Alwyn Evans. He tells me: In 1900 Wiluna was hit by massive floods after 28 inches of rain, and all work ceased for some time on the Gwalia Consols mine which George Hall and the Westralian Mines and Finance Agency were […]
