Sunday Times 2 May 1937, page 10 GLIMPSES of life in Coolgardie in those glamorous days when the “Old Camp” was a magnet to adventurous folk from far and wide, can be interestingly recalled by 89 year old Mrs Julie Kennedy, who resides in Stirling-street, Perth. Picture those of wealthy English families rubbing shoulders with […]
The Painting in the Pub –
01/06/2024 By 1 Comment
West Australian 12 July 1952, page 14 A Curtain Raiser for the Golden Nineties by Freda Vines One of our truly indigenous works of art, “Bayley’s Luck” painted by Gerald Walsh in 1899, hangs in the carefree atmosphere of a goldfields pub. The hotel is the Fimiston, one of the only two remaining hotels of […]
The Farren’s of the Falls Hotel – by Jill Peady
24/02/2024 By Leave a Comment
The Prologue: Thomas Farren was born in 1857 in Seascale in the west of England where the Sellafield nuclear power station is today. Mary Elizabeth ‘Polly’ Farren nee Saunders, was born in Birmingham in 1863. They were married in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1879, at which time Mary could not read or write. They lived […]
Sailor Bill’s Elopement –
17/06/2023 By 1 Comment
The Sun Kalgoorlie 22 September 1907, page 6 THE ROARING NINETIES A BULLA BULLING ROMANCE SAILOR BILL’S ELOPEMENT (By Spinifex). Many of the boys of the old brigade have disappeared. They were a roving lot, and when the share boom collapsed in ’97, and the demand for “properties” had petered out, they booked for various […]
When there’s a Gold Rush ‘Sell Beer’
29/10/2022 By Leave a Comment
Coolgardie Pioneer 24 December 1898, page 38 THE MAYOR AND HIS ESTABLISHMENT “I don’t want no pioneering life, take me back to Collingwood.” This was the strain sung by an Eastern states poet who visited and was disgusted with these fields in the early days. Fortunately for the country, the majority of the old-timers, although […]
