The Union Brewery Man – the Kaye family

In 1996, (yes, I really  do keep my mail from that long ago ♥), I was in correspondence (by mail of course), with a lady called Helen Saunders from Figtree in NSW. She was asking if I could look into her Grandparent’s time in Kalgoorlie to see what I could find about them. She very […]

Joe the Shifter –

Mirror – Perth – 20 October 1934, page 8 ‘JOE THE SHIFTER’ Carted Goods To The Fields And Carted Them Away Again Now He’s Carting Them Back Joe the Shifter’ is the name given to one of the Goldfields’ best-known identities, Mr. Joseph Wilson, carrying contractor of Kalgoorlie, but one time of Coolgardie. He sets […]

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 which caused the death of three men at the Englishman GM in Kookynie. These are the names of the men:- BOURKE John, Miner 3/02/1900 Age 35  Englishman  GM Kookynie MCKELVIE […]

An Old Timer Remembers –

OLD-TIMER’S LETTER Employee in First Post Office in Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie Miner 17 May 1950, page 2 Mr. Lionel J. Dudley, an old-timer, sent an interesting account of some of his experiences in the early days of the goldfields to Mr. J. D. Teahan, Mayor of Boulder. Once an employee in the first post office in […]

A Playground of Death – grave tales

After living in Kalgoorlie-Boulder for many years, and talking to lots of people about what they did as youngsters and what games they played. I was told, that although playing on the slime dumps and near mine shafts was ‘strictly forbidden’ just about everyone did it. If their parents had know what they got up […]