I was recently sent this wonderful photograph from OFH reader, Peter Sirr, who has given me permission to share this great image from his family album. Peter tells me:- This is a Sirr family photo circa 1914 (or before). They are at a picnic on a woodline out of Gwalia/Leonora. The older white haired man […]
Waghorn’s United Stores:
07/08/2018 By 1 Comment
Three members of the Waghorn family lived in Leonora in the early 1920’s to 1930’s and they contributed to the local community in many ways. George Charles Waghorn and his wife Jessie Waghorn went to Leonora in 1921-1922 and ran a general store in Tower Street, Leonora next to the Central Hotel. George was a […]
Matron Sadie Canning – people profile
28/12/2017 By 1 Comment
In Sep 2008 Western Australia’s first Aboriginal nurse/Matron died at the age of 78. Sadie Canning was a member of the Stolen Generations was taken away fro her parents at the age of four, she was placed in the Mt Margaret Mission, in the north eastern goldfields where she grew up. At 19 she travelled […]
Leonora Snapshot – all the little children ‘2’
07/11/2017 By 6 Comments
Recently, on the OFH blog, I posted the first batch of biographies on the people who are buried in the Leonora Cemetery. Every cemetery provides a social and family history snapshot of the town where its located. Accident and disease show no favorites. I hope that this section of infant deaths will provide a good […]
A Deadly Epidemic – Leonora update
08/09/2017 By 2 Comments
Fevers and flu were common, mostly caused by poor sanitation and cross infection, and, until the arrival of antibiotics in 1945, pneumonia was often a fatal disease. In May 1919, an Italian miner called Luigi Morelli, contracted ‘broncho pneumonia influenza and died within six days. Eight more cases were diagnosed in rapid succession. The Public Health […]
