My Own Dear Boy:-

Murchison Times and Day Dawn Gazette 29 July 1897 SUICIDE AT SMITHFIELD Last Saturday week a miner, Thomas McKileen, 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 Friday […]

To be or not to be – Lawlers Suicides

In this last edition of the Lawlers Cemetery Snapshots we look at suicides. Suicide was a sad but common cause of death in the early days of the Goldfields. Sometimes it was a release from a certain and horrific death by thirst or heat. Other times it was due to hopelessness and despair. In most […]

Leonora Snapshot – death from despair

This is the second snapshot of biographies from the Leonora Cemetery. As in the previous post it covers from 1902 to early 1911. In this time there were 12 suicides:- Suicide was quite a common thing in the early days on the goldfields. Men, and a few women, who find themselves in a state of […]

Sensational Suicide at Red Hill -Grave Tales

From the Kalgoorlie Miner 13th May 1905 MAN BLOWS HIS FACE AWAY Towards 5 o’clock yesterday afternoon a man named Henry Colley describing himself as a miner, residing at Red Hill (Former name of Kambalda), reported to the Kalgoorlie police that about 10 o’clock that morning a man named Edward Clayton (whose real name was […]