Billy Goat Racing – an excellent sport

I’m sure that we have all heard of the term ‘Billy Cart’ which refers to a small cart with no power or pedals which was usually constructed and ridden by children. However the term originally came from Billy Goat Carts which were small carts pulled by one or sometimes two goats hitched to a small […]

The Breakaway Brewery:

The Black Range Brewery, or the Breakaway Brewery as it was also known, began trading in August of 1907 with the proprietor as Joseph Vincent Kearney, an Irishman born in 1873 at Ballymoon, Co Carlow Ireland. The manager was Michael ‘Mick’ Dempsey. It was located on the Maninga Marley Road, 4.8 kilometers from Sandstone. What […]

The Bermingham’s – pioneer profile

The Bermingham Family – by Pat Callahan Eastern Australia was experiencing a depression in the 1890s. At the end of 1894 when he was nineteen, James Bermingham or Jas as he was called, sailed for Fremantle in Western Australia. After settling in and slowly getting his gear together, Jas and a mate took the train […]

The Importance of Being Gordon:

GORDON Latitude 30° 27′ S Longitude 121° 35′ E Gordon is an abandoned eastern goldfields townsite about 35 km north north east of Kalgoorlie. The development of gold mines in the area in 1896 created a need for a townsite. The townsite was gazetted in 1897. It is not known who the name commemorates, but […]

Pioneer Publican – Richard Fagan

Richard Fagan was born in Kelso, Bathurst NSW in 1866.  he was the son of Matthew FAGAN and Mary Anne ROBINSON, he had seven brothers and five sisters. Following the lure of gold and riches he travelled by ship with many others, arriving in Albany Western Australia on the 4th September 1890, he then proceeded […]