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 […]
The Lake Eva Oil Hoax
03/12/2022 By Leave a Comment
In the early days of the WA Goldfields there were, as there are now, conmen who want to make a dollar without working. This is one such story. In May of 1923, Robert Rothkehl and Ernest Thompson claimed that they had struck oil at Mt Eva near Southern Cross in Prospecting area 1135. A Company […]
An Old Timer Remembers –
03/12/2022 By Leave a Comment
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 […]
“Burly” McLean Drops in – by Allen Gledhill
03/12/2022 By Leave a Comment
from Allen Gledhill. John Gary’s great-nephew Claimed To Be Strongest Digger On three Fields “BURLY” McLEAN DROPS IN by John Gary They’re among the men who tell you that the gold rush days – the days of overnight fortunes, bare-knuckle fights, and chamois bags of gold are gone. Those days still live! They’re as rip-roaring […]
A Payable Claim – by Dryblower Murphy
03/12/2022 By Leave a Comment
Although the Sydney Bulletin claimed businessmen at Coolgardie were on more payable claims than the diggers, they were not the only ones, according to E.G. ‘Dryblower’ Murphy, who wrote: A few of the lucky have dropped in on a patch And gone on a rollicking spree, Where a woman is waiting the digger to catch […]
