They Were First – Edith Wallis

Kalgoorlie Miner 7^th September 1938

The First White Woman in Boulder City!

First School in Boulder – Photo SLWA

This photograph shows Mrs Edith Mar Elizabeth Wallis as a teacher at the first school in Boulder. Her daughter Maude (age 6) is on the far left in the front row and her son Alf (age 8) is fifth from the left in the front row. They had a third child in 1902, Arthur Edward Wallis born in Trafalgar

Among the pioneers who have returned to the Goldfields to meet old friends was Mrs Edith Wallis who with her husband, Alfred Henry Wallis, and her children came to the Goldfields from Bendigo in 1893. Mrs Wallis claims to have been the first white woman in Boulder City. She held the first school there in the Methodist Church on the Horseshoe Lease. The building was made of canvas and 42 children attended.

Kalgoorlie Miner 19 June 1897, page 7

Mrs Wallis was with her husband and brother when they pegged and named the Ivanhoe Venture. She recalls how the late “Smiler’ Hales from Coolgardie on one occasion gave her son Alf, then six years old, a brown and white spaniel who they named Smiler and became well known to travellers on the Kalgoorlie/Boulder railway.

Alfred Arthur Greenwood (Smiler) Hales – Photo SLWA

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Moya Sharp

Owner at Outback Family History

My name is Moya Sharp, I live in Kalgoorlie Western Australia and have worked most of my adult life in the history/museum industry. I have been passionate about history for as long as I can remember and in particular the history of my adopted home the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. Through my website I am committed to providing as many records and photographs free to any one who is interested in the family and local history of the region.

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