The Dusty Box

Category: Historical Snippets

  • Gus & June

    Gus & June

    While the personal ads in newspapers were most often utilised as a tool for people to seek love and make connections, they also appeared to have been used as a way to communicate clandestinely. This is the story of Gus and June. From 1950 until 1951 messages between the couple were placed on an almost…

  • Christmas in 1899

    Christmas in 1899

    [It matters little] …whether we make good cheer snugly within four walls and with closed windows, or beneath the verandah or spreading tree, or in the house with doors and windows open to the most welcome of guests, the breeze – Christmas is ever the same, the day when we give ourselves up to friendship,…

  • The Captain’s Boots

    The Captain’s Boots

    For about fifteen years Phillip Duffield worked as the ‘landing waiter’ for customs in Geraldton. His job was to monitor all the people who arrived at the port and ensure that they were not bringing contraband to the town. Phillip took his job seriously. Such was his “surprising sagacity in diagnosing contraband and his incorruptible…

  • A Lonely Death

    A Lonely Death

    While searching for timber about two miles north of the Darlot Road and opposite the 19-mile well, Edward ‘Old Ned’ Ashbury and his mate, Mr Scott, stumbled across the skeletal remains of a man. They returned to Lawlers and, on 5 May 1901, Edward reported what they had found to Sergeant George Pilkington.

  • The Cannington “Ghost”

    The Cannington “Ghost”

    In mid-November 1898 a ghost began haunting the Cannington cemetery at midnight on successive nights. The “ghost” was clearly a man and on 13 November concerned residents lodged a report with Perth police. They noted that he appeared to be wearing dark tights, was covered with a white cloth and had “large glaring eyes.“ Practical…

  • Albany’s Gold

    Albany’s Gold

    On 5 February 1867, an Albany correspondent for The Inquirer and Commercial News wrote a letter with information many people in Western Australia had been waiting to hear for some time. Gold has been found by a man named Butcher, a short distance from the town. It is in dust, and the Resident Magistrate has…

  • A Short-Lived Telephone Box

    A Short-Lived Telephone Box

    In mid-April 1912, the Postmaster General’s Department erected a telephone box close to the centre of the St Georges Terrace, Adelaide Terrace and Victoria Avenue intersection in Perth.

  • Gold in the Garden

    Gold in the Garden

    Uninterested in the conversation inside their Grandfather’s house at Wembley, Don and Courtney decided to head outside to split some logs. Their Grandfather, John Dundas, directed them to an old hollow tree stump which he had removed some time ago. They got to work with their axe and wedges and while they did not chop…

  • Geraldton’s First Train Incident

    Geraldton’s First Train Incident

    The construction of the Geraldton to Northampton railway began in 1874 and while sections of the track were completed in the following years, it was not officially opened until 1879.

  • ‘Jonas’ and the Whale

    ‘Jonas’ and the Whale

    While today (in most parts of the world) whaling is thankfully banned, in the past, whaling was an occupation that was carried out regularly. Whales were hunted to extremes for their blubber, oil and bones. Western Australia was no exception with whaling being an early industry in the colony. Early accounts indicate great excitement at…