The Dusty Box

Category: WA History

  • Always Faithful to the End

    Always Faithful to the End

    Warning: this story discusses suicide. If you are struggling and need help, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit lifeline.org.au. On 24 November 1929, His Excellency the Governor, Colonel Sir William Campion, officially unveiled Western Australia’s War Memorial in Kings Park. Built on a high point of the park, it overlooked the Swan…

  • The Great Wizard

    The Great Wizard

    Having completed a successful tour in South Australia, on 21 April 1868, Frederick William Auger Kohler, accompanied by his agent, Louis Peter, departed Adelaide for Fremantle. The brig ‘Emily Smith’ arrived a month later, on 19 May. Disembarking at Albany, Frederick, or, as he was professionally known, Professor Kohler, placed an advertisement in a newspaper…

  • Mount Magnet to Perth

    Mount Magnet to Perth

    Ironing clothes was the last straw. Employed as a housemaid at the Grand Hotel in Mount Magnet, Vera had had enough. Putting the ironing aside, she leaned over the ironing board and declared to her friend, “Hazel, I’m fed up; I want a change. I’m going to walk out.” Hazel exclaimed in response, “Me too!”…

  • Rescue at Horrocks

    Rescue at Horrocks

    In 1950, Adrian Hayter, a journalist and adventurer from New Zealand, travelled to England and bought a 35ft motor-powered yawl named Sheila II. He intended to sail it from Europe to New Zealand via Gibraltar, Suez Canal, India, Indonesia and Australia. On 10 January 1954, he departed Indonesia with six weeks supply of food and…

  • Bolgart Robbery

    Bolgart Robbery

    At 4:15 am on 11 March 1939, Tim Heggarty heard a noise in James Laurance’s shop at Bolgart. He lived in a home adjacent to the store with Mr and Mrs Coutts. He awoke John Coutts, and they both investigated, quietly walking to the rear of the building where they saw someone had forced a…

  • March of the Fox

    March of the Fox

    The fox ventures everywhere; open plain, mountain fastness, or cleared land makes little difference to his movements in search of prey. Kalgoorlie Western Argus (WA : 1896 – 1916); 18 January 1910; Page 26; The Warrigal On 10 January 1910, a Balladonia member of the Pastoralists’ Association wrote a letter to the Association’s secretary. They…

  • Monster Christmas Cake

    Monster Christmas Cake

    In 1894, Veryard and Son’s of the Roller Bakery in Perth baked a large Christmas cake weighing six hundredweight (over 300 kg). It was incredibly popular, and, whether they meant to or not, a Christmas tradition was born. They continued to bake cakes, and, each year, the weight increased. In 1895, the cake weighed ten…

  • II – The Second Inquest

    II – The Second Inquest

    Part II – The Second Inquest follows on from Part I – The Death of Claude Cotton. Click the link below to read the first story. The result was what most of Geraldton wanted. Knowing there would be a post mortem and a new inquest, letter writer ‘Groper’ turned their attention to Claude’s mother. She…

  • I – The Death of Claude Cotton

    I – The Death of Claude Cotton

    At 7:30 am, while lumpers loaded wheat onto the ss Millpool, Captain Arthur Eves gazed out across Champion Bay. As he looked down, he noticed something floating in the water. Unable to see what it was, he descended from the bridge to the forecastle. Using binoculars, he realised that what he was looking at was…

  • The Padbury Street Ghost

    The Padbury Street Ghost

    Let us tell the story of the Haunted House. The Daily News (Perth, WA :1882 – 1950); 9 February 1914; Page 8; A Haunted House Located behind the Brisbane Hotel and running diagonally from Beaufort Street to Bulwer Street, Padbury Street was a quiet street unknown to many people in Perth. In February 1914, that…