The Dusty Box

Tag: Coolgardie

  • The Elvira Mystery

    The Elvira Mystery

    Two years before the murder at Mount Magnet, the Elvira mine, located north east of Coolgardie and near the Red Bluff, had been sitting abandoned for over a year. On 9 June 1896, Joseph Sorensen lodged an application and was granted a lease over the site. Work began immediately. Joseph started clearing the mine out…

  • Grim Yarns

    Grim Yarns

    There is a sickly odour of the sepulchre permeating the atmosphere, and the chief employment of the idle is to stand around and swap ghoulish stories – yarns that are dank, dismal and dirty, and reminiscent of dry bones, festering corpses, foul whiffs from the charnel house, blue mouldy of ghostly visions, and grisly spooks…

  • Goodbye Chaps, I’m Off

    Goodbye Chaps, I’m Off

    Having already escaped from Coolgardie Gaol in January, police kept a close watch on George Thompson when they loaded him onto a train on 17 March 1897. He was to serve three sentences at Fremantle Prison; 12 months for stealing, four months for breaking out of gaol and three months for giving a false name…

  • Credgington & Bradbury

    Credgington & Bradbury

    This blog post is a follow up to Death at Lake Austin. You may wish to read Death at Lake Austin first before reading the story of Credgington and Bradbury. Old Mate! In the gusty old weather, When our hopes and our troubles were new, In the years spent in wearing out leather, I found you…