John Pedley’s newspaper obituary described him as “quite a character, with a fine Roman head, and a splendid memory, which he retained almost to the last.” This character was forged in the flames of transportation as a convict as a teenager, the harshness of frontier life, Aboriginal massacres and being kidnapped by bushrangers. Aged 90, inContinue reading “Convict lived long life of excitements”
Author Archives: Sharyn Moodie
Strychnine ends sorrows
William Stamp, 54, was chief engineer at No 4 Pump Station on the outskirts of Merredin. One day in March, 1928, he walked into the engine room dripping wet and asked a fellow employee “how’s things?’’ When his co-worker asked why he was wet, he said “Things are not too good with me. “I haveContinue reading “Strychnine ends sorrows”
A bitter epitath
Alex McKay was one of nine people murdered by the Jimmy Governor gang, touted as Australia’s last outlaws. McKay’s gravestone stands proudly in the Gulgong Cemetery, New South Wales, slightly apart from other graves. It declares he was “brutally murdered by the blacks.” The Governor story is well studied in Australian history, with its overtonesContinue reading “A bitter epitath”
Ornaments and oddities
Graves are sometimes embellished in intensely personal ways, which tell a bit about the person and the times in which they lived. Here are some of the meaningful, poignant or sometimes plain strange things I have seen decorating graves. Then there are embellishments which stand for hard work. I can’t quite get my head aroundContinue reading “Ornaments and oddities”
Dying so far from home
In Australia’s pioneering days, many died far from home. “Rev John Otley Rhodes, missionary in Ceylon who died in Bathurst, March 21, 1881 on his way to England in search of health, aged 36 years.” – Bathurst cemetery “John Kirkup born at Healthpool, Northumberland, England, died 23rd July 1883 in his 50th year, and wasContinue reading “Dying so far from home”
Barman kills policemen
Why would a barman shoot two policemen dead and wound a third in Bourke in 1877? No-one really knows, but newspapers of the day blamed either the delirium tremors, or a temporary madness on the part of one Samuel Getting. “ He must, it is thought, have been suddenly afflicted with homicidal mania, or madness,Continue reading “Barman kills policemen”
Returned home a corpse
george fullerton, police magistrate of Menindie in NSW
A deadly explosion
The explosion that killed 19-year-old Leonard Johnson was heard two miles away. Leonard was at work at the Robin Adair Ironworks in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, along with another man named named Moiler. They needed to break apart a brass piston cylinder, and decided to heat the hermetically sealed head in the flames of the blacksmith fire.Continue reading “A deadly explosion”
Bringing in the cows
Eight-year-old Archie was sent “out after cows’’ at his parents’ property 12 miles from Condobolin, NSW, one Saturday afternoon. His horse came home riderless about 20 minutes later, and the boy was found unconscious about 400 metres from the house. From an open gate and a stirrup iron lying close to the body, it wasContinue reading “Bringing in the cows”
What is the real story?
There are a few differing accounts of why 11-year-old William Glasson ended up drowned in the Cobar Gold Mines reservoir in the last days of 1905. One report says that he was with some other children bathing in the 15ft deep reservoir when they saw a man coming round the side of the reservoir, andContinue reading “What is the real story?”
Way to go Australia 