1928 – Leslie Wren Ellis was a waterside worker who perhaps should have stayed waterside. He planned to buy a fishing boat which was moored in water off the town of Thevenard, South Australia. The best way to inspect it was to swim out to it, and although his friends advised him not to doContinue reading “Swimmer not strong enough”
Category Archives: drownings
Fatal boat ride for non-swimmer
“I don’t think anything could sink this boat”. Bothwell, just before the boat sank William Bothwell couldn’t swim. He lived in the driest part of the continent, yet he still managed to drown in a boating accident. It was also the boat’s maiden voyage. It was made of galvanized iron, and was launched on aContinue reading “Fatal boat ride for non-swimmer”
Flash flood ended Henry’s gold fever
The words on this headstone in the overgrown abandoned Anglican cemetery at Sofala are almost unreadable, worn by time and overgrown with lichen. The grave’s occupant, Henry Robinson, was lost to the waters of nearby Oaky Creek, just as the stone itself is now being lost to the elements. How long before his story alsoContinue reading “Flash flood ended Henry’s gold fever”
Drowned learning to swim
The evening of February 18, 1909, a number of women and children went to one of the Great Cobar mine tanks to “bathe’’, something they enjoyed regularly. Cobar, in mid central New South Wales, was a stronghold of copper and gold mines, starting from the 1870s. By 1909, the hot, dry town had hit itsContinue reading “Drowned learning to swim”
A holiday tragedy
Australia Day, in 1917 known as Anniversary Day, was a great Friday in Wrightville, a small mining town near Cobar in mid central New South Wales. People had gathered for the festivities, which included a swimming carnival in the mine tank. Lucy (Lulu) Ted and Thelma Knight, aged 9, 8, and 6 were brought toContinue reading “A holiday tragedy”
Way to go Australia 