Digging out headstone history can be a real brain-teaser. This West End, Townsville cemetery gravestone is for an Emile Gustav Cravino, whose headstone reads that he was killed on the jetty works, but there were no newspaper reports for such a death. There were, however, reports for a man variously named “Carandist” and “Cavanagh”, withContinue reading “Newspapers make history harder”
Category Archives: suicide
Paddle boat captain suicides after losing wife and son
The dry desolation of the Wilcannia cemetery in outback New South Wales is a sad resting place for two-year-old John Robert Mack. He died on the paddle boat Ethel Jackson as it steamed along the Darling River on June 9, 1878. At the time the boat was the flagship of the McCulloch Company which employedContinue reading “Paddle boat captain suicides after losing wife and son”
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”
Way to go Australia 