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”
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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?”
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 