When Thomas Sedman of Campsie, a suburb of Sydney, decided to go looking for wild flowers in 1911 in the far northern suburbs of the city, he was probably not prepared for what he would find. Traipsing through the bushland of the Kuringai Chase National Park, near the suburb of Mount Colah, he stumbled into a cave and discovered a man's skeleton. Alongside the remains were a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, a felt hat, a broken pipe and a revolver. Mr Sedman quickly alerted authorities and Senior Constable Wade of Hornsby police, accompanied by a doctor, visited the scene. The body was that of a ..read more

It was the peak of the goldrush period in Victoria, Australia when Mary Ann Martin entered the world as the eldest daughter of Edward and his wife Mary. She was born in Welshpool in October, 1852. Later on her family would move to Cowwarr, Victoria. When she was 19 years old, Mary Ann met and married engineer John Doctor Heywood. The couple then followed the 'gold trail' to Walhalla, previously known as Stringer's Creek. Alluvial gold had been discovered there by a party of prospectors in 1862 and the population in the area soon grew. This population explosion included the Heywoods. John wou ..read more

William Leaf was a sergeant in the Queen's 7th Hussars, but he died in Busselton, Western Australia and is now buried in the pioneer cemetery. He was born in England around 1820. William Leaf's grave in the Busselton pioneer cemetery. Photo Samantha Elley. William spent some time in the forces, serving Queen and country but by 1869 he received a pension and had already moved to Western Australia, where he met and married Ann Forrest in 1864. Just before the couple got married, Ann's father, Gaven Forrest, who had built and owned the Vasse Hotel in Busselton, just south of Perth, had died. So ..read more

He was credited with finding the first gold-bearing stone as a child which established the town of Charters Towers. Born in north-western Queensland in 1861 John Joseph 'Jupiter' Mosman was an Aboriginal who, as a small boy, went to work at Kynuna Station. While there, he met Hugh Mosman from Tarbrax Station who hired the young lad, giving him his English name. He also provided his nickname Jupiter, due to his eyes being so large, luminous and limpid like a planet. Jupiter Mosman in later years. Courtesy Wikipedia There had been a few discoveries of gold in the northern Queensland area around ..read more

Robert Hayles Senior has been credited with the development of Magnetic Island, but he experienced many tribulations before he got to that point. Robert came to Australia from England when he was only 18 years of age. He had been born in Pimlico, London in 1843. He landed in Brisbane and made his way to Ipswich where he had found a job on Bungewogorai Station, where he got plenty of experience working with sheep. At one point, the owner of Bungewogorai took up Nive Downs on Upper Warrego, one of the most outlying stations in the state of the day, and Robert was sent there to look after one sec ..read more

He could have survived his injury of a broken neck, but that was not to be for Ralph Milgate Pepper. The ambulance he was in, suffered a collision on the way to hospital in Brisbane. Ralph Pepper was from the community of Casino, the son of George Daniel Pepper and Ethel Rose (nee Milgate) and was studying to be a teacher at the Wagga Teachers College. He obviously had a competitive nature, entering the mile walk in the annual athletics carnival for the college in 1948, coming third against record-breaking a northern districts champion. So it isn't a huge stretch for him to be active on his ho ..read more

The writing on the striking white gravestone is barely readable. The tree that may have been planted at the time of burial has now grown so large, it causes the headstone to lean as roots push it aside. Alice Rose Munday's grave in Busselton Pioneer Cemetery. Photo: Samantha Elley The headstone remembers Alice Rose Munday, who died on 28th February, 1875, buried in the Busselton Pioneer Cemetery in Western Australia. Sadly her husband, Captain James William Munday, followed not far behind, dying on 11th November in the same year. It was a love affair that was never meant to last long. The you ..read more

They were partners in business and partners in life. Billy Flint and his wife, Florence May (nee Mappin) ran a hairdressing and tobacconist business in Perth. It seems they had a colourful life, often in the newspapers for various different reasons. These included bankruptcy, fines and even a special gift of winning money. In the 1920s they were running their business in Murray Street where they offered permanent waving, shingling, bobbing and face and head massages. In 1940, Billy was found at the law courts responding to a bankruptcy charge for not complying with the requirements of a bankru ..read more

John Bowman Swan was only five years old when a drink from a sarsaparilla bottle ended his life. Neither the little boy, nor his parents Charles and Nina, would have known what thallium was when he enjoyed the soft drink while spending Christmas in Caloundra in 1953, but it was to have a large effect on them all. Front page of Truth newspaper in 1954. Shortly after taking the drink, John was unable to keep his food down and complained of feeling giddy. Ten days later his hair started falling out and he was soon quite bald. For the following nine months he was in and out of hospital with his s ..read more

In Clermont cemetery stands a memorial, not just for one person, but for the 60 or more victims of one of Australia's worst floods as far as loss of life was concerned. On December 28, only a few days after Christmas in 1916, light rain started falling on the township of Clermont, Queensland during the day. As sundown came, the rain got heavier and continued on in sheet-like fashion through the night. A local constable became aware of the impending flood and warned residents in low-lying areas that the creek which ran through the town was about to overflow. Only a few heeded his warning and ev ..read more