The Place for Local and Family History
on the Western Australian Goldfields

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Boulder  Western Australia

Piesse St-1.jpg (36669 bytes)

Piesse Street Boulder

The townsite of Boulder, adjacent to Kalgoorlie, was gazetted in 1896. It is named after a gold mining lease called "The Great Boulder". The story of the naming of the "the Great Boulder" is told in "The Mile that Midas Touched" (G. Casey & T. Mayman) - In 1893 in Dashwoods Gully in South Australia four men discussed the future of a local mining lease 'The Boulder'. Its main features were large sandstone boulders in which were found some small wiry stringers of gold. W.G. Brookman and Charles de Rose had been working the lease without much success, and George Brookman, a businessman who was backing them, had gone to Dashwood's Gully with an experienced prospector, Sam Pearce to discuss the matter.

Later George Brookman told them he might be able to raise funds in Adelaide to send a small party to Coolgardie, and later the Adelaide Prospecting Company was formed. W.G. Brookman and Sam Pearce left Adelaide on the 7th of June 1893. On the last stage of their journey they walked beside their cart and two horses for 300 miles to Coolgardie. Sam Pearce had a good knowledge of geology and he and Brookman moved their camp to Ivanhoe Hill. While Brookman was away at Coolgardie applying for 20 acres Pearce discovered a rich lead a few chains away and in August they registered another lease. With memories of their Dashwood's Gully lease they called it the Great Boulder.

 

Books of interest................

"Boulder - City of the Dreamtime" by John Morris
great book full of details of places & people but no index
Published by Artlook Books 1984
ISBN 0 86445 055 9


Return to Boulder

Next Record Boulder Cemetery A-B (Old)


Outback Family History Blog
WA Virtual Miners Memorial
Moya Sharp - Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) For Services to Community History

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