Western Australian Genealogical Society Inc.

WAITING - Cyclone Tracy

by Maxine Dhalstrom © 2012
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Editors note - Cyclone Tracy devastated the city of Darwin, in the Northern Territory of Australia, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in 1974. Tracy was responsible for the death of 65 people (including 16 lost at sea), with many more injured. There was close to a billion dollars damage (1974 $'s), some 80 percent of the houses, and 70 percent of all buildings in Darwin were destroyed. 41,000 people were left homeless (87 percent of the population) which resulted in some 30,000 people being relocated to other parts of Australia in the greatest evacuation in our modern history. Many people did not return to Darwin after Tracy.

Maxine wrote this poem not long after she and her family were exposed to the fury of Cyclone Tracy.

Drinking and rioting on the Sabbath morn

by Ian Scott © 2012
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During my research on GGG Grandfather James Scott in Stevenston Ayrshire, I came across this wonderful case story in the Kirk Session minutes of July 1834. It so clearly sets out the activities concerned, I felt as though I had actually been there.

A Winter's Tale - Searching for Sylvia

by Richard Harboard © 2011
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My story starts a long time ago, but because it contains some people still alive today, I will avoid names if I can and hope it doesn't get too complicated. Also, unlike my wife, I am not a very good story writer, so this effort should not be marked on its literary style. I hope you will just enjoy it as the true record it is.

Alexander WILSON - Convict No 3769

by Beryl Tyler © 2001-2011
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My maternal great grandfather was transported to Western Australia in 1856, having been convicted of forging and uttering. He received his ticket of leave on arrival, but was re-convicted on 05.10.1859, again for forging.

On 26th October 1864 he married Sarah MAGUIRE who had arrived on the Strathmore some months earlier from Ireland.

Charles Whitehurst - Convict No 704

© Dawn Whitehurst 2001-2011
Email Dawn: via WAGS Tales

The 14th October 2001 marks an important date for our family as it is the 150th anniversary of the arrival in Western Australia of my husband's great grandfather, Charles Whitehurst.

My research started back in 1974 when my son became inquisitive and wanted to know the origins of our family.

Margaret Snowball (Formerly Stark) [1788 -?]

by Ian Scott © 2011
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Margaret, the third known child of William Stark and Betty Wishart was born the 17th March 1788. ^[1] Her father William, a gardener in Linktown, part of the larger town of Kirkcaldy in Fife, came from a long residing family in the area. Margaret's baptism took place eight days later on the 25th ^[2] in the parish church of Abbotshall, less than a mile from her birth place.

At present nothing is known of her childhood and youth, and we next find Margaret as an eligible young single woman of 24 years.

During the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) many of the English Counties raised citizen Militias to provide additional defense of the country whilst a large part of the regular army was fighting Napoleon in Europe. In 1812 the Durham Militia was stationed north of the border at Burntisland in Fife, a distance of just six miles along the coast from Kirkcaldy.

Julia LOFTUS

by Chris Loudon © 2010-2011
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The Irish Famine had a devastating effect on the population of Ireland in the period 1845-1850. Approximately 1.5 million men, women and children died of starvation or disease in this period, and more that 2 million others fled from Ireland to avoid death by starvation.

Of those who departed, there were aproximately 4,000 Orphan Girls given assisted passage to Australia between October 1848 to August 1850, under what was known as the Earl Grey Scheme. This article is about one of these Irish Orphan Girls.

Sydney was hot and sultry in the early hours of the morning on Saturday 12 January 1850, with dark clouds, lightening and heavy rain. At 8:30am the temperature was 64° F (18° C) and by 2:30pm had reached 76° F (24.5° C), the sky clearing in the afternoon with quite pleasant sea breezes.

Peter DOIG

by Robyn Hukin © 2010-2011
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My grandfather Peter William Kenneth DOIG always said camels had a bad temper, they spat and they stank. As a child I thought he and the camels would have been perfectly suited as he was a terrifying old man. He died at aged 87 when I was only 14 and I regret not having had the courage or opportunity to have talked to him about his life. 

Robinson descendants welcomed back to Leitrim after 150 years

by Loreley Morling © 2010-2011 
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Leitrim's lakes, tumbling waterfalls and green hills shrouded in mist make it one of the most beautiful areas of Ireland. Perhaps because of its rugged landscape however, it has always been one of Ireland's poorest counties. The townland of Glenboy, in a picturesque setting about three miles southeast of Manorhamilton, is quite small. In the 1850s there were just twenty-five houses, including several occupied by families named Robinson.

Leitrim's population expanded greatly in the first half of the nineteenth century, but by the early 1850s it had declined by about a third. Perhaps typical of the families in the area, John and Jane Robinson and Henry White and his wife each had six children prior to 1839. The famine during the 1840s made life difficult for everyone.

Julia McCARTHY

by Chris Loudon © 2010-2011
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Julia McCARTHY arrived in Sydney Cove, aboard the S.S. China on 20 December 1839.[1] Aged 16 years, and in the company of her mother Johanna McCARTHY (nee IRWIN) a widow 42 years old, her three younger brothers, William 11 years, John 9 years, and Michael 5 years, the family arrived as bounty immigrants. Johanna, Julia, and siblings were natives of County Tipperary, Ireland. 

Sydney Herald – Monday December 23, 1839
‘The China arrived from Waterford with 260 Government Emmigrants (sic), the whole of whom have arrived in good health; only one death occurred during the voyage.  They consist chiefly of agricultural labourer, mechanics, and a few labourers…’

George Dymock (1853-1925)

by Robyn Hukin © 2010-2011
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My son is a trombone player. I play the organ, clarinet and saxophone and my father played a pretty mean boogie woogie on the piano, mainly by ear.

My mother's lineage is not at all musical and my early musical abilities were seen as somewhat of an aberration. Clearly our talent came from our DYMOCK ancestry, but how far back did it go? Last year I wrote an article on the family of Mary Ann WARD, my great grandmother and wife of George DYMOCK for the Western Ancestor. This detailed my descent from several generations of drummers in the Royal Marines in Chatham in Kent. Were there more musicians elsewhere?

Frederick FULLER

Two brothers arrived in South Australia on the barque Candahar on 10 February, 1849. They brought with them some cash, clothes, blankets and both carried a gold mounted double barrel gun.

Frederick Richardson FULLER was about 21 years of age, and Arthur Field FULLER, my great great grandfather, was about 19. Both were taxidermists; Fred put bones together, and Arthur stuffed birds.

They were said to have wandered around Australia for 10 years and were lost in the 90 mile desert in Victoria where, almost dying of thirst and hunger they came upon a water hole but were too weak to get to the water.

Eliza Andrews, of Falbrook, New South Wales

Definitely the right button to press to get my attention!

I doubt my husband's formidable grandmother could possibly have imagined the scandals I have dug up on her family over the last 30 years. Among the more sensational stories surrounding her forbears was the tale of Eliza Andrews and only found thanks to the National Library of Australia's on-line newspaper index:  http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/

James Lynch

by Chris Loudon © 2010-2011
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James LYNCH tells us in his own words^[1] ... that his Fathers being a Jobber in Horse Cattle he always did accompany him in the different fairs... James' father Bryan LYNCH was a buyer and seller of cattle and horses, and travelled across Ireland plying his trade at County Fairs, accompanied by his son James.

On the weekend of the Third and Fourth of July 1824, Bryan and James attended the Summer Fair at Mullingar, County Westmeath (see Map), a distance of some 21 miles (about 34 kilometers) from their home near Athboy, County Meath (see Map).

Magnus Winwick

by Robyn Hukin © 2010-2011
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I cannot help thinking that when Magnus Winwick left the family croft at Muness on the island of Unst and entered the Royal Artillery he may have been a victim of the press gangs which were harassing Shetland in the early years of the 19th century.  On 7 May 1808 Magnus stood before Corporal Taylor and watched as the soldier filled in the spaces on the sheet in front of him: 5'7", fair complexion, fair hair, labourer, can read but not write, aged 16. The form did not mention his mother's grief at the possibility her youngest son may not return.

Johanna Brans

Great great aunt Johanna probably owned a working coat, stained at the back with tree sap and the dirt of the city. She worked on summer nights in the southern parklands of Adelaide, South Australia, and was a member of the shadowy people who felt at home in dark alleys and silent places. Her job carried with it the almost certain promise of an early death and the risk of becoming an alcoholic. She was an outcaste of society, along with beggars, thieves and pimps. Once she had been a wife and mother, now deprived of both these havens of respectability.

James Scott (1881-1916)

by Ian Scott © 2010-2011
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It began and ended in tragedy!

This poignant sentence could be said to sum up the birth and death of James Scott (1881 - 1916), but that would be overlooking the devotion to others and the pioneering spirit shown during his short but busy lifetime.