Media: BOOK - paperback, 280 pages
Author: J. Reside
Year: (1929) 1996
ISBN: 0859052044
Other: b&w photos
Publisher: Hesperian Press

A reprint of the 1929 classic on the eastern goldfields. The author writes in his Foreword: '... life on the goldfields of Western Australia was period packed with romance and characterised by the spirit of adventure. Tragedy too, was not wanting from the picture - the tragedy of 'failure, of the deadly fever camp and the lonely death from thirst'.

The dominant impression in looking back on those far-off days is on youth indomitable, hope invincible, and example almost without parallel of man overcoming the forces of Nature.

Imagine thousands of men moving with a common impulse upon a hole in the ground from which two men had extracted a few pounds of yellow metal. Imagine those mustered thousands pushing out in all directions into what was known as a barren, waterless desert, staking their very lives on the chance of fortune.

This book combines personal reminiscences together with a history of the Western Australian Goldfields to become a 'classic' on the subject.

Contents:
1. Narrative and Anecdote Part 1
2. Old Goldfields' Residents who have Risen to prominence in the Outside World
3. Political
4. Historical Part 1
 - Tracing the History of Events Leading up to the Discovery of Gold
 - Its First Discovery and its Story from then on up to its Discovery at Coolgardie by Ford and Bayley
 - The Story of the Arrest of the Notorious Deeming of his Hut and Search of his 'Hidden Treasure'
 - The History of Coolgardie
5. Discoverers - Roll of Honour
6. Goldfields' Aborigines - Their Habits and Customs
7. Acknowledgement and Appreciation of a Kindness
8. The Pioneers' Gallery
9. Historical Part 2
 - The Discovery of 'Hannans'
 - The Story of the Finding of 'Hannans' as told by Paddy Hannan Himself
 - As Told by his Mate, Dan Shea
 - The memorable McCann 'Bogus' Rush
 - The Great Coolgardie Fire (1895)
 - The Second Great Fire (1897)
 - Burbanks Graphic Story of Thirst as told by Himself
 - History of the 'Londonderry' Mine
 - An Unexpected 'Gold Fine'
 - The First Coolgardie Wedding
 - Father Long's 'Sacred' Nugget
 - The Kanowna 'Cemetery' Gold Rush
 - History of the Discovery of the 'Carbine Mine'
 - Some Early Kimberley History
 - The Bonnivale Mine Disaster, describing the rescue of the Entombed Miner, Verichitti
 - The Ivanhoe Venture Alluvial Trouble
 - How the Goldfields United Australia
 - The Goldfields' Water Scheme
10. Mining
11. Narrative and Anecdote Part 2
12. The Goldfields' Poets' Corner
13. Conclusion