This three part presentation has considered how a few colonists who lived in southern Western Australia responded to the landscapes they encountered, settled in and made homes there. It has spanned seven decades and three diverse geographical regions.

Beginning in the 1830s it discussed George Fletcher Moore, Hester and William Tanner and Eliza Shaw at the Upper Swan, it then looked at Eliza and Thomas Brown, Henry Maxwell Lefroy and Edmund Ashworth in the Avon Valley and concluded with Charles and Campbell Deland and

In the year that the Deland brothers returned to South Australia Maude Wordsworth James came to Kalgoorlie. Maude Wordsworth James was born on 19 December 1855 aboard the ship, the Morning Star, bound for Melbourne. Her parents, Thomas and Alicia Crabbe, had sailed from Bristol in October as unassisted immigrants. Maude spent her childhood in Victoria and she met her husband, Charles Wordsworth James, in Maryborough and they were married at the All Saints Church in Bendigo on 3 November 1875. Maude was 19 and Charles was 25. Their first son, Cyril Haughton, was born in Bendigo in 1878. Two years later Maude bore a daughter, Maude Enid, who died when only 16 days old. At some stage between 1878 and 1883 they moved to Hobart where their third child, Tristram (b. 4/3/1883) and another daughter, Yolande, (b.15/7/1889) were both born.

Maude's husband was a civil engineer who obtained work in Kalgoorlie in 1896. After working there for almost a year he telegrammed Maude and ask her to join him. Maude and their children arrived in Kalgoorlie in March 1897, they settled in Mullingar, a locality of Kalgoorlie, and she kept a journal until 1907.

The Deland brothers came from Gawler in South Australia. Edward Campbell Deland (referred to as Campbell) arrived on the Eastern Goldfields in June 1895, aged 24. His younger brother, Charles, arrived in 1896, aged 19. While living on the goldfields, Campbell and Charles Deland described their experiences in letters they wrote to family and friends. These were later collected by Michael Best and published as A Lost Glitter.[7] The reasons Campbell and Charles left South Australia are not made explicit in their letters, but it is likely they came to the goldfields seeking wealth, experience and adventure, like many others from the depressed eastern colonies.[8]

When Campbell first arrived on the goldfields he stayed in Southern Cross for three months, where he worked as a bookkeeper for a local businessman and his wife, Mr and Mrs Rockcliffe. He then set off for Kalgoorlie where he pursued various business interests, including a bakery with Jim Ellis, a man whom he met in Southern Cross.

1. J.S. Beard, Plant Life of Western Australia, Kangaroo Press, Kenthurst, NSW, 1990, p. 155.

2. Bureau of Meterology, Goldfields-Eucla Climatic Survey, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, 2000, p. ix. 

3. R.T. Appleyard, 'Western Australia: Economic and Demographic Growth, 1850-1914' in C.T. Stannage (ed), A New History of Western Australia, University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, 1981, p. 219. 

4. The story of Arthur Bayley and William Ford's discovery of gold at Coolgardie and the ensuing rush is well documented in Martyn and Audrey Webb, Golden Destiny: the centenary history of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia, City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Boulder, Western Australia, 1993 and Geoffrey Blainey, The Golden Mile, St Leonards, NSW, 1993. 

5. Statistical Register of Western Australia 1896, Government Printer, Perth, 1901, p. 5. 

6. See for example Erickson and Taylor (Firm), Mine manager's house: Sons of Gwalia, East Perth, Heritage Council of Western Australia, 1998. 

7. Michael Best (ed), A Lost Glitter, Wakefield Press, Netley, SA, 1986. 

8. Michael Best (ed), A Lost Glitter, Wakefield Press, Netley, SA, 1986, p. 10. 

9. Charles to his parents, 17/3/1896, ]]>…http://cms.slwa.wa.gov.au/findinghome/part_3_the_eastern_goldfields/references http://cms.slwa.wa.gov.au/findinghome/part_3_the_eastern_goldfields2011-09-21T11:53:35+08:00

Thirty years after Edmund Ashworth build his cottage at York, Europeans were attracted to the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. However, it was not land for farming that attracted them to these semi-arid landscapes. They came for gold. The hope of finding gold or making the most of the opportunities that arose from rapidly expanding new towns lured thousands of men to the Eastern Goldfields. Once towns had been established, married women joined or accompanied their husbands and single women also came seeking work. This final part of 'Finding Home' will discuss the ways in which Charles and Campbell Deland and Maude Wordsworth James, who lived on the Eastern Goldfields in the 1890s and early 1900s, developed a sense of belonging to the area.

The ]]>…http://cms.slwa.wa.gov.au/findinghome/part_3_the_eastern_goldfields