SWAN GENEALOGY

A small town surrounded by grazing and cropping ventures on the Great Northern Highway about 80km north of Perth, Bindoon is in its prime from September through October when the wildflowers are in bloom. This was one of the first areas outside Perth to be settled in Western Australia - explored in 1836 and with settlement beginning in 1841.

Located 38km north of Kalgoorlie and 633km east of Perth. It was once a thriving and successful gold mining town, known originally as Kurawah it is said that Broad Arrow changed its name in 1893 because a prospector, having found gold in the area, marked the route to the spot with a series of Broad Arrows. The gold rush started in 1893, the railway arrived (from Kalgoorlie) and the town was gazetted in 1896, and the following year the municipality of Kurawah came into existence.

Davyhurst was named after Wattey Davys who discovered gold in 1899, and is located 120km north west of Kalgoorlie.

Gold was found in Goongarrie in May 1893 by Billy Frost and Jack Bennett. This once prosperous town boasted a post and telegraph office, 2 hotels and several shops which did a good trade as a stopover for the daily coach from Coolgardie to Menzies. By 1903 Goongarrie was reduced to 1 hotel and 1 store. The remnants of the old town - 3 stone railway fettlers cottages - can still be seen on the Goldfields Highway, 40 km south of Menzies.

Cemeteries which only exists for a short while as quarantine cemeteries, used for victims of typhoid and small pox. Cemetery Reserve 2852 was located next to the Victoria Hospital, Subiaco.

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All bodies were exhumed and reinterred in either the East Perth Cemeteries or Karrakatta Cemetery. It is believed that some bodies where transferred and the details of the burials where not recorded due to lack of information.

Kookynie was first discovered by prospectors in 1895, one of whom was W. A. Miller who took up the Englishman lease on 25th June 1895. Miller sold the lease to the Cosmopolitan Proprietary Ltd in 1897. This resulted in the virtual existence of Kookynie. The population grew at an astounding rate. In 1905 it was home to 1500 people with 6 hotels, electric streetlights, public baths, brewery and many brick buildings. Today there is only the one working pub and a population of approximately 15 people.

The Lowden (Upper Preston) cemetery is located 207 km south of Perth and 15.3 km east of Donnybrook on Lowden Grimwade Road.

Located 1476 km north of Perth on the Great Northern Highway, 192 km south-east of Port Hedland and 173 metres above sea level. Marble Bar sprung up as part of the gold rushes to the Pilbara in the late 1880s. The gold which had created a rush to the Kimberley's had all but disappeared and the fossickers and prospectors headed south seeking the elusive metal. Gold was discovered near Marble Bar in 1891 by Francis Jenkins. The name 'Marble Bar' is synonymous with mining, isolation and, most importantly, heat. It is known as 'the hottest town in Australia' a fact which is still recorded by the Guinness Book of Records. Marble Bar was named after a local deposit of mineral first thought to be marble, but which later proved to be jasper (a highly coloured cryptocrystalline variety of quartz).

In 1894, a prospector named Robert Menzies stubbed his toe on the rich gold bearing rocks and the town of Menzies was born. The population peaked at an estimated 10 000 people and boasted 13 hotels 3 banks its own breweries and cordial factories a post office with a staff of more than 20 a school with 205 pupils a public library and 4 churches. But the decline in gold mining meant Menzies rapidly diminished and many satellite towns disappeared altogether. Today many reminders of Menzies former glory remain. The Menzies Pioneer Cemetery provides an insight into the lives of our pioneering families

The Shire of Mundaring covers an area of approximately 643.32 square kilometres in metropolitan Perth, the capital of Western Australia and its boundary lies about 18 km from Perth. The Aboriginal name of the area 'Mindah-lung', said to mean 'a high place on a high place', was anglicized to become 'Mundaring'. The amazing engineering feat that is the Mundaring Weir with the water pipeline to the Eastern Goldfields region is also here

Located 663 km east of Perth via Kalgoorlie and 66 km northeast of Kalgoorlie. Ora Banda (the name is Spanish meaning 'band of gold) is now a virtual ghost town. Gold was discovered in the Ora Banda district in 1893 and shortly afterwards the Weston brothers established the Ora Banda mine. The mine continued to operate until the late 1970s although it was forced to stop operations during World War I because of the lack of water.

Paddington is located 37km north-west of Kalgoorlie.

St Saviours Church Katrine was consecrated by the Reverend Matthew Hale, first Bishop of Perth on 7 May 1862.
The land was given by the Viveash family who still live close by. Local legend has it that the contractor was a Mr Sewell Junior and that the stonemasons were mostly 'ticket of leave' men.
The St Saviour's Church and Cemetery is located on Katrine Road, near the intersection of Katrine Road and the Northam-Toodyay Road, 14km from Northam.

Westonia came into existence with the discovery of gold by a sandalwood cutter named Alfred Weston at the Boodalin soak just north of the present town. Today Westonia is a tiny settlement of 250 people most of whom service the surrounding wheat and sheep area.