Tasmanian Bush Heritage
Another Heemskirk Adventure Introduction Like so many of our hunts, this one started with a photo. Nic had introduced us to Orient Mine near Trial Harbour. And what a story it had to tell. The team; Nic, Ian, Eddie, Jenny, Tim and I; visited it a few times looking at the remains of the mine: … Read moreA Mystery Photo of a little Farm House
In a previous blog, ‘Digging up Mrs Williams, or the phantom of the Heemskirk tin boom’, I pondered Con Curtain’s story of a woman who died at the Orient Tin Mine on Tasmania’s West Coast in 1882.1 Who was she? Where was she buried? Did she even exist? No one besides Curtain ever mentioned Mrs … Read moreDigging up Mrs Williams 2: a skeleton in the closet or just in an unmarked grave?
On 28 May 1882 a woman died on Tasmania’s West Coast and was laid to rest nearby. No doctor attended her, no police constable, magistrate or registrar was notified.1 No priest officiated at her funeral. None of these positions existed on the Heemskirk Tin Field. There was nothing but a scattered population of mostly Cornish … Read moreDigging up Mrs Williams, or the phantom of the Heemskirk tin boom