Such Was Life

Laurel Cooper was taken to Mount Margaret Mission by her mother to keep her safe at a time when Aboriginal children were often taken away from their families. The mission did what they could to educate the children in care.

Charlie Webb ran a small pub in a remote mining town and is immortalised in Henry Lawson's poem, The Bulletin Hotel. During that time, pubs and local breweries became an essential part of life and were also the cause of the Great Beer Strike of 1903.

Irishman and prospector Tom realised selling beer would get him more money than prospecting for gold. He lost his fortune, political standing and wife but became rich, was elected mayor of Kanowna and was a player in the search for a lump of gold.

The wedding story of teenager Clara Saunders, the first woman to be married in Coolgardie, and a notable collection of brides and bridal parties from the 1890s to WWII provided the starting point for a look at the fashions and customs of the times.

In the decade before CY O'Connor's infamous pipeline brings fresh water from faraway Perth to the arid towns of the Western Australian Goldfields, water is more precious than gold. However, the discovery of gold changes everything.

Explores life on the Goldfields during the time when water was considered more precious than gold. However, the discovery of gold led to a population explosion, resulting in death, destruction, innovation and new industries.