Goldfields Story: Moya Sharp finds her ‘gold’ in Outback history

Coming to Perth from the UK as a migrant in 1971, Moya Sharp is a first generation Australian.

But that hasn’t stopped her from spending the last three decades in Kalgoorlie-Boulder exploring family histories and researching the wild, wacky and wonderful tales from the early days of the Goldfields.

You may know Moya from her time working at the WA Museum of the Goldfields, the Eastern Goldfields Historical Society, the Kalgoorlie Cemetery Board, the Courthouse or the disbanded Goldfields Family History Society.

Even more likely, you’ll know her as the founder of the Virtual Miners Memorial or the popular Outback Family History Blog which receives up to 25,000 hits each week as people flock to find tales of the Outback from time’s past.

“(It was) not until I came to Kalgoorlie that I found a place that I found so interesting,” Sharp said.

“With Kalgoorlie I think there seems to hardly be a family in existence who hasn’t had somebody pass through here at some stage.

“Not necessarily as a miner, but everyone seems to have come here or had someone in their family come here, unless you just got off the boat yesterday.”

After visiting Kalgoorlie to see a cousin not long after she arrived in Australia, Sharp met her first husband and had two children, Tom, now 41, and Andy, who died in an accident when he was 22 in 2004.

“A lot of people think I do the (Miners) memorial because of that but I’d been researching the miners for about five years before that, I was the research person on the committee,” she said.

“It helps me a lot to talk to other people who have been involved in someone dying in their family.

“They can sort of talk to me a bit better, it’s helped in a way to be able to talk to other people who’ve lost a child or a husband or brother.”

Sharp lists the creation of the Miners Memorial as one of the highlights of her 32 years in Kalgoorlie, alongside her second marriage to her husband of 28 years, Norm, when her step-daughter Lisa was added to the family and before she and Norm had two kids of their own, Sarah and Ben.

Now listing 1400 deaths on the Miners Memorial, Sharp said the people who sacrificed their lives in the industry deserved more recognition than they were getting, hence the memorial.

“Mining is the most dangerous occupation you can do in Australia,” she said.

“My friend and I, who has written a couple of books, we just thought they should be properly recognised and remembered.

“The feedback we’ve got has made us realise it was the right thing to do.

“One lady — her husband was killed and she was horrified he was allotted a number and not his name — the mining department don’t publish names anymore they just publish numbers.

“(On the virtual memorial) Each miner has a whole page and can have endless text and up to six photographs and friends can put things on there and it remains for the family and kids.

“It’s really heartwarming to be in contact with these people and have them know they are recognised for their sacrifice to the industry.”

Each year, the WA Museum of the Goldfields hosts a ceremony to remember those lost.

“When I started doing it I thought these mining companies would shy away from it because of the connotation that mining is dangerous ... but it’s been quite the opposite actually,” Sharp said.

“They’ve been super helpful.

“KCGM gave us permission to digitise from Lake View and Star from 1892 to 1945 and we only just finished — it took us five years.

“I don’t think it will be complete ever, we come up with new miners all the time.

“Each year we always have corrections to go on the site and this year we have five new people, all pre-1920, and one spelling correction so that’s pretty good.”

While the physical memorial exists at the museum, the virtual memorial exists in a larger role online with profiles, photos and more.

The digital edition now covers mining deaths over the whole State and has recently added those who died from silicosis or miners lung, a long-term injury where exposure to toxic air causes death decades after the inhalation occurs.

“It’s a constant, ongoing thing where people contact me all the time and say how much it means for them to have their relative on there,” Sharp said.

In 2015, Moya travelled to Sydney, where she represented the Western Australian Miners Memorial when it was recognised for its contribution to mining at the Australian Mining’s 2015 Prospect Mining Awards. She shared the award with billionaire Gina Rhinehart.

As well as the memorial, the Moya Sharp Outback Family Blog continues to grow with nearly 1000 stories online detailing the characters, events and tales that shaped the Goldfields.

“The traffic on my website is about 25,000 a week, which honestly blows me away when I look at it sometimes.

“I get 20-30 emails a day — sort of questions like ‘I want a bit of help with this’. I don’t do any in-depth family history, I sort of re-direct them to other places, unless it’s something I can easily look up and do.

Sharp said people’s interest in history had grown as they try and figure out who they are and where they came from.

“My immigration story starts with me, I do a little talk for primary school kids and that’s something I ask them to prepare before I go — where does your family’s immigration story start?” she said.

“Everyone’s got one unless you’re indigenous or of Aboriginal descent, everyone has an immigration story somewhere. I think it’s because we’re all bits and pieces of everyone that went before us.”

Sharp said interest in ancestry was becoming more popular, as evidenced by the rise of shows on the topic on TV and online.