God Speed & Safe Return : William Henry Bathurst !899 - 1987

William Henry Bathurst 1899

William Henry Bathurst was the third child of miner William Henry Bathurst (1873)  and  Mary Bathurst (nee Fancke) born on the 23rd of April 1899 on the Victorian goldfields in Ballarat.

With stories in the Ballarat newspapers of large amounts of gold being found in Kalgoorlie  and Kalgoorlie being the said to be "the richest square mile on earth"(Ballarat Star 14 Jul 1899)  William's parents decide to take him at the age of 10 weeks  and his two sisters Harriett aged 4  and Myrtle aged 2 and try their luck on a new goldfield in the west, they all depart Melbourne Victoria on the 30th June 1899 on the Australian United Steam Navigation Company ship the "SS Paroo".  Their trip is along the south coast of Australia with stops at Adelaide and Albany and they disembark in Fremantle.