Wilesmith Family History

A new book was introduced to local history buffs at the recent Pioneer Women's Day event held at Watsonville.  The book, with its somewhat unfortunate title of 'Gold Expedition to Stannary Hills', (Stannary Hills is a tin mining town) tells the story of the epic life journey of Christina and Joseph Wilesmith.  The author, Mr Tom Freeman has woven much of the history of the Etheridge goldfields and the local Herberton tin mining district into the background of this story of the Wilesmith family who arrived in Gilberton during the gold rush of 1869, after having arrived in Australia from England five years earlier.  Mr Freeman has also added the story of many of the prominent identities of this time who became involved in the lives of the Wilesmiths while they mined gold about the Etheridge and later on the Hodgkinson goldfield before they moved to the tin fields where they found their prosperity and became known as the 'Wilesmiths of Watsonville'.  This book is a great read not just for the family history but also for the added general history of those mining days that have now long past out of living memory.