2025 Carole Dukes Montpellier Award

I received a kind email yesterday from Bill Barnes who leads the Sydney Passengers, advising me that I have "won the Montpellier Award for 2025 - your article "Where Did You Get That Hat?" was judged by your fellow Passengers to be the best bit of research published in The Passengers' Log for the year.... You have also taken out the "Admirable Cobber" Award as well - this is presented to a nominee for the Montpellier Award which displays a high standard of Australian research and content, in line with the late Passenger Arthur Williams’ own such high standards." The name of the latter award is in reference to Carlyle Smythe, the agent who managed Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's tour of Australia in 1920/21, who Doyle refered to as "an admirable cobber".

The 'Passengers' Log' is a wonderful publication and I try hard (but sometimes fail) to contribute an article to every issue. 

This particular article is a continuation of a series so I wanted to get them tied together in one place.

The dancing miners and their photographer

The first article identified who the photographer of the 'Dancing Miners' photograph was: Henry Hermon Grose. By extension, this confirmed that the photograph was taken as the location / mine of LAKESIDE near Boulder in Western Australia.

Where did you get that hat?

The second article identified a second photograph of the 'Dancing Miners', including its path in exhibitions, and where the original now resides (Switzerland). It also identified several photographs of 'Official Staff, Lakeside' who match those in the 'Dancing Miners' photograph.

Sherlock in Boulder 1903-1904

A third blog post looks at the world of Sherlock in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder area at the time Sherlock was returning and the miners were 'dancing'. This post describes where the Strand Magazine could be purchased, and the local performances of William Gillette's play "Sherlock Holmes".