Such Was Life: TOM DOYLE, Publican, Mayor, Rioter

Irishman Tom Doyle was a prospector who realised there was more money to be made by selling beer than fossicking for gold. He was to lose his fortune, his political standing and his wife. But on the way he became rich, was elected mayor of the boom town of Kanowna and was a player in the wild search that followed a priest’s declaration that he had seen a gigantic lump of gold that two prospectors claimed to have found - and which became famous nationwide as the Sacred Nugget. The town that Doyle presided over was a bustling community of 15,000 people. But now it is an empty ghost town. Local miner and historian Scott Wilson takes us on a tour of the site including the cemetery where a rich gold find prompted a gold rush in the cemetery - and the cemetery itself was moved as a result.