IT started with the discovery of photo of a woman standing next to a statue of a horse and finished with a whole new appreciation of a family's pioneering past.
A new mini-documentary tells the story of Stirling resident Toni Barnett's journey to the WA Goldfields with local historian Claire Weir to find out the story behind the story of the photo.
It was made as Kalgoorlie-Boulder and the Goldfields sets out to become a tourism mecca for others keen to dig up nuggets of family history.
To help things along, Australia's Golden Outback is offering family historians the chance to win four hours of research by the Eastern Goldfields Historical Society (usually $20 an hour) and a report on its findings.
For the documentary, Toni, the first of the five winners, travelled to the Goldfields with Claire to unravel the story behind the photo of her late mother and the statue.
"The horse called Norseman belonged to Laurie Sinclair, my great-great grandfather, and during a journey between Coolgardie and Esperance in 1894, a rock got stuck in the horse's hoof, which turned out to be a gold nugget, and that's how Norseman the town came to be," said Toni, a life coach.
"Before coming to the Goldfields, Laurie Sinclair to me was just a name, but now, to be in the same place and stand where Laurie once stood is just incredible, a real privilege. I definitely have a stronger sense of who I am.
"Claire then took me to the Museum of the Goldfields in Kalgoorlie to show me the Norseman brooch which was made from that first nugget that Laurie found, and I got very emotional when I realised that the brooch belonged to my great-great grandmother, Julia Sinclair.
"Up until that point, the story had focused on Laurie and it seemed that Julia, the wife at home caring for eight children, was forgotten, but really, Laurie had been thinking about her the whole time, he was an incredibly devoted family man."
Toni said she had always been a proud Australian, but the experience had "really put me in touch with that and what that means".
Australia's Golden Outback chief executive Marcus Falconer said there were tons of hidden stories buried in the Goldfields, many of them stemming from the gold rush of the late 1800s, which drew an estimated 120,000 people from more than 30 countries.
"It's a place that's obviously incredibly rich in history and anyone with connections to the Goldfields can engage the services of the Eastern Goldfields Historical Society to go on their own journey of discovery," Marcus said.
"More and more we're finding that people have a real curiosity about their ancestral past and want to visit the places they are connected to. And right now, whilst people are stuck at home, there's no better time to do the research and plan a trip to the Goldfields.
To enter the competition, click here.
More information on visiting Kalgoorlie-Boulder and the Goldfields can be found at www.australiasgoldenoutback.com/history including the eight-minute YouTube documentary of Toni's journey and tips on tracing your own Goldfields family history.