Following his schooling in Hungary, István (Stephen) Goetzel studied in Vienna and then at the school of mining engineering of Szelmeczbánya in Upper Hungary (now Slovakia). After his graduation he became the manager of a copper and silver mine.
He arrived in Sydney in 1888 and went first to Queensland, then Tasmania, and in 1892 sailed to Western Australia where he travelled by camel to the Murchison goldfields. Commissioned by the Western Australian government, Goetzel undertook two expeditions. On his first trip he explored the Esperance-Bayley’s Reward area, and predicted in his report the auriferous potential of the Red Kangaroo Hill and Norseman areas. His second expedition covered the Bayley’s Reward-Menzies area.
Goetzl left government service in 1895 to practice privately as a mining engineer. His essay 'The Interior Gold Regions of Western Australia' was published in W. B. Kimberly’s History of West Australia (1897). His pioneer work was a substanial early contribution to Western Australia’s developing mining wealth.
Attila Urmenyhazi, 'Goetzel, Stephen (1856–?)', Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/goetzel-stephen-14156/text25167, accessed 26 April 2024.
Includes subject's nationality; their parents' nationality; the countries in which they spent a significant part of their childhood, and their self-identity.