Train Mystery - Alexander Eastman never made it to Koo Wee Rup

In June 1919, Alexander Gordon Eastman and his aunt, Miss Annie Maria Smith, boarded the 6.30pm Gippsland train at Hawksburn, bound for Koo Wee Rup, where they were going to stay with another aunt, Mrs Thompson. Alexander never made it, his body was found on the roof of  a carriage, when the train arrived at Korumburra. The Coroner called it a most extraordinary case and in the end decided that there was no foul play. 

Did the Coroner get it right? There are two reports in The Argus, that cover the incident - they are transcribed, below, so you can make your own mind up. There is some information about the family at the bottom of this post.

The Argus June 10, 1919

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1477101

TRAIN MYSTERY.

BODY IDENTIFIED.

Gold Ring Missing from Finger.

What is regarded by the detectives as one of the most remarkable sets of mysterious circumstances met with for some time surrounds the death of Alexander Eastman, whose dead body was found on the roof of a railway carriage when the Melbourne train arrived at Korumburra late on Saturday night. Detective-sergeant Sullivan was sent to Korumburra yesterday to investigate the case, but up to late hour last night no information was received at headquarters which would indicate that the solution of the mystery was nearer. Constable C. G. Marchasi arrived from Korumburra last night with the body of Eastman, which was identified by his brother, and was taken to the City Morgue, where a post-mortem examination will be conducted today. 

Miss Annie Smith, Eastman's aunt, who left Melbourne with him with the intention of spending the week-end with another aunt, Mrs. Thompson at Koo-wee-rup was interviewed by the police at Koo-wee-rup on her arrival there on Saturday night. From her it has been learned that Eastman boarded the 6.30 p.m. Gippsland train with her at Hawksburn, and had with him a rifle and handbag. When the train reached Dandenong her nephew left the compartment in which they were travelling, saying that a friend of his was on the train, and that he desired to have a chat with him. Miss Smith did not see the young man again. He had her ticket as well as his own in his pocket, and on reaching Koo-wee-rup she made inquiries as to his whereabouts, and found that he was not on the train. She thought that he had missed the train when it left Dandenong, and would follow by another.

The police have learned that Mr. S. A. Marchbanks, of Vickery street, East Caulfield, who was a passenger on the train that reached Korumburra at about 10 o'clock, expressed the opinion that the body found on the roof was that of a young man to whom he had spoken on the platform at a station between Dandenong and Koo-wee-rup. Mr. Marchbanks asked him if he had seen a bag for which he was searching, but received no reply. 

A puzzling feature about the case, which seems to suggest foul play, is the fact that a gold band ring having Eastman's initials (A.G.E.) engraven upon it, which Miss Smith says he was wearing on the little finger of the left hand at Dandenong, was missing when the body was found. He had had the ring for some considerable time, and it fitted too well to permit of its dropping off. On leaving Melbourne, also, he had much more money than the 3½d. found in his pockets. The theory of robbery is, however, weakened by the fact that a gold and a silver watch, which had both stopped at about 10 minutes past 7, remained in his vest pockets, while gold links were still in his shirt sleeves.

In bright moonlight the fireman on the train, Frederick Mills, noticed the body lying on the sloping portion of the roof of the carriage just behind the engine tender. The lead was nearly 2ft. below the level of the feet, and the steel flange of the folding leather passage-way alone prevented the body from falling into the tender. Death had occurred only a very short time previously, as the body was warm and the night was bitterly cold. The train had passed under four or five railway bridges, but if the man struck his head against one of them it is regarded as practically certain that he would have been thrown off the carriage roof. The youth's hands, which were in his overcoat pockets, were blackened with soot, but it is thought that this came from the roof of the carriage, suggesting that he had been on his hands and knees on the roof. An examination of the interior of the compartment below showed that it would have been a comparatively easy matter for an agile person to draw himself on to the roof from a ledge above the door at the end of the corridor.

The Argus  June 26, 1919.

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1482558

TRAIN MYSTERY.

DEPUTY CORONER'S FINDING.

No Foul Play.

An inquiry was held yesterday at the Morgue by Mr A H Phillips J.P, deputy coroner, into the circumstances surrounding the death of a young man, Alexander Gordon Eastman, whose body was found on the roof of a railway carriage at Korumburra on June 7.

Herman Eastman, a brother, said that deceased was 21 years of age, sturdily built with keen faculties. He drank little. Witness had lent him a rifle for use on a weekend visit to Koo-wee-rup. On the journey he was to meet a man named Morrison, either at Caulfield or Dandenong.

Dr C.H Mollison gave evidence in regard to the post mortem examination which showed that death was due to suffocation, the result of regurgitation of food into the air passages. In answer to Sub-inspector Wardley, witness said that suffocation could not have been caused by fumes from the engine.

Annie Maria Smith, an aunt of deceased, said that she and her nephew left Hawksburn together at 6.30 on the night of the tragedy they changed trains at Caulfield for Koo-wee-rup. At Dandenong he left the train to see his mate, and she saw him standing at the carriage door talking. At Koo-wee-rup she went to the smoking carriage to look for him, but could not find him. He had carried a Gladstone bag but there was nothing to eat or drink in it. They had dined before leaving home. She did not think that he had got out at any wayside stations for drink.

Thomas A. Marchbank, sawmiller, of Ruby, a passenger said that after the train left Dandenong he went along to a first-class compartment to look for his bag and inquired of a man there, the sole occupant, who seemed a bit confused and did not answer. On arrival at Korumburra, on hearing there was a man on the roof of the carriage, witness went up to see, and afterwords identified the body as that of the man he had seen in the carriage.

Detective-sergeant P. Sullivan said that said that at the time of his inquiries on June 9 he was not aware that there was a van between the carriage and the tender, but he had since learned that the van was taken off at Nyora. His theory was that deceased, finding the corridor door leading to the second-class compartment locked, and probably thinking that Marchbank was a railway official who would raise a question on his ticket, climbed to the roof at the engine end as a temporary place for concealment. He may have become frightened at an overhead bridge some 300 yards from Clyde, and in lowering his body struck his chin and became sick. To Sub-inspector Wardley - By means of the steps at the end of the van he could easily have crossed to the carriage top.

Charles James, guard on the train, said that he thought that it would be impossible to see the bridge on a dark night.

John F. W. Miles, engine fireman said that after leaving Nyora he noticed that the siding door of the concertina buffer was open. When the train was about to shunt at Korumburra the light from a signal-box revealed something on the carriage top, which was afterwards found to be a dead body.

William Ridd, a ganger, stated that the bridge would just knock off a man's hat were he sitting up on the carriage roof. It was quite possible that deceased was about to get down to a crouching position just as the bridge was reached. Witness had found deceased's hat near the spot.

Constable C.G. Marchesi said that when he was called to the carriage at Korumburra the sliding door next to the engine was open. He found on Eastman apart from small personal property, a farthing three half-pence, and a large string pocket knife.

Lavinia Naughton Smith, deceased's aunt said that she was sure that her nephew had a few pounds with him - probably part of his wages and perhaps more, as he had sold a saddle for £4 a short time before.

Frederick Girdlestone, assistant guard deposed that he had personally locked the sliding door before the train reached Dandenong. It could have been opened by a strong pocket knife or railway key.

The deputy coroner remarked that the case was most extraordinary. Whatever the deceased man's intentions were it was impossible to say. There was a good deal in Detective Sullivan's theory. He did not think a robbery occurred. There was no doubt how Eastman had died. He was a decent, hard working young follow and the post-mortem examination had not revealed any mental trouble. That there was no foul play was clearly proved. His verdict was that "on the night of June 7 at Korumburra railway station, Alexander Eastman was found dead on the roof of a railway carriage, having died by suffocation. There is no evidence to show how he got there, but I am of opinion that it was by his own act"

Family information
Alexander was the son of Alexander George Eastman and Sarah Smith, he was born in 1892. Sarah Smith was the daughter of Thomas Smith and Maria Norton and she was born in 1872.  Annie Maria Smith, the aunt travelling with Alexander, was born in 1861 and Lavinia Norton (listed as Naughton in the article) who also gave evidence at the Inquest was born in 1874 - they had nine other siblings as well. Mrs Thompson, whom they were visiting, was, I believe Elizabeth Thompson, who died at the age of 66 in 1919. In the Index to the Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages her father is listed as Thomas and her mother as Maria Norton, she was born in 1853 - so that all fits in. Is that why they were going to visit her, because she was sick?

Local Railway returns 1918/1919

I came across this report in the South Bourke and Mornington Journal (SBMJ) of November 20, 1919 about Railway returns in the SBMJ circuation district. 

South Bourke and Mornington Journal November 20, 1919

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/66197122

As you might expect, Dandenong had the largest passenger traffic volume- £9,739, followed by Warragul, Springvale, Drouin, Pakenham, Clayton and then Koo Wee Rup, with £1,598. Dandenong also had the most parcel traffic, followed by Cranbourne and then Caldermeade, which I find extraordinary, as it is a very small town. Koo Wee Rup had, by far the most goods traffic £4,932 worth, with Tynong coming in second with £2,936 worth of goods traffic. Dandenong also led in livestock traffic, again not a surprise, as the Dandenong market was a major outlet for livestock in the region.

A trip from Dandenong to Bunyip by rail on the Gippsland line

In a previous post we did a road trip from Dandenong to Garfield along the Gippsland Road - so this month I thought we will take the same journey on the railway, on the Gippsland line. The Gippsland line was the first railway line to straddle the Koo Wee Rup Swamp, the second one was the Great Southern line, which you can read about here.

The Gippsland line, from Melbourne to Sale,  was opened in stages - Morwell to Sale - June 1, 1877; Oakleigh to Bunyip - October 8, 1877; Moe to Morwell - December 1, 1877; Bunyip to Moe - March 1, 1878 and the last stretch from South Yarra to Oakleigh on April 2, 1879 (1).

Interesting to note that the line from Dandenong to Bunyip was finished by 1877 and all the railway stations we pass today (except one) were in place by around 1885, about 130 years ago. Given that the population of the area (the old Shire of Berwick) in the mid 1880s was around 6,300 and the population of the same area today is about 200,000 and given that the only new station in all that time (apart from the short lived industry specific General Motors Holden stop) is the Cardinia Road Station and, thirdly, given that the majority of the stations are now unmanned and have minimal shelter structures  it seems that there has been a remarkable lack of government money spent on public transport infrastructure in the area in the last 130 years. There was however some money spent on the line in the 1950s as it was duplicated from Dandenong to Morwell and also electrified due to the need to transport briquettes from Yallourn to Melbourne (2).

The railway line from Oakleigh to Bunyip opened, as we said,  in October 1877 and originally the only stations between Dandenong and Bunyip were Berwick and Pakenham. According to some newspaper reports the official opening seems to have been October 5 even though most sources say that it is October 8, so that may have been the first day of passenger services (3).  

Railway Timetable

South Bourke & Mornington Journal June 1, 1881 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70049456

When the line opened it did not actually get you into Melbourne as the section from South Yarra to Oakleigh didn’t open until April 1879. As a journalist in the South Bourke and Mornington Journal of October 10, 1877 wrote after his trip on the railway line   It is not necessary to dwell on the mistake now so lamentably obvious, which was committed in beginning the line at a point 10 miles from Melbourne - only to be reached by means of horse drawn wagons and carts - but practical men outside of the service of the Government, which, of course is prudently reticent on the subject, estimate that as much money has been wasted in the cartage of materials for the first section and part of the second as would have built a large part of the now needed section from Melbourne to Oakleigh (4).

The information about the date of the Railway Station openings comes from an interesting website Vicsig  http://vicsig.net/  which calls itself the ‘Premier Victorian Rail resource’.   

We will start at the Dandenong Railway Station. This station became a junction station on October 1, 1888 when the Great Southern line, which eventually went to Yarram, opened as far as Tooradin.  

The next station along the line was opened on November 18, 1956 to serve the General Motors Holden Factory which at one stage employed 3,000 people.  The Station closed July 2002 and you can still see remnants of it as the train passes by.

The Hallam Station opened on December 1, 1880 as Hallam’s Road and changed its name to Hallam in May 1904. Hallam was a ‘flag station’ when it opened and only stopped when there were passengers to discharge or a  flag was displayed to indicate that there were passengers to be picked up.  As early as May 1883 the local residents were asking the Railways for increased platform accommodation (according to a newspaper report) and if you have ever been past the station in the morning peak hour you would know that the platform accommodation is still inadequate.

The Narre Warren Station opened on March 10, 1882. A local influential resident, Sidney Webb agitated for the railway station and after it was completed he agitated for a road to be put from the Princes Highway to the railway station, the road was not surprisingly called Webb Street. The original Narre Warren settlement, well north of the Highway was renamed Narre Warren North after the new town developed around the station.

Woodcut of Berwick Railway Station, 1877

Source: Early days of Berwick and its surrounding districts (Berwick Pakenham Historical Society)

Berwick opened October 8, 1877, one of the original stations. Beaconsfield opened December 1, 1879. The Officer Railway Station began as Officer's Wood Siding, constructed to despatch timber from land owned by the Officer family to Melbourne. It was renamed Officer in February 1899. Sir Robert Officer was at one time the Health Officer for Hobart and a member of the Legislative Council and in the early 1840s he moved some of his interests to the main land. It was his son, William, who had their Mt Misery property, near Beaconsfield, and after the railway line was opened he used to rail his sheep from his other property at Deniliquin to Officer in times of drought.

Cardinia Road station opened on April 22, 2012. The next stop, Pakenham was an original station. The town that developed around the station was known as Pakenham East, initially in opposition to the ‘old’ town of Pakenham which had developed around the La Trobe Inn (also known as Bourke’s Hotel) on the Gippsland Road, near the Toomuc Creek. Eventually Pakenham East over took not only the original town of Pakenham, but its name as well although it was still referred to as Pakenham East well into the 1960s.

Nar Nar Goon. There were various reports in the papers saying that the residents of Nar Nar Goon had petitioned the Minister of Railways for a siding and platform in August 1878, they tried again a year later in August 1879 but were told there was no money and even if there was the Railway Department considered a station at Nar Nar Goon unnecessary. The Station opened April 1, 1881. 

Tynong - like Nar Nar Goon there are newspaper reports that Tynong residents agitated for a railway station after the line was opened, and Vicsig website has the opening date at February 12, 1880. However, in August 1880 it was reported that a deputation introduced by Mr Mason, M.L.A., and Mr. Buchanan, M.L.C., waited upon the Commissioner of Railways, and asking that a siding should be constructed at the intersection of Kelly-road with the Gippsland line, near Tynong (5), so the Vicsig date seems to be  a but early. Either way, there was a station at Tynong by April 1881 (6).

The Garfield station developed from a timber siding in the same way that Officer did. The Cannibal Creek Siding opened in December 17, 1884 to accommodate the Cannibal Creek Saw Mill Company and it was renamed Garfield in March 28,  1887.

Garfield Railway Station, c. 1910

Image from the book North of the Line: a pictorial record  published by the  Berwick Pakenham Historical Society.

Bunyip was opened October 1877 as one of the original stations and the extension of the line from Bunyip to Moe opened March 1, 1878. 

Just before you get to the Bunyip Railway Station there is an electricity substation which has been heritage listed, which I must say was a surprise to me. The Heritage citation says that it is one of 19 sub and tie stations constructed between 1952 and 1954 from Nar Nar Goon to Traralgon for the electrification of the main Gippsland line.  It is listed as it is historically significant as it serves as an important reminder of the electrification of the first main line in Australia. It is technically significant as it serves as an important reminder of the electrification of the first main line in Australia and the system of electric locomotives associated with the transportation of briquettes and the industrial growth in the Latrobe Valley and it is socially significant as it represents an important tangible link with the transportation of brown coal and the associated coal and briquette industry located at Latrobe Valley which was central to the economy and economic development of the State of Victoria particularly in the 1950s. (7).

Footnotes

(1) These dates are from Victorian Railways to '62 by Leo J. Harrigan (Victorian Railways, 1962)

(2) Duplication dates from Vicsig - Dandenong to Narre Warren - November 18, 1956; Narre Warren to Berwick - February 25, 1962; Berwick to Officer - May 13, 1956; Officer to Pakenham - February 27, 1955; Pakenham to Nar Nar Goon - October 10, 1954; Nar Nar Goon to Tynong - June 28, 1953 and Tynong to Bunyip - August 19, 1956. 

The line between Dandenong and Warragul was Electrified  July 21, 1954. 

(3) South Bourke and Mornington Journal October 10, 1877, see here

(4) South Bourke and Mornington Journal October 10, 1877, see here

(5)  South Bourke and Mornington Journal, August 18, 1880, see here.

(6) The Argus, April 13, 1881, see here.

(7) Victorian Heritage Register http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70049456

100 years ago this week - Potatoes

100 years ago this week, The Australasian, in the Country Gleanings column reported on the good potato season on the Swamp.

The Australasian  June 26 1915

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article142975577

This is how the potatoes would have been loaded. 26 tons, 310 bags, loaded from Garfield.
State Library of Victoria Image H92.301/92.

Garfield Railway Station

I have written before about how the construction of the Sale Railway line was the seminal event in the establishment of the town of Garfield. The Gippsland line to Sale was opened in stages - Sale to Morwell June 1877 (the material for this stage was shipped along the coast to the Port of Sale); Oakleigh to Bunyip October 1877; Moe to Morwell December 1877; Moe to Bunyip March 1878 and the last stretch from South Yarra to Oakleigh in 1879. Originally, the only Stations between Dandenong and Bunyip were Berwick and Pakenham. However a number of timber sidings developed along this line including the Cannibal Creek Siding built in 1885. In May 1886, the Cannibal Creek Post Office was established at the Railway Station and this changed its name to the Garfield Railway Post Office on May 16, 1887. The name Garfield came from the assassinated American President, James Garfield, who was shot July 2, 1881 and died September 19, 1881.

View of the Goods Shed at the Railway station in 1920. The Garfield Hall is in the background.

Berwick Pakenham Historical Society photograph

In the book Rigg of the Railways: Station Masters of the Victorian Railways the author Tom Rigg lists the following Station Masters as having served at Garfield.
McLean, Roderick February 1910 to August 1911
Finnie, Norman July 1912 - August 1917
McCauley, John Alexander June 1918 - March 1920
Lanigan, Patrick September 1919 - February 1919
Mather, James around 1920,1921
Stewart, Francis David March 1920 - September 1921
Lang, Elmo Thomas December 1921 - July 1923
Marks, John Alexander July 1924 - January 1927
Bently, Leslie George December 1926 - June 1928
Callaghan, Henry Richard July 1928 - January 1933
Hosking, Henry Towers January 1933 - September 1937. Due to economic depression wife was caretaker part-time at Garfield.
Smith, Arthur Leslie June 1942 - December 1944
Graham, Norman Joseph December 1944 - December 1954. I couldn’t find anyone listed after 1954, but my mother says that a Mr Tighe was the Station Master around the late 1950s/ early1960s.

This is a view from the Station towards Main Street Garfield - taken in the 1980s.

Image: Shire of Pakenham slide, Casey Cardinia Libraries

Apparently, Station Masters were classified according to the Station to which they were appointed and Garfield (in 1923 at least) was a Class 8 station, as was its neighbours Tynong and Nar Nar Goon. Bunyip was a Class 7 and so must have had more freight and was therefore busier. There are other Railway Station employees listed in various sources prior to 1910 but it does appear that Garfield wasn’t busy enough for a permanent Station Master until then. For instance, in Bill Parrish’s notes on the history of Garfield (held at the Berwick Pakenham Historical Society) he lists James Godfrey as ‘Porter in charge’ at Cannibal Creek siding in October 1885 and he became the Post Master in 1886. The Post Masters and Mistresses at Garfield were all Railway employees until around the end of the First World War, when the Post Office moved from the Railway Station. Bill also lists a Mrs Thomson as being the Station caretaker in 1904.

1965 Garfield Railway Station diagram from www.victorianrailways.net

Over the years, all sorts of produce was loaded at the Garfield Railway Station - livestock, milk and other dairy products (such as cheese from the Cora Lynn factory), chaff and timber. There was a spur line that went off the main line to the Goods Shed and loading area (where the car park is now on the Highway side of the railway line)
 My Dad, Frank Rouse, used to load potatoes there. All potatoes in the 1940s and until 1954 had to be sold through the Potato Board and had to be loaded at a prescribed loading area, in this case Garfield.  They were loaded onto the rail and sent to Spencer Street railway yards where the marketing board had their shed. They were then sold by the Board. If you sold ‘out of the Board’ you were up for massive fines. Farmers were given a quota for the week, for instance seven bags (each bag was 150 lbs or 65 kg, later on they were reduced to 50kgs)  and that was all you were allowed.

The railway trucks could take 12 tons but before they were loaded they had to be inspected by the Potato Inspector, Jack Stalker. Apparently, he was a fan of the VW Beetle, so if you wanted to get your potatoes passed you just talked about VWs or if you told him you were a ‘bit worried about them’, and then he would just pass them. If they weren’t passed then you had to empty the bag, remove the bad ones and re-pack them and re-sew the bag. The farmers had to load the railway trucks themselves and some railway trucks had doors but others were like carts, with a wall about a metre or so high and in this case the bags had to be lifted by hand over the wall and then stacked in the truck. Sometimes the produce just sat there for days before they were picked up. The Potato Board finished in 1954 and after that you could sell them where you wanted. Dad and his brother Jim used Dan Cunningham as an agent and they also later loaded at Nar Nar Goon. If you sold them interstate they could be delivered by truck.

In the 1950s, the line was duplicated from Dandenong to Morwell and also electrified due to need to transport briquettes from Yallourn to Melbourne. In 1954, the electrification process was completed as far as Warragul and it was on July 22 in that year that ‘electric traction’ commenced according to the Victorian Railways Annual Report. Duplication works were completed in stages with the Tynong to Bunyip section opened in August 1956. The Bunyip to Longwarry section still remains unduplicated due to the need to widen the bridge over the Bunyip River. Due to the increased number of trains (it was estimated that briquette transportation would require an additional 20 trains per day, over the existing seven) the level crossing which was basically opposite the Picture Theatre was closed and the overpass was opened in 1953. The Thirteen Mile Road used to continue over the railway line to the goods yards and this was closed perhaps around the same time or maybe earlier.

The Goods Shed was originally built around 1905 and a weigh bridge was erected in 1919. At 2.00pm on Thursday February 21, 1924 the Station was destroyed by fire. The Argus reported that a few milk cans were rescued from the goods shed. A number of parcels, including two bicycles and a perambulator, and a quantity of passengers' luggage, were destroyed, in addition to departmental records. Both the Station and the Goods Shed were rebuilt at the time but they were then demolished some time ago and replaced by the banal and tacky structures that pass for railway architecture today. They were still there in December 1989 - if you want a nostalgic look at them, then check out this website ‘When there were Stations’ - http://www.stationspast.net

Sources:

• Rigg of the Railways: Station Masters of the Victorian Railways by Tom Rigg (published by the author in 2001)
• The Electric Railways of Victoria : a brief  history  of the electrified railway system operated by the Victorian railways 1919 to 1979 by S.E. Dornan and R.H Henderson (Australian Electric Traction Association, 1979)

Garfield - after the coming of the Railway

In another post I looked at the history of Garfield up until the coming of the Railway, which is really the seminal event in the history of Garfield. The Gippsland line to Sale was opened in stages - Sale to Morwell in June 1877, Oakleigh to Bunyip on  October 8 1877, Moe to Morwell December 1877, Moe to Bunyip March 1878 and the last stretch from South Yarra to Oakleigh in 1879. Originally, the only Stations between Dandenong and Bunyip were Berwick and Pakenham. The timber industry boomed after the railway and a series of sidings developed along the line to despatch timber such as Officers Wood Siding in 1881, where the Officer family sent firewood to Melbourne.  This is now the Officer Station. Around the same time, Fraser’s Siding was established to accommodate Donald Fraser’s Saw Mill and this later became Longwarry. In the Garfield area the Railway lead to the establishment of two early industries, Jefferson’s Saw Mill and brick works and the Cannibal Creek Saw Mill Company.

Joseph Jefferson established a saw mill in 1877 on the site of what was to become his clay pit, off Railway Avenue. He sent this timber out via Bunyip Station until a local siding, the Cannibal Creek Siding, was built in 1885 to accommodate the timber tramline which was constructed by William Brisbane, a contractor on behalf of Francis Stewart.  This tramline run for about 8 kilometres, to the Two Mile Creek,  the Garfield North road basically follows this tramway.  In the same year, Cannibal Creek Saw Mill Company Limited was registered in October by the Stewart family, with William Brisbane being a minority shareholder. Stewart had already obtained the saw milling rights to 2,000 acres of forest in 1883. Both Stewart and Brisbane had been involved separately and jointly in other mills and tramlines at Berwick, Beaconsfield and Nar Nar Goon.  The Cannibal Creek Saw Mill Company sounds like a very grand enterprise but apparently the Company was in trouble by December 1885, the tramline was disbanded in 1887 and the Company was placed in liquidation in 1888, however it deserves it’s place in Garfield’s history as the Cannibal Creek Siding, became the Garfield Railway Station.

 Getting back to Joseph Jefferson, his was a very successful business, as well as producing timber products such as fence posts and rails and firewood, he also mined the sand on his property to be used in the building industry in Melbourne and when he discovered clay on his property he began making clay bricks. The 1880s was a boom time for Victoria and Jefferson could produce over 50,000 bricks per week and fire 75,000 at a time in his kiln. The Depression of the 1890s saw a decline in the building industry which flowed onto his business and the brickworks eventually shut down in 1929.

Jefferson's Clay pit. The man on the right is believed to be Joseph Jefferson. 

Image: Settlers and Sawmillers : a history of the West Gippsland Tramways by Mike McCarthy 

(Light Railway Research Society of Australia, 1999)

In the next post I will look at the growth of the township which grew around the Cannibal Creek Siding.

If you are interested in the Timber Industry, then a good book is Settlers and Sawmillers : a history of the West Gippsland Tramways by Mike McCarthy. It is published by the Light Railway Research Society of Australia in 1999.

The Nar Nar Goon to Mirboo railway line

The Argus, October 17, 1911.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

I came across this the other day. I can tell you that the Railway line never eventuated, but it would have been interesting if it had. Cora Lynn never got  a railway station - the closest stations were Tynong and Garfield on the Gippsland line and the Bayles and Catani Railway Stations on the Koo-Wee-Rup to Strezelecki line. This line opened on June 29, 1922 and closed in stages with the Catani station closing in April 1950 and Bayles in February 1959.

Here's what it says:

Railways Standing Committee

Nar Nar Goon to Mirboo

Cora Lynn, Monday – the Railways Standing Committee visited Cora Lynn today, and took evidence in the public hall in regard to the proposed railway route from Nar Nar Goon to Mirboo, via Cora Lynn and Modella. Over 100 persons were present.

Mr Melville, M.L.C., presided, and Messrs Billson and Warde were also present.

Evidence was given by Messrs Kinsella, Porter, Murdock and Dyer in favour of the proposed line, and all favoured it going through Cora Lynn, in order to tap land to the south of that township. Messrs Chambers and Schmutter (Modella League) favoured the same route, provided the line was carried through Modella.

 The Committee also took evidence at Nar Nar Goon and Messrs Reid and Latta were examined in regard to the proposed route. The latter gentleman said that he had been 29 (?) years on 700 acres of land and after that time his land was only now in a fit state to produce crops which would be valuable to him.

100 years ago this week - Railways and Monomeith Railway Station

This appeared in The Argus, on November 26, 1912, 100 years ago this week. It has both a Railway connection (one of my historical interests) and a Swamp connection as Dalmore and  Koo-Wee-Rup were Swamp Stations and Tooradin, Monomeith and Caldermeade were on the edge of the Swamp.

\

The Argus,  November 26, 1912 page 10 from http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

This line is part of the Great Southern line - the line to Dandenong  (part of the Oakleigh to Bunyip section) opened October 8, 1877. Dandenong to Tooradin, with stations at Lyndhurst, Cranbourne, Clyde and  Tooradin opened October 1, 1888. Dalmore (originally called Peer’s Lane, then Koo-Wee-Rup West) and Koo-Wee-Rup (originally called Yallock) opened August 19, 1889. Monomeith (originally called Glassock’s), Caldermeade, and Lang Lang (originally called Carrington) opened in February 1890. The line went all the way to Port Albert by 1892.

Patsy Adam-Smith wrote about the Monomeith Railway Station in her book Hear the train blow. Her mother was station mistress and post mistress and her father was a fettler. She wrote that Monomeith had no pub, no shop nothing but us. The Railway Station was also the Post Office. The family lived on a house on the platform and Patsy went to Monomeith School until it closed in 1933 and she then travelled by train to Caldermeade School. The family were at Monomeith during the 1934 flood. This is (partly) what  Patsy wrote about the flood - At home we were perfectly safe because of the house being off the ground up on the platform. On the second day Mum heard on the radio that homeless people were being brought into the Railway station at Koo-Wee-Rup. She walked in to help. Where she walked on the five-foot the swirling waters lapped over her shoes, the ballast had been swept away and the sleepers were held up only because they were fastened to the rails. The whole line in parts was swinging…..Dad and other fettlers brought in scores of people who had been cut off on high ground or in the ceilings of their homes. The water had run over the land so suddenly that most people were taken unawares. The Bush Nursing Hospital was caught this way. The fettlers cut through the roof of that building to take out the patients…… Mum, helping patients out of the boat when it reached Koo-Wee-Rup station found Dad’s coat around an old lady who had only a thin nightdress beneath it.

Sadly, none of the Monomeith railway buildings remain. According to a report in a  Korumburra & District Historical Society newsletter, that we received a few months ago at the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp Historical Society,  passenger services beyond Dandenong  ceased in June 1981 but goods services continued to operate. In 1992, the goods trains ceased and this is when the line beyond Leongatha was taken up. The passenger service to Leongatha was reinstated on December 9 1984 and continued to run until July 23 1993. The trains now stop at Cranbourne.

100 years ago this week - Place names and railways

What was happening in the area 100 years ago this week? These are  two railway related articles and are from the South Bourke & Mornington Journal of November 7, 1912. Available on Trove  http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

 South Bourke & Mornington Journal of November 7, 1912, page 2

Pakenham is a northern neighbour to the the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp, however as this article is about both railways and place names - two of my favourite historical subjects - then I had to include it. The Gippsland line to Sale was opened in stages - Sale to Morwell June 1877, Oakleigh to Bunyip October 1877, Moe to Morwell December 1877, Moe to Bunyip March 1878 and the last stretch from South Yarra to Oakleigh in 1879. Originally the only Station open between Dandenong and Pakenham was at Berwick.

South Bourke & Mornington Journal of November 7, 1912, page 2

The article, above,  lists all the revenue taken at the stations between Oakleigh and Bunyip, including the now defunct stop at the spur line that went to the Necropolis at Springvale and Jefferson's siding - a siding established for the Jefferson timber mill and later brick works at Garfield. It closed in May 1912.  The Necropolis (or Springvale Botanical Cemetery as it is now blandly known as) opened for burials in March 1902 and the railway line from the Springvale Station opened in 1904 - February  for visitors and March for mortuary trains. The Mortuary trains ceased in 1943 and the last visitor train was December 1950.