These are photos from the Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society loading potatoes at the Koo Wee Rup Railway station. I believe they are from the 1950s (or maybe 1940s)
Loading potatoes at the Koo Wee Rup Railway Station. These (above and below) are the same scene, different view. They are back to the good old days of manual labour when men and boys could lift a bag of potatoes, which weighed 150 lbs or 68 kg, onto the back of a truck without a second thought. My father, Frank Rouse, and my uncle, Jim Rouse, grew potatoes at Cora Lynn from 1950 - from when Dad was 16 and Jim was 18. Allegedly Jim could lift two bags of potatoes at a time - one in each hand. It may be a family story, but like many farm boys they were working for money on neighbouring farms from when they were about 13 and then milking the cows at home after that, so they were very strong.
This is the line-up of trucks, in Station Street in Koo Wee Rup, waiting to go into the loading yard. The double storey building on the left is the Royal Hotel, built in 1915. Potatoes have been grown on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp since 1893, when the land was settled after the drainage of the Swamp by the digging of the Main Drain.
The Koo Wee Rup Railway Station was opened in August 1889,as part of the Great Southern Line. I have written about this railway line, here. Koo Wee Rup became a Railway Junction with the construction of the McDonalds Track Railway, or Koo Wee Rup to Strezlecki Railway line. This line opened in June 1922 and was completely closed by February 1959. I have written about this railway line, here.
