Numurkah Railway Tragedy

Numurkah Railway Station c.1908
State Library of Victoria

Numurkah Railway Station opened in 1881 as the terminus of the railway line from Shepparton. The town expanded as the farmers of North-East Victoria brought their wheat harvests into town to be transported. The railway line was further extended in 1888 to Strathmerton, Cobram and Nathalia and then further to Picola in 1896. With the development of the railways, there came the inevitable accidents. Local papers reported many mishaps. A nine year old girl survived a fall from a moving train after she lent on a door with a faulty catch, a train ran into a laden coal wagon, when a switch hadn't been changed back to the main line, a train ploughed through gates narrowly missing the lady trying to open them and a drunk fell from the platform, smashed both ankles and survived being run over by a wagon. Another drunk wasn't so lucky.

Railway Lines c.1930

By far the saddest report, which was picked up by newspapers around the country, was the tragedy that occurred on 5 October 1905. On this hazy Thursday evening, with only a half moon for light, a buggy carrying six people was hit by a train at Allan's Crossing, about two and a half miles from Numurkah, resulting in the death of three people. The buggy, pulled by two horses, was being driven by Mr. George Russell, with him were his two daughters Edith, 20 and Winnie 16, Annie and Lily Callender and Orlando Purton, 14. Mr. Russell, Winnie and Orlando died whilst being taken by the train for treatment after the accident, Annie and Lily suffered serious injuries and Edith survived unscathed. The bodies of the deceased remained in the waiting room of the Numurkah Station until released by the Coroner on the Friday evening, despite a request by police for an earlier release to their families. 

The town of Numurkah mourned. Mr. Russell was from a local firm of Auctioneers & Commissioner Agents. His partner, Mr. Reynoldson was the representative for Deniliquin in the State Assembly. Annie Callender was the daughter of Numurkah Butcher, Robert Callender and Lily was the daughter of Samuel Callender, also of Numurkah. George Russell had lived in Numurkah for 27 years and was well known not just for his work, but his invovlement on several boards and his charitable endeavours. A large funeral for George and Winnie Russell was held 7 October 1905 and Orlando Purton's on the following day. Orlando's parents were not well off and generous donations paid for the the funeral and more.

Funeral of George & Winnie Russell
The Numurkah Leader, Fri 13 Oct 1905

An Inquest was held, before the funeral, on the Saturday morning, 7 October by the Coroner, Mr. Read Murphy, P. M. where Edith Russell, the surviving daughter, the engine driver, William Welsh and the Fire Guard all gave evidence. There were representatives for the Russell family, the Railway Department and the Crown. As the evidence unfolded, it appeared this was an accident that could easily have been avoided. Edith stated they were all aware of the train as they travelled in the same direction along the road parallel to the railway line, although she was unsure whether the train whistle had blown. They were returning from a day at the Nathalia Show. As they drew closer to the crossing which was at an angle to the road, her father whipped the horses as he believed he could beat the train, which they had also thought and it wasn't until the last minute when they turned to cross the track that they realized the danger and yelled to stop. It was too late, the train hit them. Edith said she was seated between her father and Orlando and remembered a big bump and coming to on the ground. She also added her father was a good driver and perfectly sober. The engine driver and the guard both said the whistle had been sounded, the lights were in good order and they were travelling at a rate of 30 miles per hour.

"Mr. Read Murphy said it was perfectly clear that Mr. Russell had seen the train a long distance off. The whistle was sounded and the lights in good order. No blame was attachable to anyone. Mr. Russell had formed an inaccurate idea of the distance. He (Mr. Murphy) did not intend to make any comment. Nothing had any effect on the public who regarded too highly the danger connected with these crossings. He found the deceased came by their death by being run over by a train at Allan's Crossing." The Argus (Melbourne) 9 October 1905.

It was considered an accident, but one can't help but wonder whether the same verdict would be given today.

 A chilling postscript to this story appeared in the Euroa Advertiser, 20 October 1905. Winnie Russell had recounted a bad dream to her mother on the morning of the accident. "Oh mother, I have had such a terrible dream. I dreamt that father and I were killed." When her mother asked how, her reply was " I don't like to tell you, it is too terrible." Another daughter, Elsie, away at school in Melbourne, had made an unexpected visit home on 28 September, the week before the accident, because she too had had a bad dream. In her dream she had been summoned home because Winnie and her father had been killed, which is exactly what happened a week later! 

#OnePlaceTragedies

Brick Water Tower - A Landmark of Numurkah

Brick Water Tower, Numurkah c.1890
unknown photographer, State Library Victoria

This year I have decided to follow the monthly blogging prompts of the Society of One Place Studies. Prompts will be a different topic each month. My One Place Study is Numurkah, a town in north eastern Victoria. It was declared a town in 1875, and the first land sales occurred in 1878, the same year my Irish great, great grandfather, Jeremiah McAuliffe selected land and settled with his family at Katunga on Numurkah's outskirts. The prompt for January is Landmarks and I have chosen the Brick Water Tower.

The Brick Water Tower was built in 1888 on the west bank of the Broken Creek. Initially Numurkah's water supply had come from a lagoon in the Creek (sometimes referred to as Baala Creek, the aboriginal name) and a well on the south-west corner of Gray and Quinn Streets outside the Bible Christian parsonage. The lagoon was often dry and, with the population growing from 96 in 1881 to 1011 in 1891, a more reliable water supply was needed. Tenders were called for in October 1888 for a water tank, tower, engine house and settling tanks. The 70 foot tower was constructed using 70,000 bricks and was finished with an iron tank on top.

The height of the water tower also made it a useful vantage point to take photographs for postcards of the growing town as can be seen below:-

Numurkah from Water Tower, c.1907
Shirley Jones collection of Victorian postcards
State Library Victoria

Broken Creek in Flood from Water Tower, c.1908
Shirley Jones collection of Victorian postcards
State Library of Victoria

Moira Shire, Stage Two Heritage Study 2007, identified the Water Tower, a footbridge and the showgrounds as culturally significant places built between 1880 & 1900 in what they classified as the Recreational Precinct of Numurkah. They noted the Water Tower demonstrated original and early design qualities associated with water infrastructure development of Numurkah. The Study also stated:- 

"The materials and workmanship seen in the significant timber bridge and brick and iron water tower infrastructure are technically important and increasingly rare examples in Numurkah."

This Recreation precinct now has a Heritage Overlay and it is Shire policy to retain the significant buildings in the precinct, so the Brick Water Tower should be a landmark for many years to come.

The Footbridge over the Broken Creek
 with Brick Water Tower 

#OnePlaceLandmarks

Book Prizes - What can they tell us?

Books awarded as prizes to Norah & Eileen Myers

The above books have sat on my bookcase for over thirty-five years and although I have looked at and handled them numerous times, I had never actually read them until recently. The one on the left was awarded to my great, great Aunt Honorah Myers, known as Norah, as a twelve year old. It was first prize for Poetry when in 2nd Class at St Mary's Convent, Rutherglen, Xmas 1906. The other book was awarded to her younger sister, Eileen, as a nine year old. It was 1st prize for English when in fourth grade at St. Mary's School, Rutherglen, Xmas, 1911. The two girls were the youngest of a family of 10 children of John Myers and Margaret McAuliffe. All four grandparents were Irish Catholics who had come to Victoria in the 1850's. Sadly both girls died in their twenties and neither married, although Norah had a son Cecil supposedly fathered by a famous tennis player. Another married sister also died in her twenties. On reading the books I was very surprised at the stories they told, which prompted me to research more about the books and their authors to try to understand why they were chosen as prizes.

Inscriptions in each book

Many of us have items passed down to us and it can be a valuable exercise to record what you know of these items and who they belonged to, so their history is not lost to future generations. If you also do some research on these items, it can add extra context to the original owner's story. Having finally read these books, I wanted to know more about them. They were both supplied by William P Linehan, 309 Little Collins Street, Melbourne. William Lineham's obituary in The Advocate, Dec 1945, described him as "Founder and Principal of Well-known Catholic Bookshop". He had set up his own bookshop in 1895 and had a hand in setting up two well known Catholic publications, the Austral Light and the Tribune, the latter being published for several years on his premises. Requiem Mass was held at St Patrick's Cathedral with the Archbishop presiding. Books from this supplier would, therefore, have been considered suitable prizes to their students by the Nuns, who had only recently come from Melbourne to Rutherglen. St Mary's School and Convent had only been established in March 1901 after a request by the Parish Priest, Fr. Micheal O'Connor, to the Presentation Nuns in Melbourne to sends some Nuns to educate the children of the Parish. Did the Nuns actually know what the stories were about or am I surprised at their content because I am viewing them with a 21st century perspective?

The Adventures of a Casket, An Episode of the Invasion of 1814, by Theophile Menard, translated from French is of superior quality and was awarded to Norah Myers. The flowery section of the cover is textured, while the grey section is embossed in silver and wraps around to a similar depth on the back. The spine has only one word on it "Casket", a hint to the story. It appears to have been read many times and greatly treasured. It has no publishing date, but a copyright of 1876 by Benziger Brothers. Benziger Brothers were a Catholic book publishing company founded in 1792 in Switzerland by Joseph Charles Benziger and later run and expanded by his sons and grandsons. They were bestowed the title of Printers to the Holy Apostolic See in 1867. The Holy See being the government of the Catholic Church based in the Vatican.

The story is told from the perspective of a young man's experiences of the Austrian invasion of France in 1814, when it was necessary for the French to hide their valuables from the invading Austrians. Set in the village of Baume les Dames, many took advantage of hiding their valuables in a vault under the local chapel. The young man had been given the duty of looking after a lady and her niece, whilst the husband was away on business. The valuables belonging to the niece were placed in a casket, and together with several other cases packed with family valuables, the young man was charged with taking them to the Chapel for safe keeping. There is a great deal of detail about the over running of the village and the battles nearby, as well as the entertaining of officers and billeting of invading troops. The casket, a plain wooden box, never made it to the vault and was inadvertently left in the kitchen area of the Abbey where soldiers stayed, some cleaning their boots on it, but it was never opened. When the army finally left and the valuables of the villagers were reclaimed, there was great dismay that the casket with its valuables was not there. The young man, who was responsible for hiding it was mortified and offered to pay for it when he could. Weeks passed before the casket was found and the moral of the story was "What God guards is well guarded."  Although an interesting historical story it wasn't one I thought appropriate for a Poetry prize for a 12 year old girl.

The Opening Pages of each Book

The Old Gray Rosary, by Mrs Anna H. Dorsey, is in a slightly more tattered condition, possibly because of its lesser quality, with thicker paper and some pages printed on a slant. There is no publisher or publication date, only a small Irish Trade Mark stamped on the last page that I can find nothing about. The spelling of "gray" in the title indicates its American origin. Anna was born in Washington D C in 1816, the daughter of a minister. Both Anna and her husband were converts to Catholicism and she is remembered as a pioneer of Catholic literature in America. She was the author of numerous short stories and novels, the majority of which concentrated on the melodramatic and religious conversion.  In 1889, Anna was awarded the Laetare Medal, by Notre Dame University, Indiana, in recognition of outstanding service to the Catholic Church and society, the most prestigious award given to American Catholics. Another well known recipient of this medal was President John F Kennedy. She lived through a time of great upheaval in America with her only son killed fighting for the Union side in the American Civil War.

The Irish Trade Mark

The story begins with a girl asking questions about her mother's collection of rosary beads among which are the old gray rosary beads, described as ugly and forlorn. They were made of beans and brass wire and belonged to a slave. This led to the girl being given a manuscript written by her grandmother which told the story of those beads described as:

     "a true narrative of the struggles of a poor negro slave, with the infirmities of her nature and the sins of her life; who, disheartened by frequent failure and the evil consequences of the great sin of  her life, abandoned the sacraments of the church and everything connected with her religion, except devotion to the Blessed Mother of Jesus Christ."

It is a story told from a Protestant point of view and wasn't very flattering to Catholics. The girl's grandfather was a slave owner, who treated his slaves better than most, with ill-treated slaves coming to ask him to buy them. He often did, but only bonded them for a certain number of years and then granted them their freedom. Mary, the owner of the beads, was one of these slaves who had been brutally treated by a drunken owner and had herself resorted to drink in the mistaken idea it would drown her sorrows. Mary was now treated well, cooked for the family and looked after the children. Everyday she prayed using those gray rosary beads. The daughter of the family, was curious about both this habit and Mary's religion. She was allowed to accompany Mary to her Church, where she was captivated by the paintings, statues and rituals which were much more interesting than the austere Protestant church her parents went to. Mary had lapses to her old ways and was given many chances. One night looking after the children, she left them alone for a few minutes and an accident with a candle occurred, with one of the younger children dying of burns. The grandfather immediately emancipated his slaves and the family moved North. Mary's Catholic influence was forgotten. The family returned after many years and the daughter married a Catholic and converted. By chance she reconnected with Mary, who had had a sad life, but still clung to her old gray rosary beads and recited the rosary three times daily. Again I found it a strange book to give to a 9 year old, Catholic girl, as the majority of the book is focused on the Protestant religion.

By reading and researching these books I have learnt about the type of books my great, great Aunts were given to read and although they were being educated here in Australia, the books were published overseas about historic stories there. Australia was still finding its identity, as was seen when WW1 broke out a few years later and Australian men enlisted to help Britain, the mother country. An interesting side note to this story is in December 1906 when Norah received her prize, her older brother, Patrick applied for a special licence to marry Mary Louisa Williams, a protestant. Patrick and Mary were my great grandparents. On the same bookshelf as the above books I have three books awarded to Mary Louisa Williams, for Good Conduct, when she attended Sunday School at St Stephen's, Church of England, Rutherglen.