East Maitland to Hexham railway 1855-1857
The first stage of what was to become the Great Northern Railway went from Newcastle to Hexham, and was begun by the Hunter River Railway Company. The second stage, under NSW Railways, linked Hexham to East Maitland.
Great ceremony
On 3 July 1855, the first sod was turned on the section of the railway from East Maitland to Hexham. In contrast with the Newcastle start initiated under the Hunter River Railway Company a few months earlier, this occurred with great ceremony.
Dignitaries from Newcastle were escorted from Morpeth wharf to the Brickfields, East Maitland by a brass band. People on foot, horseback and cabs arrived from East and West Maitland. Major Crummer, to loud cheering, used the spade to turn the turf, whereupon the dignitaries retired to the tent to partake of refreshments, toasts and speeches. Outside the tent, the navvies working on the railway were provided with a hogshead of London stout. As they had some difficulty in broaching the cask, they simply knocked in the head, and dipped their pannikins in.
No terminus
The end of the line was at ‘the hill at the back of the East Maitland gaol’, where a temporary terminus had been built. Rivalry then arose between the people of East and West Maitland as to where the permanent terminus would be. Petitions from both sides were sent to the Governor General, Sir William Denison.
Denison, an engineer and seeing the bigger picture, informed them that there would be no terminus, as the line would continue up the country.
Construction well under way
By late December 1855, things were happening rapidly. Three locomotives and a number of carriages and other rolling stock had arrived by ship, along with turntables and other machinery.
By May 1856, the railway easement had been completed as far as East Maitland. Cuttings and embankments had been made and culverts and bridges completed. Track laying and ballasting were still in progress, with seven miles (about 11 kilometres) of track still to be laid. Although the line was single track, provision had been made to duplicate the track at some time in the future.
On 29 July 1856, the Maitland Mercury noted that 300 men were employed on the line and that it was nearing completion for the 17 miles (27.4 kilometres) between Honeysuckle Point ‘to the hill at the back of the East Maitland gaol’. Two short intervals of the railway near East Maitland remained to be completed.
A report in the Mercury of 13 December 1856 stated that the ship, John Fielden, had arrived in Sydney carrying carriages, locomotives, and other material for the Hunter River Railway. The ship was overdue and remained the only obstacle to the opening of the railway to traffic. The ship, from Liverpool, discharged part of the cargo in Sydney and then proceeded to Newcastle to unload the railway material.
The first locomotive on the Great Northern Railway, 1857.
(Newcastle Herald Archives)
Accidents
Building the railway line was a labour intensive and often dangerous job. Accidents occurred.
The first recorded accident was reported by the Mercury on 28 July 1855. A number of Chinese workers were employed on the railway and a group were felling trees near Hexham. One Chinese worker, De Swan, was killed by a falling branch. An inquest returned a verdict of accidental death.
Another accident was recorded by the Mercury on 8 August 1855, when a man named Mooney, a worker on the railway and an old resident in the district, was struck on the head and scalped by a falling tree. His Chinese co-workers quickly constructed a makeshift stretcher and carried him to Maitland Hospital where he was immediately attended to. He appeared to have survived the ordeal.
In November 1855 John Hurst, aged 27 years and a navvy working on the line, was killed instantly when a bank of earth fell on him. The Mercury of 24 November 1855, states that the inquest returned a verdict of accidental death.
On 30 May 1856 Henry Butler, a worker on the line, met his death when a ballast truck passed over his body. He died from the haemorrhage of his wounds before medical help could be provided.
Another accident, reported by the Mercury of 10 July 1855, was that of Catherine Dowar. Evidence at the inquest found that she had been drinking at the tavern in Hexham and left in a state of intoxication at 6 pm. Next morning her severed body was found on the railway line with a bottle of rum by her side. It appears that ballast trucks had run over her during the night, unobserved by the engine driver. The engine was at the rear of the train, pushing the wagons. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.
A fatal railway accident occurred on 15 October 1855 at Hexham. The Mercury reported that a pig ran onto the tracks as the ballast train was passing. Twenty workers were returning to Newcastle in the empty ballast wagons, when the leading wagons derailed when the pig was struck. George Whirl was crushed between the two leading wagons and a number of other men were seriously injured. At the inquest, the verdict was ‘that death was caused by injuries received by the overturning of wagons on the railway.’
Sly grog shops
The tough all-male working conditions on the railway encouraged enterprises aiming to make money from providing alcohol to the workers. Sly grog shops sprang up at various places along the line and breaches of the Publicans Act were common. On 7 November 1855, for example, the Maitland Mercury reported that Thomas Barker was charged before the bench, at East Maitland, with selling sly grog from a tent along the line near to Scott's Dairy. He was fined £30 with £1/1/0 professional costs and 4 shillings and 6 pence court costs or, in default, to be imprisoned for three months in Maitland Gaol.
Opening
The railway line from Hexham to East Maitland was opened in early 1857. The grand opening that celebrated the occasion is the focus of Part 3 of my account of the building the Great Northern Railway.
References
‘Main Northern railway line’, NSW Trains Wiki.
Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 1855 – 1857.
