Episode description
Once upon a time, three little letters, "R R R" would bring a smile to any weary traveller’s face. Those three letters stood for the Railway Refreshment Rooms, and for 140 years it also meant passengers could hopefully enjoy a hot cup of tea, coffee scones, or even a full three-course meal in all of 20 minutes!
It was a full dining experience at big stations with trains arriving at strange and possibly odd hours for many places throughout Queensland. It really was a case of miles and meals to go!
In today’s episode, we’ll talk about how these Refreshment Rooms satisfied the hunger of the long-distance traveller, how a veritable army of women performed miracles in dispensing iron rations during World Wars and we’ll find out why these catering facilities slowly disappeared.
We’ll also chat with a chef who worked at the last of Queensland’s Railway Refreshment Rooms and find out how he’s continuing to satisfy customer’s hunger today.
Listen to the episode
Podcast transcript
Introduction
Annette: Good day, and welcome to another episode of the Queensland Rail History podcast. I’m Annette, and as always, it’s great to have you along with us to dive back into the Queensland Rail history vaults. Once upon a time, three little letters, RRR, would bring a smile to any weary traveller’s face. Those three letters stood for Railway Refreshment Rooms. And for 140 years, it meant passengers could hopefully enjoy a hot cup of tea, coffee, scones or even a full three-course meal in all of 20 minutes. It was a full dining experience, with trains arriving at strange and, possibly, odd hours for many places throughout Queensland. It really was a case of miles and meals to go.
Greg: The station would have been an absolute hive of activity at that time. At the same point, the passengers were trying to enjoy their three-course meal in the allotted time as well.
Annette: In today’s episode, we’ll talk about how refreshment rooms satisfied the hunger of the long-distance traveller, and we’ll find out why these catering facilities slowly disappeared. We’ll also chat with a chef who worked at the last of Queensland’s railway refreshment rooms and find out how he’s continuing to satisfy customers’ hunger today.
Tony: When you’ve done chef-ing for such a long time, just probably being involved with the community would be one of the proudest things to be part of.
Male: Be that as it may, we in common with the whole community, hail with pleasure the inauguration of the railway in Queensland.
Female: An old woman in our carriage was very proud of this little bit of railroad.
Annette: I’m here with Greg Hallam to talk about how the ref rooms rose to prominence and the decline in the wake of the takeaway world.
Greg: Oh, hello, Annette. It’s wonderful to be back here again and talking with you as well. And speaking of wonderful meals, they were some lovely homemade muffins you bought for our recording session today. So, thank you so much for that. It’s very much keeping in the spirit, I think, of the railway refreshment rooms of times past. So, jolly good, and thank you.
The early years of the Queensland Railways Refreshment Rooms
Annette: The Queensland Railways began in 1865. How long was it before I could get a tasty snack or something good, or at least edible, to keep me going on my train journey?
Greg: Annette, it was actually three years after the opening of the first sections of railway in Queensland. So that’s 1868. A refreshment room was established at Grandchester Station. And it was – the first lease was issued on the 1st of January of 1869. It was given to a Phoebe Cook. And Phoebe was actually the mother of a Laidley publican, Joseph Cook. The Cooks didn’t last long in that kitchen, literally, at Grandchester.
Annette: Sorry, so the Cooks didn’t last long as cooks?
Greg: No, they didn’t last long as cooks, not at all. And the leases were taken on by John Moran, or John Mor-an. He was another publican, of course, and he previously ran the Postman’s Arms at Bigges Camp, Grandchester. There were also railway refreshment rooms, or ref rooms as the railway people called them, at Gatton and Helidon. Now at that time, it was a quarter of an hour stop that was timetabled for refreshments; taking your refreshments in 15 minutes.
A three-course meal in twenty minutes
Annette: So, 15 minutes isn’t a lot of time for a refreshment break, let alone trying to eat and get back on a train. What would have greeted me if I’d walked into a ref room? Was there a special atmosphere? What did the menu generally look like? Was there a lot of choice?
Greg: So many questions, Annette, so many questions. So many answers. Well, when you walked into the ref rooms, there was tea and coffee, cakes and scones, of course. In some of the licensed rooms, there was alcoholic refreshment, as well as sit-down meals. And that was provided for passengers. Now, we’re talking about a full sit-down meal, basically your Sunday roast and everything like that. But for the full sit-down meal, there would have been three courses: soup; you had your main meal, possibly roast or whatever, something like that; you had your pudding; and you had tea and coffee.
Now, there was also a time limit as well. You had 20 to 25 minutes being that set timetable stop. The stop at larger places was also arranged so locomotives could be changed, locomotive crews. They could pick up mailbags, set down mail and things like that. So, the station would have been an absolute hive of activity at that time. At the same point, the passengers were trying to enjoy their three-course meal in the allotted time as well.
The Railway Refreshment Rooms staff – The ‘Ref Girls’
Annette: So, what about our staff? Did our staff get to enjoy a meal, or were they too busy doing all of the packing and the moving and all of that?
Greg: Well, it was a very interesting thing for the staff because they – we talk about telegraphing your movements and everything like that – when trains were actually coming into the large places, say, Toowoomba, Rockhampton, Townsville or some of the big centres and that, it would have been telegraphed ahead that so many passengers were coming and what the meal requirements were. So, the staff in advance, the people in the kitchens are getting everything cooked and ready. They’ve got things on the boil, literally.
And then in the ref rooms, the ref room girls, as they call them, they would have been setting out the tables, the napkins. They would have been putting out the crockery, the cutlery, getting the condiments or the jams and things like that ready. It was an absolute hive of activity. Because they knew as soon as the train hit that platform, those doors were flung open, the hordes would descend upon them anyway. And they had 20 to 25 minutes to get the meal. It was pretty, pretty busy for them then, Annette, yes.
Annette: So, did they set aside a meal for the crew, the train crew, though? Did the ref girls know and go, “All right, I’ve got a driver, I’ve got a whatever and here’s their meal ready to go?”
Greg: No. No, definitely not, no. With the crews and things like that, they would have been working to how many hours they had. Basically, say, here in Toowoomba, when the train used to come in, especially on the – coming in from the west or coming in from the south or somewhere like that, coming in to go south, as soon as they hit the platform here, the engine would have been uncoupled, sent back to Willowburn Depot, and then basically the next relay engine, I suppose you’d say, or the next engine from Toowoomba, to take you west or take you south. So, the crew, they’d be going over to Willowburn or somewhere like that, and they’d have their tucker boxes with them anyhow. So, nothing of ref room quality. It was tucker boxes and what they used to bring from home.
What the Railway Refreshment Rooms meant for train passengers
John Kerr, in Triumph of Narrow Gauge, which is the history of Queensland Railways and still probably the best overall survey history of the story of the Queensland Railways today, he had a marvellous description of what it was like at the time of departure, or how the railway refreshment rooms used to operate. John said, “Well, close to departure, a warning bell, like a school bell, was rung. A few country stations like Proserpine and Innisfail, they continued to ring the bell even when they had no ref rooms or refreshment rooms.” So, it was like a ghost of the past, an echo of the past there.
Patrons entered the dining room at major stations, greeted by large tables, starched white tablecloths and silver cutlery already set. And as they streamed in, the manageress directed them to tables and a bevy of waitresses were quickly dispensing porridge, that’s for the morning trains, or soup. The food had to be prepared in advance and kept hot waiting for train arrival. The rooms were advised by telegraph how each one was running. Breakfast, eggs and toast, as you’d appreciate, they were the most difficult commodities to keep attractive for those train travellers.
Annette: I’m sorry, but it just sounds so cruel to continue to ring the bell even though they don’t have a ref room open.
Greg: Oh, I think it’s that wonderful sense of history there anyway, Annette. So, history is a strong thing and the memories of the ref rooms, obviously, were very strong to the local people and to the railway people.
Our podcast interviewee Tony Watkins, Food and Beverage Operations Officer, Queensland Rail
Annette: What was it like to work in one of these refreshment rooms? Who better to ask than Tony Watkins. Tony began his career with Queensland Rail as a chef in the Toowoomba Railway Station refreshment room. We caught up with him over the phone while he was down in Brisbane. Well, welcome, Tony Watkins, and thank you for joining us today on our podcast.
Tony: Not a problem.
Annette: Can you tell me a little bit about your time at Queensland Rail? What year did you start, and what was your initial role?
Tony: I started in Queensland Rail in – I think it was the year 2000. So just the – that nice new millennium, up at the refreshment rooms up Toowoomba, which is at the Toowoomba Station. I don’t know if those people that have actually been up to Toowoomba to see the old railway station up there. They actually used to have a refreshment room in there, which included a restaurant and a fully designed kitchen there, which we catered for weddings, small functions, and even had à la carte menu, where people could come in from a Tuesday through to Saturday night and enjoy the refreshments or the local produce and that, for their actual area.
Annette: So, what made you actually want to work on the railway? What made you come to Queensland Rail?
Tony: I think originally, when I started in refreshment rooms, I’d only just come back from working overseas in Italy and France as a chef. So I come back, and looking where the next chef role was that would excite me and excite my passion of cooking. I met up and had an interview with the manager at that time. The passion and willingness and wanting to really expose and look at refreshment rooms and promote that, it really drove me to want to work there at the refreshment rooms in Toowoomba. So, from there, unfortunately, they shut the refreshment rooms down about two years, three years after I actually started. Hopefully, it wasn’t from me cooking up there.
But that was when Queensland Rail actually took over the catering for the long-distance train services. So, I actually moved from the refreshment rooms down here to Brisbane, and so I’m looking after the catering and the provisioning of the long-distance train services out of Brisbane.
Annette: So, have you been doing that ever since?
Tony: I’ve been – yes, ever since leaving the refreshment rooms, I’ve been down here in Brisbane, commuting probably for the last 14 years. When I did start down here in Brisbane, I was actually living down here in Brisbane, but had a young family and that. So I decided it would be better that I commute every day, at least then I could see them every night, which is good. And it’s a little bit different working down in Brisbane. At least I can do a straight shift, a straight-through shift. Whereas when you’re in the hospitality industry, it’s normally a split shift.
So, up there in the refreshment rooms, we’re doing some lunches and dinners, so your shift would normally entail doing a 9 o’clock to 2 o’clock in the afternoon, going home, having a bit of a catnap and then hitting the road again, and getting back up to the refreshment rooms about 5 o’clock, 5.30, preparing for a dinner service. And then you’d be finishing anywhere around 9 o’clock to 11 o’clock at night.
Annette: You said you’re commuting. So, are you driving down from Toowoomba every day?
Tony: Correct, yes, every day.
Annette: Wow, you must love your job.
Tony: I do. But as I said, at least now down here in Brisbane, I can do a straight shift. So, I do a 6 o’clock to 2 o’clock, whereas when I was up in Toowoomba, being a chef, I’d have to do those split shifts. So it’s actually more enjoyable now doing a straight shift and having my weekends off. Whereas those that have actually worked in the hospitality industry know that 90% of the time you’re working on a Saturday and Sunday.
Annette: So, what is your current role and responsibilities?
Tony: I’m currently a Food and Beverage Operations Officer. So, we’re actually looking after the catering and the provisioning of the long-distance train services from Brisbane, which includes your Spirit of Queensland service that goes to Cairns; Spirit of the Outback that goes to Longreach; your Westlander service that goes to Charleville; and then you’ve also got your daily Tilt Train services that commute between Brisbane, Bundaberg and Rockhampton.
Annette: Wow, it sounds very busy.
Tony: It is busy. It’s busy at the moment, trying to cater for our many customers that use our long-distance train services.
Licensed premises on the Queensland Railways
Greg: All right, well, going back to the licensing’s and things like that, because I know the people would be interested in licensed premises, getting an alcoholic drink or something like that. Now, Mrs Littleton of the Royal Hotel in Toowoomba, she was very quick off the mark in this case. It was only months after the opening of the railway line to Toowoomba in 1867, and not far from us here as we sit and podcast today, she was trading in a purpose-built refreshment room that was close to the temporary station, which is very much on the location where we are today. James Bassingwaite was the licensee of the Lady of the Lake Hotel that was at Helidon. They were even quicker; they actually applied for permission to sell refreshments, wines and spirits. That was in February of 1867, which was really, really about the time that the railway arrived in town there. Very quick off the mark.
Annette: You said hotel owners were quick to open up. Was there a time when their service changed?
Greg: Well, hotel proprietors were generally in the best situation to lease the rooms. They were able to provide the staff for a train, put them to useful work between trains, of course, very important. Now, whenever a lease came up, an existing tenant with a good reputation was preferred to a new candidate. In 1911, there was a deputation in Brisbane from the Independent Order of Good Templars. They were seeking the abolition of bar licences to sell intoxicants from the railway refreshment room. So the Templars were very much in the organisation’s early 20th century, and they were basically temperance groups. And basically, they wanted a ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol. It’s interesting, the Commissioner for Railways at that point heard the deputation, but said that is a matter for the Government.
Interview with Tony Watkins, Food and Beverage Operations Officer, Queensland Rail
Annette: So, Tony, are you a first generation railwayman?
Tony: No, I’m second generation, actually. My father was a driver on the railway, as well as my uncle, actually, was a driver on the railway as well. My father actually did 35-plus years as a driver. He actually started as a cleaner with Queensland Rail, moved forward as a guard, and then into a driver for Queensland Rail. So he’s actually driven, was able to drive for some of the trains like the Westlander and that as well. So, interesting times. I think there’s a lot of people that work within QR at the moment that are second, third, even fourth generation, as well. So, it just goes to show that Queensland Rail have a wonderful, positive culture and work families and that do want to follow their generation through because it’s such a wonderful job and just the passion and that that follows that. And I think that’s what really drives and shows people what Queensland Rail can do.
Annette: Do you have a favourite memory from your dad and uncles, when they were on the railway?
Tony: Actually, probably one of the proud moments is when my father actually retired. He actually had his retirement at the refreshment rooms when I was actually cooking there. So, I think we had probably 100 people there and he got presented his retirement gift of the gold watch, which I think a lot of the old timers or the old drivers and Queensland Rail employees really looked forward to, getting that watch. And I was only just recently on holidays with my father and he – driving down there and looked over, and he’s got – here it is, gold watch on his hand, the Queensland Rail retirement present that he actually had.
So that was good, because my uncle was there as well; but to have both generations there and all the workmates, and my father created friendships all those years, it’s just incredible, even to the point that we had some of the old refreshment room staff there as well, because it was probably in the last year of operation, the refreshment rooms, when we actually had that retirement party.
Annette: Yes, that’s fantastic. So, would he have driven the train that stopped at Toowoomba? And that’s how he got to know them as well?
Tony: Yes, so the Westlander, I remember my father telling me stories of the Westlander used to be that popular, they actually had to have two services running one behind the other because the amount of boarders and customers on the services that went out to Charleville or even further back then, going out to Cunnamulla and those type of places, it was just that popular. And the demand was there for it. So it was incredible to see. It would have been great to see 100, 120 people on a platform there at Toowoomba, servicing and getting fed and that, especially on the Westlander where we don’t see that at the moment.
Probably the closest that I would have seen an event of that occurring was, we used to do the – well, we still do the Carnival of Flowers at Toowoomba – in the last couple of years that we actually did. it was that popular, the steam train services, and also the traditional service, we actually had go down to Spring Bluff, turn around and come back. So those weekends where we actually had the Carnival of Flowers, we were servicing, we were presenting a menu to 600 people on one day. So to put that in perspective, the refreshment rooms, when it’s at capacity, it used to fit about 180 people. So within three hours, four hours, we would serve 600 people an actual menu, which included a main meal, which was roast or something of that nature.
And then we’d actually do a dessert for them too, the old traditional sticky date pudding and pavlova. I can actually remember having pavlovas on the back tables, ready to go. And all you could see was pavlovas and sticky date puddings. It was that popular. And we had to push the food out that quickly, because everybody who comes to Carnival of Flowers wants to be part of it, especially when we have the refreshment rooms in operation.
Annette: I’m just down from the refreshment rooms, where they were, now. And I’m telling you, if you had sticky date and pavlova, I wouldn’t be sitting here.
Tony: No. But look, it’s a shame we don’t have the refreshment rooms anymore, just purely from – when it’s all set up, just to walk into that space. As soon as you walk into the refreshment rooms, you have the polished oak bar there, where we had all the alcohol and the spirits set up there. Polished bar, all the floors were polished. And then you had the tables set up traditionally with your silver service style service, which just does not happen anymore. It was just a sight to behold. We actually had the old silver salt and pepper shakers, the sugar bowls, the centrepiece urns. They used to actually have to be polished once a week.
Annette: Please tell me, as a chef, you didn’t have to do it though.
Tony: Queensland Rail, we all get in. Like anywhere, we all get in and help out where necessary. I didn’t do a lot of that, but it’s amazing. You don’t see anyone polishing the silver and that in today’s world. But some of these sugar bowls and that, they would have been 80-plus years old. It’s just incredible to see that. The good thing is you can still see some of that, those items actually in the display cabinet that is actually in the refreshment rooms there at the moment. We used to have all that polished, tables set, and with traditional silver service.
How many Railway Refreshment Rooms were on the Queensland Railways
Annette: Greg, how many ref rooms were there in the peak of their popularity?
Greg: Well, the ref rooms, they literally followed the railway lines throughout Queensland as they moved out through the state. In 1879, there were seven refreshment rooms operating on the Queensland Railways. So that’s actually full proper ref rooms, I’d say, where you could get three-course meals and that. There were also 47 rooms or stalls that were operating there in total. We mentioned before about the temperance rooms. There were 15 of those – that’s no spirits or liquors being sold on the press. Interestingly enough, there were five that were also owned and built on leased land. So leased land from the Queensland Railways and basically built their own little ref room or tea room or something like that on that spot as well.
It was literally a case of different courses for different arrangements. Some of those rooms and stalls were pretty interesting. There’s a tremendous photograph in the historical collection that was taken out on the old Bowen Railway, and it’s literally a piece of Hessian across a couple of poles. It’s got ‘Refreshment Room, Bowen Railway’. We might even post that on this podcast.
Annette: Really? That would be very interesting. A little hessian place, it would be so hot.
Greg: It would be à la carte, and as I said, outdoor dining. That’s what you got with it.
Annette: Can you imagine trying to be ready for a trainload of people to stop at your refreshment rooms when you are in a hessian tent?
Greg: Oh, that’s right. I think the beauty of it, there wouldn’t be too many people getting off the train at that location anyway, Annette.
Annette: Oh, I did want to ask, Greg, you said that they were privately built. What happened if they lost their contract after they’d built their own private refreshment room?
Greg: That’s a very good point, Annette. Unfortunately, in cases like that, even though they invested the money in that, hopefully they wouldn’t lose the lease, but again, it was a decision of the Department, and it could be taken over by the new lessee or something like that as well too. Mind you, there wouldn’t be much left behind, of course, because a lot of the stuff would have gone with the previous tenant or lessee.
Annette: Well, it’s not that hard to pack up your hessian tent.
Greg: Hopefully these were a bit more substantial than that anyway. Actually, Annette, South Brisbane Station, it had one of the famous temperance ref rooms and it was on the Melbourne Street terminus, South Brisbane Station, and it was temperance rooms. No spirits, liquors or anything sold there and it was one of those that were throughout the state as well too.
Annette: Did we stop selling liquor at all or did we just always run through?
Greg: Licensed premises were a very, very large part of the organisation, the railway refreshment rooms and the Queensland Railways for many, many decades.
Annette: Can you talk us through the process of feeding people on board today? What does a standard on-board meal look like?
Interview with Tony Watkins, Food and Beverage Operations Officer, Queensland Rail
Tony: So, as it currently stands, we’re still in an exciting position that we offer a number of different options on board the trains. So our Spirit of Queensland service, even though we don’t have a chef on board, we still have chefs here at the catering unit out of Brisbane, where the actual meals are actually served and presented in a – what we call a rail bed meal. That is then refrigerated down and placed on the service for the on-board staff to reheat that meal and then to place a sauce and garnish on the product and then that actually gets served to the to the table. We’re still very – well, we’re still lucky with the Spirit of the Outback, we still have an on-board chef on that train.
So here out of Brisbane, we load the raw produce for that service where the on-board chef and the catering staff get on there, prepare the meal from scratch – and what I mean from scratch is, it’s actually prepared from raw materials prepared on board and then served to the customer, which is exciting. But we also do have other options where we actually prepare cook-chill meals; so, when I say cook-chill meals you might have seen the meals that you get on Qantas when you’re travelling on the airlines. We actually do prepare those here out of Brisbane as well, and they go on to the Spirit of Queensland, Spirit of the Outback, Westlander – oh, not the Westlander service, sorry – and the daily Tilt Trains for the economy customers.
Annette: Okay. So are you ever tempted to pick up your knives again, or are you –
Catering on the Spirit of the outback
Tony: I occasionally pick up the knives. Unfortunately, I don’t work on the trains anymore. There was – probably two years ago, I think, was the last time that they were in need of a chef to go on the Spirit of the Outback, so I was lucky enough to get asked to go on that; so I actually went out on the Spirit of the Outback out to Longreach, and was cook on that service. So it’s good. Took a while to blow the cobwebs out, a bit of rust there, but it was good to get out there and then also cook, but go and talk to the customers afterwards and talk about their experiences. And they’re always interested in how we do things, why we do things, and how we prepare the meals on board the train.
It’s actually interesting on the Spirit of the Outback because we still have the dining car on the train where we actually have the kitchen. It’s interesting to see, always when the customers go past, they always try and grab a sneaky view just to see what’s in that locked up area where our dining car and our kitchen are. It’s actually interesting because they come in and they want to have a look through, because when you think about the carriages on the train with the kitchen, with the amount of meals and what service we provide, how small a space it actually is to prepare meals in those kitchens.
Annette: Is it sort of like a ship’s galley? You know it’s quite small and everything – you could literally turn in a circle and you’ve got your stove and your bench and then all of it around you?
Tony: Yes, most definitely, it is – the tight space is certainly like that, but like a ship too you do get the movement on the train actually as well, when you’re trying to cook and prepare meals as well. But yes – well, let’s hope not so much the up and down movement but certainly the side to side movement when you’re trying to prepare meals. It’s also more interesting – I think it’s probably more interesting sometimes watching the waitresses or waiters take the meals out to the customers, them trying to stabilise themselves so they don’t have any meals fall on the floor.
Annette: Yes, I can imagine, not fun. I’m not the best waitress at any stage; so if you give me a bumping around, we’re all in trouble.
Tony: Well, it’s interesting because I suppose with Queensland Rail now we’re very much safety focused, so when we have the waiters and waitresses take the meals out now, it should be two plates at a time. But I remember when I first started working on the trains, you’d have the experienced waiters still trying to take four plates out at a time. So it was always interesting to see them, to prepare the meals and get them out to the customers. For those staff that have worked on board the trains it’s almost like they can predict when there’s going to be a lurch of the train, so they know when and how to brace themselves.
Annette: Do you have any menu recommendations for our long distance travellers?
Tony: Menu recommendations, I don’t think you can go past the sticky date puddings and that type of thing, the traditional style, because – and then that’s why we do pick the menu that we do; we really try and have the traditional items that we know are going to sell. We need to be aware of what our clientele base actually is; there’s no point us putting on fresh new in-style products which our clientele on the trains aren’t going to understand. I remember a time we actually put frittata on the menu, and nobody knew what it was. So that’s why we try and keep things plain and simple, and we know – because we know who our clientele are on the trains.
Annette: Yes, my daughter she’s – “Here’s frittata for dinner”, she’s like “What’s frittata?” I’m like, “Egg and potato pie.” She’s like, “Yum, thanks Mum!”
Tony: Yes. It’s all about comfort food.
Annette: Yes. Well, when you’re on a train for up to 26 hours on the Spirit of Queensland on your way up to Cairns, you do want to be comfortable. You want to have something nice to eat; you want to be able to relax and enjoy the scenery. So yes, if you can have sticky date pudding –like, literally, I’d have sticky date pudding for breakfast – why not, right? We want to know, can we have sticky date pudding for breakfast on the long distance trains?
Tony: I think you’d be pushed having sticky date pudding; you might get a few strange looks having sticky date pudding in the early morning.
Annette: Oh, they don’t know how much fun we had the night before!
The managers of the Railway Refreshment Rooms
Greg: One of the better known managers of the railway refreshment rooms was Mrs Sarah Balls. She was a remarkable character, and I think she ended her days living at New Farm and had a lovely home that was built there. She operated from the late 1890s to the very early 20th century. Now in Central Queensland she had 13 rooms that she operated under her own licence. She also had the business for, on the central line, a buffet car that operated out of Emerald; this was about 1911, 1914. They built two or three buffet cars and she actually had the licence to operate that on the train, and one of the big things that they had at that stage was they had soda fountains. And in a hot, dry climate like Queensland they were very popular as well.
So, Mrs Balls, by all accounts she was quite a formidable person; she ran the rooms very, very well, looked after the girls, as they called it and everything like that. But she actually had –she had quite a bit of business entrepreneurship, and she was very big in the railway refreshment rooms, just over that century ago.
Annette: I’m just interested, were there many females in business at this stage? For her to have 13 on the go, was that really unusual?
Greg: Well, it goes back to those licensees; a lot of the licensees and leaseholders and that, they were women. And as I said, Sarah Balls was certainly one of the better-known ones; but there are a lot of other names that creep up as well too. And the railway refreshment rooms, they did reflect what was happening in other parts of – I guess what you’d call the hospitality trade. And just with our podcast today, there’s this wonderful photograph; it’s actually taken at Gympie Railway Station, and you can go there today to the Valley Rattler at Gympie Station, they do actually have a café operating from there now, and it’s in the same location as the railway refreshment rooms that you see.
It’s a photograph, and it’s when Mrs Balls was in charge, that’s Sarah, Sarah that we mentioned before. They had some of her – emphasis her – refreshment room girls there. It’s a lovely photograph, because it really does show the ref room; you can see the chairs here, so everything’s set out for the arrival the train, everyone there in their starched aprons and starched hats and everything like that. And the other thing is also those wonderful Queensland Railways photographs that are actually hanging off the picture rails and things like that, around the around the sides. The photographs would have been from the Queensland Rail collection for our tourism area, probably in white cedar or something like that; but they showed these beautiful locations that you could go to somewhere in Queensland and travel on a train.
So it’s a wonderful photograph, very invocative. I think it might have been also taken around about the time they opened the railway line down to Amamoor in the Mary Valley. So, probably looking around about 1913, give or take there anyway, Annette.
Annette: Certainly is a nice, clean, well-presented room. Everything is sparkly clean, and beautifully folded napkins.
Greg: It had to be. There were very, very tough criteria that they had to meet and the lessee owners and the railway refreshment rooms, they were always audited and they were inspected, as matters of health. They were audited to make sure there was an accounting of all the utensils, especially the lessees, they had to meet certain standards and they were required to meet those as part of the – basically it’s getting the lease or the licence from the Queensland Railways.
Annette: Sorry, just something else, you said that all the crockery and cutlery had to be accounted for. So were they lent that or leased that as well, as part of the agreement?
End of an era for the private licensee in the Railway Refreshment Rooms
Greg: Yes, that was as part of the lessee agreement as well. So, yes. But, yes, a lovely photograph, and as I said, everyone’s posed there. I must admit it’s probably done as what they’d say in this day and age, a marketing opportunity, because I’m quite sure if there was an arrival of a train coming on the north coastline there, there’d be a lot more activity going on in that room than you’re seeing there at the moment. In 1917, with the election of the Ryan Government, there was virtually a form of nationalisation that was going on, the creation of state industries. So the railway refreshment rooms that were leased at that stage, they were taken back by the Queensland Railways. And that was in 1917. And then they were actually taken under the – well, basically under the Queensland Railway Departments.
Now, most of those refreshment room staff, they transferred their labour, as it was called, to the Queensland Railways, with the takeover of the leases by the Queensland Government. Interesting, that change was not wholly successful, because you’re talking about those high standards before, that the lessees had to maintain, and many passengers actually noted a deterioration in the standards of cuisine and service, with the change to state control. So, after only two years, Queensland Railways basically said, we’ll hand the control of the railway refreshment room operations, but we’ve give them back to the Queensland State Trade Board. So it was a hot potato, I guess you’d say.
Annette: Oh, my dear, Greg, another pun.
Greg: Thank you. No worries at all. The interesting thing about the refreshment rooms, there was always a lot of interest in, for obvious reasons. In parliamentary papers, Department correspondence and newspapers, there were complaints quite a lot about the cost of pies, the quality of the sandwiches, the inadequate service, and, more importantly, the temperature of the beer.
Annette: Oh, no, not the temperature of the beer!
Reputation of the Railway Refreshment Rooms
Greg: Oh, yes, very important that, especially in a climate like Queensland. But some rooms, however, had exceptional reputations for their management, and what was on the menu. Bororen, that was south of Gladstone, was renowned as having the best pies in Queensland. Although, I did talk to, back in 1997, a former driver from Bundaberg, Frank. He was in his 90s then. He told me a wonderful story that had come out of the Second World War. He said he was working on a train one day and they actually stopped at Bororen.
He said this fellow came up on the train – it must have been a diesel by then anyway – he was an American, and he said, the fellow, “What happened to the pie shop here at Bororen, the great meat pies?” Anyway, Frank looked around and he said, “Oh, it closed.” The fellow said, “Well, I was here serving during the Second World War”, this American; he said, “They had the best pies. What happened?” Frank said, “All I could think of was, oh, sorry mate, they shot all the wallabies out.”
Anyhow, so Cardwell in particular, it prided itself on the fish luncheons that were served under the tin roof of the local refreshment room. Tully was also an important spot, because it was the last place you could get food on that final stretch of the run of the trains, the Sunshine Express through to Cairns.
Annette: I imagine with some people coming from inland areas, a stop at Cardwell with fresh fish, would be a real treat.
Greg: Oh yes, there was a wonderful story talked about Cardwell. They always said that they get the numbers of people that would be coming through on the trains, and so many travellers and requests for ref rooms. The joke always was, the story was, they’d go down to the end of the jetty at Cardwell and start fishing once they knew how many were coming through. The other joke was they used to get the frying pan and give it a couple of taps, and the fish would jump into it as well. But yes, they had a real reputation for their fish luncheons, and actually, the freshness of the fish that were served there.
Interview with Tony Watkins, Food and Beverage Operations Officer, Queensland Rail
Annette: Tony, can you please share a career highlight with us?
Tony: Career highlight was probably the opening of catering operations, the catering unit, when we first took over from Qantas. I would say it’s probably around the 2000 mark when we actually took over from Qantas for the provisioning of and deprovisioning and catering of those train services. The amount of work that was required with that was incredible because we actually had the kitchen, which used to be at the Roma Street Station, which is now unfortunately being demolished, because it was part of the Holiday Inn hotel there. So that’s actually all been demolished.
But when we first took over from Qantas with the catering, we actually had to build everything. The kitchen was there, the foundation was there, but we had to look at how we did things, why we did things, and the best way of provisioning the train services. It’s interesting, even though we were at Roma Street Station, our provisioning of the train services actually is at Platform 10, Roma Street Station. But we were on the other opposite side of Roma Street station. So we had to look at refrigerated vehicles and that type of thing to move the stock from, and the provisioning from the catering unit across to Platform 10.
So that was probably the highlight and the most work involved behind the scenes with getting that set up, which was interesting because it took about three months of design work and getting the right staff, getting staff employed and getting the general operation set up so we could do the provisioning and deprovisioning of train services.
Annette: In the event of an incident, how does the team ensure on-board customers are looked after and fed?
Tony: Luckily for us, we’ve got some really experienced and wonderful staff on our train services. So, depending on what’s required, they can have a look, see what raw products or what they have in the fridges and do up a menu accordingly. A classic example that I can use, for example, at the moment, we’ve actually had to source some products and actually see what products are left over or could be used on the Spirit of Queensland service. So classic example, referring to what you were just saying before was, we’ve actually organised a beautiful Turkish breakfast roll with bacon and eggs and everything, on a Turkish bread for breakfast, as well as some petite muffins and some local yoghurt. We’re actually going to serve for a breakfast on that service when it departs out of Rockhampton.
We’ve also organised some fillos, chicken and camembert fillos, and a roast pumpkin and caramelised onion fillo for lunch on the Spirit of Queensland service. Now that’s something we can certainly order and organise, but without our wonderful staff on the train to put that together, cook it and present it and garnish it so it looks world class, then there’s something – we can organise whatever we want out of here, but if we don’t have the support of the on-board staff on those train services, then we can’t cater and meet the catering requirements of the customers on board.
So that’s probably just one example we’ve just done today. We’re a seven day a week operation, so we’ve got trains going out, or when we don’t have trains going out, we do have bus services, and we’re actually doing sandwich packs up for customers so they have something to eat. So I think from today, off the top of my head, I think we’ve done 300 sandwich packs, just so they’ve got some food and a bottle of water so when they hop on the buses, they’re actually fed.
Annette: So you’re able to source products. What do you do with the leftover foods?
Tony: So, what we do with the leftover food, if we can’t use that product – so we’ve actually got the operations staff and the catering staff actually looking at products – if that product can’t be reused on another service, we’re actually looking at donating that to a local organisation to repurpose that food.
After the return of the Railway Refreshment Rooms to Queensland Railways in 1917
Annette: Now, Greg, we chatted earlier about how the ref rooms were taken over by the Queensland Railways in 1917. Did the staff get any extra benefits from these changes?
Greg: Yes, staff moved around the state regularly. Mind you, they did get little notice. In the case of prolonged careers at frequent intervals over many, many years, so it was literally a career for many of the railway refreshment room girls. Here at Toowoomba Station, actually, they had accommodation here at the station for the ref girls, because it was a 24-hour-a-day station and seven days a week here. From 1917 up until the Second World War, most refreshment room staff, they moved from one town to another and from one job to another. And sometimes those postings, they were short term; they could only be a few weeks or something like that. But it’s a very mobile, fluid workforce.
The ref room girls, they were actually well looked after. Now, in addition to their salaries, they received allowances for accommodation and also for board. And in many cases, accommodation was provided next to the rooms, as we spoke about here. Roma Street, there used to be accommodation there for railway refreshment room girls. They were almost organised, I guess, along CWA lines. Male visitors were not welcome.
Annette: This sounds interesting. It would be a great way to see the state, if you’re hopping from refreshment room to refreshment room all along the railway lines.
Greg: It certainly was. And you think about it, especially for careers for young girls, it was hard work, but it was an employment opportunity. And for many country families, it was important, but it was also good for the girls to be able to go out and have that experience, and to move around as well. They also had, I guess, almost like an – they did have an aura attached to them. They saw the best of people and they saw the worst of people, and they always had great stories to tell about it indeed. The ref rooms, yes, they reached the height of their popularity, basically, between the First and Second World War. At that stage, there were about 100 rooms that operated across Queensland.
Annette: I’m just interested, we’re talking about the benefits that they got. Were they paid decent as well?
Greg: Yes, for the time, because again, they would have been in the railways and state-controlled industries. For the times, they would have received a pretty good wage and everything like that, and also with the board and accommodation that was involved, it was actually considered a bit of a desirable career as well. And there was a lot of camaraderie between them, because there’s even – up until fairly recent times, you used to get inquiries – but quite a number of the refreshment room girls, as they called themselves, who by this stage were no longer girls, used to have their regular get-togethers and their reunions.
They’d be quite often from Townsville and places like that, providing little historical snippets for their gatherings. So, yes, there was certainly a real sense of camaraderie amongst them all, during the Second World War, definitely. During that time of crisis and response, they were really an integral part of the story of the Queensland Railways.
The Railway Refreshment Rooms during war time
Annette: Greg, how did they manage to supply decent meals during wartime? Was there any rationing?
Greg: Oh, yes, there was rationing throughout Australia. Everyone had to experience rationing. And so the meals themselves that were supplied by the ref rooms, there was rationing that was supplied through that. Interestingly enough, just to go back a little bit further in time, during the Great Depression, the ref rooms were actually used by the state government as a way of providing meals to those who were destitute, couldn’t afford regular meals and that. So there was an option of fairly low-cost meals that could be provided.
Another big thing in the 1930s, they pushed fresh juice, orange juice and that. People couldn’t afford or couldn’t get access to it. A lot of the ref rooms, there was a big push to supply kids with orange juice and those sorts of things, and milkshakes. Toowoomba actually had its own milkshake bar here on the platform, as part of the ref room experience. But that was, again, especially in that era, with no calcium, and basically, trying to build up healthier children and that. So milkshakes. So, all these places, they had their own little interesting dietary supplements and things like that that were added to it. Mind you, this is nearly 100 years ago, so dietary supplements were somewhat different.
But during the Second World War, the ref rooms, they supplied troops in Rockhampton. And in July of 1943, there were 35 staff there. They served 4,000 meals between 5:00 am and midnight in just one day. That was because of the number of troop trains that were moving through. That’s absolutely enormous.
Annette: Now, Greg, I have seen reports that much of the cutlery and crockery was still taken home, even with the branding. Do you have any of these stats?
Greg: I’ve gone through the annual reports, and unfortunately, no, Annette. However, I can tell you at the end of the Second World War, over 95,000 drinking vessels, that’s cups and glasses and things like that, they were lost by the Queensland Railway refreshment rooms in 1945. Mind you, they also used to take the incandescent light bulbs out of the carriages as well, because with wartime rationing, those things were just not available as well. So there was a lot of things obviously made their way into very, very private, shall we say, cutlery and crockery collections throughout Queensland.
Annette: Most people have, what do you say, an eight-place setting, by the time you have your knives and forks, your cups, your spoons, all that. Yeah, it’s a lot of place settings.
The end of the era of the Railway Refreshment Rooms
Greg: They also had food bars that were provided on western services, and really, it was the 1950s that saw the beginning of the end for the railway refreshment rooms in the 1960s. You had dining cars and air-conditioned trains with their new on-board services that Tony Watkins talks about in the present day. There was a loss of country patronage, and it was a changeover to diesels, because diesels were able to continue a through service. You didn’t have to change every 100 miles in the old currency, 120 miles of steam locomotive had to be – new locomotive put on. So it was a real change that came about with the loss of country patronage, closure of lines, the diesels, the advent of the diesels, air-conditioned trains where you can have your meal on the train as well, air-conditioned.
So what started happening from the 1960s onwards, those railway refreshment rooms, they started to close one by one, and really, by the 1970s and the 1980s, the era had really come to an end. The last of the railway refreshment rooms, as remembered, were closed here in Toowoomba. And I think one sad thing is, when you read about this, was that strong mental image. No longer did passengers jump from the train to be first served. There weren’t tea and scones to be served at isolated spots. This is Lynbrook on the Etheridge railway, and no more did children sell soft drinks while the Sunshine Express halted at Yamba in the searing afternoon heat.
Well, one interesting story did come in about Yamba and the railway refreshment room stops. My father told me a wonderful story about when he was travelling up on the train one time, and they stopped at Yamba, and he said, “Well, it was a ref room stop, so people got off.” But he, as he said, holding on to his pennies, he didn’t do that. He said it was quite interesting, because he said, “Well, everyone had decamped to go to the ref rooms or stretch their legs and that, while they had the 20, 25 minutes stop.” What had happened was the goats that happened to live there, of course, decided – and the goats were very well trained and very smart, and they used to board the train – so, they got on the carriage, and my dad was sitting there.
He said he heard this little trip-trapping, and he said a goat wandered past in the corridor, looked into his compartment and kept moving. Apparently, the goats had become used to actually helping themselves to any treats that might be on the carriage while the people had decamped and gone to the railway refreshment rooms.
Annette: Oh, very clever animals. They’re having a feast while the people are having a feast. Has there been a time you were particularly proud to work for Queensland Rail?
Interview with Tony Watkins, Food and Beverage Operations Officer, Queensland Rail
Tony: Probably, oh, look, proud-wise, as I mentioned before, doing those catering events at the refreshment rooms, whether it be the Carnival of Flowers, or helping someone through catering their wedding on a Saturday night up at Toowoomba, is just an incredible, incredible thing to be part of. When you’ve done catering or done cheffing for such a long time, it’s hard to pinpoint one particular area out, but just probably being involved with the community would probably be one of the proudest things myself can be part of.
Annette: Thank you so much for your time, Tony. It’s been great chatting with you today. And I will let you get back to all of your busy, busy day. I can see there’s a hive of activity behind you.
Tony: There always is. But you might have to come down and have a look when you’re down here in Brisbane, this neck of the woods, and come and actually have a look.
Greg: Annette will be after a sticky date pudding, so watch out.
Tony: Everyone has their favourite. I know what Greg’s favourite is; he’s a bit of a sucker for the scone and fresh jam and cream.
Annette: Or a tomato sandwich I’ve heard too.
Greg: Lamingtons.
Tony: Oh, tomato sandwich.
Greg: Oh, yes. And a good cup of tea, as you know, Tony.
Tony: Good cup of tea, yes, exactly right. As long as it’s in – it has to be in the traditional pot. Nothing beats the tea in the pot.
Greg: That’s right.
Annette: Oh, I’m definitely there. So there. Greg, can you sum up the railway refreshment rooms? What did it mean to the people of that era?
How important were the Railway Refreshment Rooms for passengers?
Greg: I think looking back at the story of the railway refreshment rooms, Annette, is that it was such a – for people, for railway journeys in that era, it was that entire thing of a three-course meal in 20 minutes. And you think about it in this day and age, that people are told about bolting their food and that. But it wasn’t such the big struggle because it was sized to measure. So the portions that were handed out and everything like that, they were actually doled out, or it was put aside in such a way that you could – there was no overfeeding or anything like that – but you could get through the three courses and everything like that.
One of my favourite things, though, is actually here at Toowoomba Station, it’s this huge colander, a stainless steel one, and that was basically for cabbage. So, there must have been a lot of cabbage that they used on those trains as well. And I think the other thing too with the railway refreshment rooms, it’s remarkable where these places turned up. On the south coast line, Bethania, on the line to Beaudesert and the south coast, Bethania Junction had its own railway refreshment room as well. And even places like Biggenden. Biggenden, as I said, on the old Monto branch, it had a very small tea room that was set up. Esk, on the Brisbane Valley line, it had its own railway refreshment rooms and tea rooms as well. So, it’s remarkable where these places sprang up, and for the need for people. Obviously, you’re travelling by train, and long and hungry journeys and that. And it seemed to be a very civilised way to take your meal on those very long train journeys.
John Kerr in Triumph of Narrow Gauge gave a wonderful description of the crush and the rush, and almost like pandemonium that was experienced at railway refreshment room stops. And also about what could happen if certain patrons opted to go beyond the railway platform to get their refreshments. “Despite the best efforts of the railway refreshment room staff and Stationmaster, time allowed at railway refreshment room stations were exceeded at busy times. Now, on the instructions from the station master serving at the counters and bars, it all ceased when the train was due to leave. But even so, passengers held doors open, or reopened them to ensure that all follow passengers joined the train, sometimes accompanied by much shouting by the station staff and whistle blowing by the guards. At some places, passengers visited shops or hotels that were close to the station to avoid the crush at the railway refreshment room, and to be sure of obtaining some refreshment, and carriage doors had to be held open for those people who came rushing back to the station.”
Annette: I am interested, Greg, so we know that there’s still the relics of a refreshment room here at Toowoomba. Are there any others left standing?
Greg: It’s interesting. Yes, Rockhampton used to have its own ref rooms, but overall most of it’s gone now and they started disappearing from the 1960s because when you see the railway station plans and photographs, they’re almost separate. There was a good reason for that. You read about a lot of fires at railway stations were caused by railway refreshment rooms. Dalby was burnt down, I think, around about 1930 and replaced by a lovely big concrete station. That was because a fire started in the railway refreshment room and burnt out the station. So, you do regularly read these stories about stoves left unattended and everything like that.
So yes, it’s very much disappeared, yet it is interesting, the crockery and that does turn up and even part of my job, you’ll get an email through from someone with a photograph and what is it – and there you see, the three Rs, or the railway refreshment room with the – and you’ll see actually on it, basically, some form of crown on it. It could be King George VI or it could be – it could be for Queen Elizabeth, or there’ll be some little crown or marking on it that indicates when they were issued. They’ve turned up somehow, and the people have said, “What is it?” You say what is it, and more importantly how did you get it? And there’s always some story behind it, but we’re not quite sure.
Annette: I bet they all come from the thrift store.
Greg: Yes.
Conclusion
Annette: Thank you for listening to our podcast today. A special thank-you to Tony Watkins for sharing about his time in the Toowoomba Railway Refreshment Room and his current role with Queensland Rail. If our talks of sticky date pudding have got your cravings going, why not book a trip on board one of our long-distance rail services? Discover more of what Queensland has to offer. Head to queenslandrailtravel.com.au. Remember, we love hearing from our listeners, and invite you to connect with us via the Queensland Rail Facebook or Instagram accounts. We’ll see you next time for another episode of the Queensland Rail History podcast.