Episode description
In 1914, Queensland Railways launched a garden competition to encourage railway staff to beautify the stations with colourful flowers and plants, and to grow fruits and vegetables.
The Commissioner for Queensland Railways at the time, Colonel Charles Evans, introduced the prize to also allow for employees to demonstrate their pride in their workplaces – not only railway stations but also locomotive depots, railway workshops, and workplaces in general.
In today’s episode, we chat with Station Master, Glen Currie who is based at Kuranda station in Cairns – one of the last great survivors of this garden competition. Glen shares with us some of the interesting plants on display at Kuranda and the tale of a unique guest who feasted on the station’s garden.
Listen to the episode
Podcast transcript
Introduction
Annette: Hello, and welcome to the sixth episode of the Queensland Rail History podcast. I'm Annette and I'm so glad you can join us today to talk about the beautiful gardens of times past at Queensland rail stations. In 1914, Queensland Railways launched a garden competition to encourage railway staff to beautify the stations with colourful flowers and plants, and to grow fruits and vegetables. The Commissioner for Queensland Railways at the time, Colonel Charles Evans, introduced a prize to also allow for employees to demonstrate their pride in the workplace. Not only railway stations, but also locomotive depots, railway workshops and workplaces in general.
“Some people say they've never seen a station like it. I've had other people tell me that every station should look like this, you know, and should be beautified."
“Be that as it may, we in common with the whole community, hail with pleasure the inauguration of the railway in Queensland."
Let's welcome Queensland Rail historian, Greg Hallam, to chat about how it came to fruition, or rather blossom.
Greg: Good morning Annette, lovely to hear from you and see you again as well. I'm quite looking forward to having our chat today. I guess it'll be a case of not quite being blooming wonderful or anything like that. And we'll just see what sprouts from our conversation. And hopefully at the end of this we won't have to leave with too many worries or questions as well anyhow.
Annette: Now Greg, I have a question for you. What are your gardening skills or experience?
Greg: Annette, I'm basically along the lines of the railway navvies. I'm very good at excavating and shovelling things aside. But propagations and things like that, not so great with that sort of thing. Then again, I do love my roses. And as I said, I do love the old – I love the poppies and things like that, and the azaleas and other such things. But seeing we're also asking each other these questions about our gardening prowess, how good are you in the garden?
Annette: Greg, I cannot garden. I can kill mint. I tell you, I kill mint. The unkillable, the noxious weed, I kill it.
Greg: All right. Well, hopefully when we talk about these things today, we won't talk about killing things; we'll talk about making things beautiful and blooming anyway.
The beginning, growing plants in the Queensland climate
Okay, Annette. Well, I guess a good place to start is always at the beginning. And I'll take us back to that. Perhaps in this day and age we may not actually associate railways and gardens and things like that with ideas of beautification. But it actually goes very much hand in glove, or perhaps gardening glove, as the case may be, with the Queensland Railways. I'll take you back to June of 1871 at the Acclimatisation Society of Queensland. The Acclimatisation Society, Annette, was actually a body that had been set up, and their role was actually to bring in plants and all sorts of – well, it was plants, botanical specimens and that.
The idea was actually to try and grow them in our Queensland climate. And they were going to see what could take, you know, what would grow, what could propagate and that. So they're bringing things in from literally all around the world. And if you're ever down in Brisbane near Bowen Park, which is just near the Royal Brisbane Hospital, there's actually still part of the Acclimatisation gardens that are set there, just on Bowen Bridge Road. And a lot of the plantings that took place there were actually done as experiments. So the Acclimatisation Society had actually had a fair amount of, I guess you'd say horticultural clout at the time and everything like that. So in 1871, it actually entered into an arrangement with the Queensland Government, and as a result, the Queensland Railways. And their job was to plant shade trees along the railway line between Ipswich and Toowoomba. The idea was that it would provide shade for the traveller. Grandchester, they'd also planted these magnificent plane trees, and they were called – as I say the botanical name, I'll have a crack at it, platanus orientalis, anyway. Plane trees. That's P-L-A-N-E. And they'd been planted in 1871. One interesting thing, Annette, was that, believe it or not, 140 years on, some of these trees still survive today down at Spring Bluff, near Toowoomba on the main range railway. So they're really great survivors. And they're, as I said – maybe not when they lose their leaves and things like that – but some of the great survivors of that era.
Annette: So these trees, are they native trees, or some that were imported?
Greg: That's a really good question, as always, Annette. But the trees were actually brought in, they were propagated. They were brought in from different climates all around the world. So the plane tree is another variety of a thing called the London plane tree. L-O-N-D-O-N. But they were actually brought in from all around the world. And the idea was to try and see what could take to our climate here, and what could grow and what could propagate and things like that. So when you think cottage gardens and trees and everything like that, the botanical gardens, it's all part of that story, which was basically to try and incorporate a softening of what was very much an industrial landscape, when you think about the railways, Annette.
Annette: Another question quickly. You said they were planted to make shade for the travellers. Did they actually shade the trains as they went through?
Greg: That's another good one, Annette. Oh, you're on fire today. I like this. They did provide a lot of shade. When you look at photographs in the early 20th century now, around 1915 at Grandchester and that, it's really a case you can't see the station except for the trees that's there. It's quite interesting, just the size of the trees and everything like that that they do have. The trees are all gone now, of course, but they did provide a lot of shade. It was also a way of – basically, they were concerned about very dusty environments as well. I guess if you're sitting out waiting for a train in the middle of a Queensland summer or something like that, you would like something to get under. If you can't get under some shade somewhere, you know, a tree might help soften the landscape for you, make the journey a bit more amenable, I think was the term they used to use back then.
But anyway, yes, so that was the plane trees. And it really took off in 1876, if memory serves me correct. They had that initial approach, the Acclimatisation Society in 1871. But the beautifying with vegetation, it really began, really propagated, really took, 1876. They had 174 new trees and shrubs that were planted at various stations on the Southern and Western Railway. So, not only were they going for trees and the like, but they started even working with shrubs. So it was a little bit of Monty Python and the Holy Grail as well, give us a lovely new shrub as well.
Annette: So what was planned and planted to make the stations more attractive to the traveller?
Greg: It was an interesting little experimental program. Again, it was seeing what could grow in the Queensland climate. Basically, what would be the one – quite literally, would be a case of being beneficial. And the ones, I guess, as well, too, just to experiment continually and say, well, this will give good shade or this will strike really well. So there was a fair amount of experimentation that was going on with it at that stage, Annette.
Gardening in the community
Annette: Was this gardening and beautification work being done in isolation, or was it the start of something bigger in the community at the time?
Greg: That's a good question, Annette. The 1914, the gardening competition was launched to encourage railway staff to beautify the stations with colourful plants, flowers and also to grow fruit and vegetables. And there was a wider community movement at this stage as well to – basically, that was to look to beautify, to prettify, to actually encourage people to grow gardens and things like that. It was a very big social movement. The Commissioner's garden competition came out from that background as well. Now, the Commissioner for Queensland Railways at the time was Colonel Charles Evans. He introduced the railway prize. That was to allow for employees to demonstrate their pride in their workplaces as well. So it was not only railway stations, but it also included locomotive depots, railway workshops and workplaces in general. So it was very much across the entire railway to help propagate, to beautify, and also to soften the railway landscape.
Pride and status
Annette: Was it kind of a status symbol too?
Greg: Yes, it was. Actually, that's a really good one too, Annette. There was a lot of pride that came into it as well. We might touch on that a little bit later on as we go. But it was very much – it was a status symbol and there was also a real pride in making these places look good to the visitor. Also for the railway worker themselves, basically, you think about a big industrial environment – I'm thinking big railway workshops like Rockhampton, Townsville, places like Maryborough, Ipswich, of course. To have that element of a garden or to have that garden there to help soften that railway landscape, that was a very important thing, it was felt, to help really for when you think about people's health and things like that as well, to try and soften what was pretty hard, dusty and dirty industrial landscapes.
Annette: So, very much a bloomin' success?
Greg: Yes, unfortunately, yes, that's one of my terrible puns, I know. But yes, it was actually a bloomin' success. One of the things that surprises when you have a look at it, is how quickly it was taken up. It was embraced by the entire railway organisation. We're talking across the state, from everywhere. When you think of railways from Normanton to Croydon, Cooktown to Laura, lines out from Townsville and places like that or the Southern line, the Western lines, a lot of country branch lines. It was taken on fairly quickly and a lot of employees seemed to take a lot of pride in that as well. So it was quite remarkable. You look at photographs coming from that period, from about 1914 onwards, and you can actually see the influence of that garden competition literally making its appearance on the railway landscape throughout Queensland.
Introduction to Kuranda Stationmaster, Glenn Currie
Annette: We also welcome Kuranda Stationmaster, Glenn Currie, as our special guest as he talks through his experience with Queensland Rail. Glenn, welcome to our podcast. What was it about Kuranda that makes it special to you?
Glenn: Thanks very much, Annette. Well, Kuranda, as you know, is an internationally renowned station. So people come from all over the world to travel up the Barron Gorge from Cairns to Kuranda, just to come and visit us up here and to take in our beautiful gardens, hanging pot plants and that sort of stuff. Before COVID hit a couple of years ago, we were actually welcoming 400,000 people a year. So it's just nice to have all those people come up to visit us, I suppose.
Annette: That's fantastic. 400,000 people. That is – wow! For someone who doesn't know about Kuranda Station, can you tell us about the location and the significance of the place?
Glenn: The Kuranda Station is about 34 kilometres west of Cairns. And the line was built through Kuranda to access the Tablelands back in the early 1900s. And that was to bring tin from the different small towns around the Tablelands, like Irvinebank and that, back down to the port of Cairns. So that's why the line was built in the first place. And nowadays, it's more of a tourism thing. So, like I said, people come up to visit the Kuranda Station because it is so world-renowned.
Annette: Yes, we've actually done a podcast on Kuranda and it celebrated its 130th birthday last year. So that's amazing to think that it's gone from a tin delivery train to a tourist attraction that is world-renowned.
Glenn: Yes, that is correct, yes. So also, back in those days, of course, this line was a lifeline to the Tablelands. So there was a lot of stuff that was moved down from the Tablelands. A lot of produce and a lot of cattle, maize and peanuts and that sort of stuff as well.
Annette: Yes, it delivered everything; took everything back up for the guys as well. How big is the garden, and are there any important plants or garden features that are worthy of a mention?
Glenn: We've got gardens on both platforms and there's some pretty big garden beds at the end of both buildings on the Kuranda platforms, as well as all our hanging pots and our pot plants that are underneath the eaves. So there's a lot of garden to look after. And probably the one that I like the most is on the number two platform, there's a king fern that was just outside the ticket office. And if you look at all the old photos that are taken of the Kuranda Station, and photos that were taken from that end of the building, it features in a lot of those photos. So it's been there for a long, long time. And last year when we had Gardening Australia up with us, they actually found another king fern that's up near the staff meal room. And I was told that that's actually a foundation plant, so it would be over 100 years old. And I think it's very important for those two plants in particular that we look after them and we showcase them to our customers.
Annette: That's amazing to think that you've got plants there that are over 100 years old. Just wow! The thing that gets me is, do you feel the pressure now? It's like, “Oh, these plants have lived 100 years. I've really got to look after them."
Glenn: I do. I really do. I remember a couple of years ago, particularly the foundation plant, we had a garden contractor and they were cleaning up that area and he actually wanted to remove that plant. And I said, “Oh, no, just leave that one alone." And I'm so glad now that I did make that decision. So, yes, the pressure's on all right.
Appreciation
Annette: Was the hard work in making the stations and other railway places appreciated?
Greg: Oh, yes, Annette. For people who are starting off from bare earth in this day and age, landscaping their own homes, the employees of those times past, they'd be very much in common with them. There's a very interesting account from 1931, and that was at Churchill Station, and that was on the old Fassifern Valley line, which ran from Ipswich to Boonah or Dugandan, a little bit further down. Back in 1931, they had this glowing review of what the grounds looked like and it was called the beauty spot. It's rich flower wealth at the Churchill Station garden, and it was absolutely remarkable.
I'll just read out what was recorded in the papers of the day. The newspapers went into a lot of effort to record the work of the railway employees that went into it. They said, “A fine illustration of what can be done with a few flower seeds, unending enthusiasm, plenty of energy and initiative was provided just now by a visit to the Churchill Railway Station. It's a lovely beauty spot. It's aglow with the colours of the rainbow and a great profusion of well-cultured flowers in season." The garden is the work of the gardener, who was Mr. Cesarago, I think it was. And he'd been in charge of the Churchill Station for just over two years. So this is only in two years, he put so much effort into it. At that time, the grounds of the station previously, having little floral decoration, were turned into a bright splash of colour. And that won the admiration of all travellers by rail or road. So there you go, Annette. As you said, thinking about that little bit of tourism associated with flowers. So the people obviously responded well to it.
Annette: I'll tell you what, Greg, I definitely don't have a green thumb. They would be paying me to stay away from their plants.
Greg: Well, that's why they had railway gardeners as well too, Annette.
Annette: When you think of the gardens and the railway competition, are there any places that really stand out to you in the story?
Kuranda station
Greg: Well, the two big ones, of course, will be Kuranda and Spring Bluff. Glenn Currie, when you talk about Glenn today, he's like a greenkeeper in a way, isn't he, a garden keeper. And he's one of those people who basically are keeping so much of the history alive and everything like that. Kuranda Station, it was – it's unique because it is entirely based around tropical vegetation. So the station became famous for the use of tropical plants, especially orchids; and it created – a lot of people used to call it a jungle on a railway platform. Now, the work was principally that of the Stationmaster, Albert Wickham. Wickham died in 1936 and his obituary explained he'd taken up the role of Stationmaster in October of 1918. So it's a couple of years, Annette, after the actual formal institution of the Commissioner's garden prize. He was described as a lover of plants. So there you go, stationmaster, must love plants.
And he first entered the gardens competition in 1919. So that's about five years after the competition really began throughout Queensland. When you look at the early photographs of Kuranda, it's bare concrete. It's a bare concrete station. So, they did it to soften the place. It eventually went on and became the championship prize winner for the whole of the state, but that was after 1932. So, having a look at it, Annette, there's about 13 years of hard work that went into it before it became that grand champion throughout Queensland.
Spring Bluff station
The other great survivor is, of course, Spring Bluff. And you look at photographs and pictures of Spring Bluff from the 1860s onwards, or Highfields as it was called. Again, it's a bit of a spot. There ain't too much green there. There's trees and that, but it really came about in the 1930s and 40s.
That was the Stationmaster, who was Ralph Kersop there, and his wife, Lillian. And don't forget, when we think about the railway gardens, you're looking at it really like a team effort. Not only the stationmaster, but a lot of the times their wives, who were with them; the fettlers or gangers who were there attached to these stations as well; it was pretty much a big effort by everyone to make it great and make it bloom. So there was Ralph, Lillian, the night officers. They removed 50 tonnes – that's 50 tonnes – of stone and gravel. They did that in a wheelbarrow. And they'd levelled all the foundations. They actually removed a bank 100 metres long and six metres high for a better perspective, so people could actually have a better look over the gardens. They did this all manually. They did it in their own time as well too.
They terraced the whole garden and they used 120 tonnes of bluestone, as it was called. And that was actually supplied by the Queensland Railway Department. Bluestone or blue metal, Annette, is the railway ballast. So the railway ballast that you see on the sleepers and the rails and things like that, that's what you got. So 120 tonnes of that, thank you very much, to help level the site and terrace it and everything like that. They planted thousands of Iceland poppies, roses, bulbs, azaleas, sweet peas and tulips. We're talking thousands of these things, and they planted them off their own bat. Now, they did an investigation, and the employees at Spring Bluff, they put in 22,000 person hours of work into that – I won't call it man hours – I'll call it person hours of work.
And their efforts were rewarded with first prize in the Southern Division for at least nine years. So the different divisions of the Queensland Railways, there was the Northern Division on Townsville, Central Division on Rocky, Southern Division alternated; at one stage you had Brisbane, Toowoomba, but Toowoomba became its own division. So it actually got nine years in a row there in the Southern Division. And interestingly enough, fairly late in the piece, 1967, Queensland Railway actually required railway employees at Spring Bluff to participate in the upkeep of the gardens. So if you're appointed as stationmaster or you're appointed to a station role there, night officer or whatever at Spring Bluff, guess what? Part of your job description is involved in the upkeep of the gardens.
Annette: Again, they would take that out of my PD and say, please don't go near our plants.
Greg: Oh, well, you never know something. Well, it could grow on you if you're appointed there, I suppose, as well.
Maintaining Kuranda's gardens
Annette: Kuranda is really the last great survivor of the former gardens competition. Is it a big job to keep such an attractive display looking so good?
Glenn: It is a big job. And before COVID, or just as COVID hit – we normally have garden contractors that come in and do look after the gardens for us – just as COVID hit, the contract was up, so we didn't have any contractor in to do that work. So myself and the other staff, we took on that work for about 18 months, I suppose, looking after all the gardens and the lawns and everything. And it is a big job, particularly for people like ourselves that aren't really gardeners. So we sort of learned as we went along. But like I said, nowadays, we've got contractors that come in and look after it. But myself and the other staff, we still look after –helping out with watering and repotting plants. And if something's not looking real well, we'll put it down in the greenhouse and replace it until it's starting to look better, and move things around so everything looks beautiful all the time.
Annette: I love that you look after the plants. Like, if they're not doing so great, they can have a couple of days off until – rest and recuperate.
Glenn: Yes, we all need a couple of days off.
Annette: And they can sit back up the top.
Glenn: That's right.
Annette: Are there any parts of the garden or surrounds at Kuranda that are your personal favourite?
Glenn: Like I said before, that king fern's probably my personal favourite, because it's been there so long and because you do get to see it in a lot of the old photos that people have taken. I've got photos on the walls down at the station there. And a lot of them do feature that king fern. And then, like I said, that other king fern that they tell me is over 100 years old; well, it's become a personal favourite of mine as well now.
Annette: Definitely. It's nice to know that there's something older than us around, right?
Glenn: Yes, that's right.
Annette: What about the people who visit on the KSR service? Do they generally gravitate to one particular area or is it really spread out and moving around?
Glenn: Well, they probably – a lot of people just take the time to walk around the station and take in all the plants. So we get a lot of great feedback. I get people from all over the world telling me, “Wow, I didn't expect this." And some people will say they've never seen a station like it. And I've had other people tell me that every station should look like this, instead of – should be beautified. And the other good thing is we get a lot of avid gardeners that come down and they'll take their time and look around and everything. And they actually give us some handy tips too, on what we should be doing to make the plants look a little bit better.
Annette: Over the years, have you encountered any interesting or funny stories in relation to the gardens at Kuranda?
Glenn: Actually, a lot has been written about the Kuranda Station and the Kuranda gardens over the years. So I've read a couple of articles, one that said that the gardens were started soon after the building was built in 1915. And this particular article I was reading talks about a gentleman by the name of Harold Austin, who was a porter many years ago here for a long time at Kuranda. And apparently he added to and looked after the gardens; and probably one of the main reasons they are what they are today should be credited to that particular gentleman.
And a funny story I read, sorry, about the station is, a fair few years ago, there was an Assistant Stationmaster here by the name of Alf Ingalls. And he talks about the Cooktown orchids that used to grow outside of the Stationmaster's office. And a lot of people would come to the station just to have a look at these Cooktown orchids. And back in the days when we had steam trains, they used to take on water here in Kuranda. So this particular day, they had the circus train coming through, and the train pulled into number one platform and stopped to take on water for the steam loco. And where the train had pulled up was the elephant's coach, and it's an open-aired coach. And they tell me that the elephant threw his trunk out and grabbed the Cooktown orchids and ate them. So when people had come down to have a look at the Cooktown orchids, and they weren't there, and they asked Alf what happened to them, and he told them the story, they wouldn't believe it. They'd say, “Oh, pull the other one."
Annette: Oh, dear. An elephant has eaten our orchids. Yes, you can understand, no one's going to believe that.
Glenn: No.
Annette: Are you proud of the role of being the station master at Kuranda?
Glenn: I am proud of the role. It's an iconic role, I reckon. There's been a lot of knowledgeable and proud railway men over the years that have held this role. And I think it's important that there is a stationmaster in Kuranda, being a Heritage listed station, that they keep that position in place. A lot of people, when they think about a railway station, they think about the stationmaster. And there's not too many stationmasters outside the Brisbane suburban area anymore. There's only my position and another position down in Proserpine. So yes, I am very proud to hold this position. And I think it's important that after I retire, that this position is still here for the next person to come along and take it by the reins.
Annette: Glenn, thank you so much for joining us today. It's been lovely to hear your tales and your experience on the Kuranda Station as Stationmaster.
Glenn: Thank you, Annette. I've really enjoyed it today. Thank you very much.
Support from Queensland Railways
Annette: Did the Queensland Railways help the keen gardeners and other green thumbs with their gardening efforts?
Greg: Yes, they did. I guess it's one of those things, if you green it, they will come, sort of thing. Of if you build a garden, they will come. But yes, they actually did provide almost like a support or backup – not money; a lot of this was done by the people themselves. If you think about during the Depression era and things like that, there's not much money to go around. They'd go around and literally be given things, so they'd go scrounging for things as well, to propagate the gardens. But in some cases, you're thinking in country Queensland, this is in the era before reticulated water they were dependent on tank water and things like that, Annette.
So in cases they'd transport water in special wagons solely for the use of staff, and again they were very frugal in the use of water, and especially – they'd use watering cans and it was really waterwise culture, they'd call it in this day and age. But you get – you might be – the railways said they'd send out a wagon or something like that on a train that used to drop off water wagons along the way at various stations for the gangs, for the fettling gangs and that. But if you were lucky too, then you'd get a wagon allocated to you to help propagate and to help grow, especially during dry times and things like that.
Annette: Do you know if the gardens were well thought out? Did they use drought tolerable plants?
Greg: Yes, that's another good one. We'll go back to that story from Churchill. And I think the story – Churchill station that used to be on the old Fassifern Valley line, as we spoke about before, from Ipswich to Boonah and Dugandan is a good example. It's when they ran a story, about 1931, it was headlined 'Handicaps overcome' and it said, “This credible achievement has been won in the face of severe handicaps. The site of the station necessitated a western aspect for the garden." So for gardeners out there, the last thing you want is your garden facing west into the setting sun and everything like that. “But skilful planning has afforded some protection to the flowers, which just now, they show now ill effects from vicious westerlies." So we're looking at – this was what, September, I'm thinking August, the westerly winds that come through in August and that. So, obviously, even with the vicious westerlies, as they spoke about, there were no ill effects.
Water wasn't being laid on, and that was another handicap for the station staff there. “All water is jealously conserved in half tanks that were sunk in suitable places to make the task of hand watering daily less arduous." So again, there was a lot of planning went into it, and again, very mindful of the climate and things like that. You're looking at the Depression era here in 1931 too, Annette, so there's not much to go around. There's no money to be had. And a lot of this has been done by themselves. But again, you can see the thought and the planning that went into it. Small places like Churchill there, and of course, the larger stations I'm thinking about eventually, like Roma Street with the Rose Gardens there. They were well thought out. There was actually a gardening concept that went with it. It was like a plotting and planning that went into a lot of the big stations. And again, for the ordinary stationmasters out in the sticks or something like that, they put their thought, and they put their planning into how it was to be presented and things like that. It was a culture that was propagated very well.
Annette: More puns, Greg, more puns.
Greg: Oh well, you've got to grow on these things, Annette.
Victory gardens
Annette: Oh, dear. Were there any times when the gardens competition wasn't helped?
Greg: Yes, that's a really good one. I'm trying to think about it. The Second World War. You have a look in this day and age, back in – during the Second World War – in 1942, there was a special appeal that was made to grow more vegetables than cotton – we come back to cotton again – where the climate was suitable. And a special prize was offered for plots dedicated to the victory gardens. The victory gardens were set up during the Second World War and that was to encourage people to grow their own vegetables, because of rationing that was going on during the Second World War during the defence of Australia and things like that. So, the victory gardens were your plots, and virtually anywhere you could grow vegetables or fruit, you'd set up a garden plot to try and grow potatoes, onions. These things were in short supply because of rationing and things like that. So, what happened with the railways, they then turned over a lot of the garden plots.
So, it actually became more of these victory plots. So, not necessarily you want your iceberg roses or your azaleas or your poppies or things like that; you probably want your spuds, you want your onions, you want your carrots and things like that to be grown as well. So, Second World War, they actually – the gardener, I guess you'd say the gardener's prize went to – because of the war effort, but they're encouraging people then actually to go over more to growing these things for the victory gardens. It wasn't such a big thing then for the ornamental side. I guess you'd say it's more a utilitarian side that went with it as well. So, that was it. And the – that was about the major time, and it was during the Second World War, the defence of Australia and that. Otherwise, it was remarkable how long it did continue for. And when you think, the official competition from about 1940 on, it's quite remarkable. Went through war, depression, droughts, floods, everything. It kept sprouting.
Changing landscapes
Annette: So, what did ever happen to the gardening competition?
Greg: Sadly, with the march of time, with the changes in the railway environment, with the growth of, I guess you'd say different technologies and with the change in the industry and that, because there wasn't such a requirement any longer for people to be in these places, to be the stationmasters, with fettling gangs and things like that. So, as people were withdrawn and the railway landscape changed around them, so did the garden landscape. So, it became more concentrated. And with line closures beginning in the 1960s especially, a lot of these places that had the little railway gardens, your places like Churchill, out on the Churchill branch, 1964 the line closes. A lot of the country stations as well, the line closes, of course the station disappears. And with it went the gardens as well. The competition lasted until the 1980s, but it really came to an end by 1990. And that was primarily with – it just became a much, much smaller competition. There was less interest I guess, you'd suppose, you'd say as well.
But although the formal competition disappeared, you've still got these two great survivors. And that's Spring Bluff, which is run through the Spring Bluff Main Range Trust in this day and age. And then, of course, you've got Glen Currie's – the wonderful, best way – the inheritor, the inheritor of the tropical garden there in Kuranda. So you've got these examples there. But as I was talking about before there, it's the vestiges, it's what survives that shows where these things were. I just mentioned those earlier on, but again, it's fruit trees, mango trees. And you can go to so many places in Queensland – and I guess as a historian of the Queensland railways, it's something that always strikes me. I'll be going somewhere and I can pull over somewhere and you look for the traces of where the railway used to be. You might see the evidence of the formation. You might see dog spikes here and there.
But the thing that still stands out to me today – and that's the thing – it's not so much, I guess you'd say, the timber, the relics and things like that, but it's the plantings that went on there. It's those mango trees that's out there; it's those bush lemon trees; it's even lilies. And you can go to certain places and you'll find just a lily sitting there or something like that. That's a bit of a giveaway that once upon a time there was a garden there, or there was some little railway settlement that was there as well. And just to finish off with, Annette, oh, well, that's the story of the railway garden competition, Railway Commissioner and that.
Roma Street Gardens
One final thing is, in the days when the Roma Street Gardens, where the Forum is now and where so much of cross river rail is going through, but the fantastic gardens that were there, the incredible annual displays, the roses and things like that. Apparently the gardeners, especially in the springtime, they used to enjoy taking them up to the places like Rail Centre 1 and things like that, the railway offices, and leaving them for a lot of secretaries and people like that. And they'd always like taking all the cut flowers and things like that. Added a lovely fresh floral display to the place. Many years ago I was out – and I was out in a place called Mount Perry, where the old railway line closed about 1960/'61. There's one or two locations along there and you can see obviously where they planted grapes. And guess what? Those grape vines are still there today. And it's an interesting form. It's not the grapes that we have today; it's ones from the early 20th century, like what's grown.
But I really like that because, courtesy of those hardworking railway people, I remember one very warm day I was able to pull up, not only having a cup of tea there, but I was able to pluck off a couple of bunches of grapes planted by railway workers of the past and enjoy the feast. So, you know, that was about – even 30 years on after the railway had gone, guess what? I can still have a good feed of grapes, courtesy of the railway gardens competition.
Conclusion
Annette: We just want to thank you for listening to today's episode. A huge thank you to our special guest, Glen Currie. If you have any questions about our history, please message us on the Queensland Rail Instagram or Facebook accounts. We'd love to hear from you what you love about the podcast, and what you'd like us to feature on a future episode. You've been listening to the Queensland Rail History podcast, hosted by Greg and myself, Annette.