Episode description
In this episode, we talk about how over a century ago, Queensland and the Queensland Railways found themselves thrust into a great conflict. When it began in 1914, it seemed literally half a world away yet within four short years would have a devastating effect on the lives of many people in Queensland.
Few people today understand the great contribution that was made by Queensland Railways during the two major conflicts of the twentieth century. Whilst our involvement is relatively well known during the Second World War, the activity of the Great War is lesser known. The role of the Queensland Railways at this time was to provide volunteer enlistment, patriotic support, and a vehicle to transport, and recruit for the Australian war effort. Throughout Queensland, recruitment trains travelled to places such as Wallumbilla, Warwick, Barcaldine, and many other distant towns and stations, encouraging men to sign up and serve their country. News of the war was conveyed by train. Wounded soldiers, and returning troops made many of their journeys home by train.
Our Hosts, Annette and Queensland Rail Historian, Greg Hallam, talk about how the Queensland Railways commemorated the great conflict in quiet places, and in noisy ones along the Queensland lines, with beautiful ‘Honour Boards’ that recognised the loss and impact on so many families in Queensland.
We also hear from Dale McDonald, Assets Manager, Central West who has overseen the refurbishment and conservation work on a remarkable survivor of Queensland Railways from the First World, the Rockhampton station Honour Board.
Listen to the episode
Podcast transcript
Introduction
Annette: Good day. I am Annette, and always, it’s great to have you along with us for another episode of the Queensland Rail History podcast. Today, we’ll talk about some of the lone survivors of another time of over a century ago, when railway stations played host to symbols of grief and remembrance for a great war that left an indelible mark on many people throughout Queensland. We’ll also talk with Dale McDonald, Asset Supervisor, Central West, based in Rockhampton, who has worked to conserve and protect the Rockhampton station honour board.
Dale: Well, my hope is that once it is brought back to life and been displayed for the public to actually see about the time when these people gave, in many cases, their lives to fight for what was in those days the Empire, but basically to defend their country.
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: As always, I am here again with Greg Hallam, Queensland Rail historian. Today we chat about how Queensland Railways were involved in the Great War, as it was known, or the First World War, and how these honour boards came about. Good day, Greg.
Greg: It’s good to be back here again, Annette, with our story today about the honour boards. I think it’ll be a time of reflection and remembrance.
The importance of the First World War to the Queensland Railways
Annette: Why was the period of 1914-18 so important in the story of the Queensland Railways, and how did it become involved in a conflict half a world away?
Greg: Yes, Annette, few people today understand the great contribution that was made by Queensland Railways during two major conflicts of the 20th century. Now, whilst our involvement is relatively well known during the Second World War, the activity of the Great War is lesser known. The role of the Queensland Railways at this time was to provide volunteer enlistment, patriotic support, and literally to provide a vehicle to transport and recruit for the Australian war effort. Throughout Queensland, recruitment trains travelled to places such as Wallumbilla, Warwick, Barcaldine, and many other far-flung towns and stations, encouraging men to sign up and serve their country. The war seemed far away for many people in Queensland, and news of much of the tragic conflict, it was conveyed by train. Wounded soldiers, returning soldiers made many of their journeys home by train, and many of these never recovered from the trauma of the front line.
Annette: Were the Queensland Railways prepared for the crucial role they were to play in the war half a world away?
Greg: Not in the beginning, perhaps even not at the end. Queensland Railways saw itself in the Great War as a loyalist, patriotic, and foremost important contributor to the call of arms of those years. Over 3,300 enlisted, out of a workforce of about 13,000. Supply of new and replacement material and equipment was reduced to a trickle by the demands of the war effort, and that was from overseas. Work planned on expanding the railway system was postponed until after the armistice of 1918. And Annette, an indication of how this war affected the Queensland Railways was by the war’s end 25% of the locomotive fleet was laid up, awaiting repairs and overhaul. Work had to be postponed due to the shortages of materials, and literally, workers to do the work.
Annette: We are here in Toowoomba today, and I am trying to imagine what the scene would have been like in 1917, for instance. What would I have seen that let me know there was a war on?
Greg: Yes, Queensland railway network hadn’t actually been completed or patchworked together or unified. It would have not been through state operations such as the troop trains that we saw in the Second World War that operated between Brisbane and Cairns, or into the western parts of the state. Now, it’s interesting that we talk about Toowoomba, because one of the main centres of movement during the period of 1915 to 1918 was the then interstate link between Brisbane to Toowoomba to Warwick, Wallangarra, and then on to Sydney. There is just one example, for instance; on 24 November 1914, 26 officers and then 759 troops of the 15th Battalion, 4th Infantry Brigade, they left from Enoggera and then they travelled via Toowoomba to Wallangarra, and then they transhipped into New South Wales and ultimately overseas.
Annette: So, we’ve talked previously about the Second World War and how railway employees were exempt. Were railway employees allowed to enlist in the First World War?
Greg: Yes, similar to many in Australia at the time, the pressures to enlist were very strong. But the railways really needed to cope with a situation whereby loan money sourced from Britain was not available to carry out work or maintenance, and what they had to talk about was economies, that certain economies would need to be practised. There was actually a vicious spiral, Annette, which many at the outbreak of the Great War, they just weren’t prepared for. It’s a war that seemed seemingly so far away that it actually ultimately had a big impact on the operation of the railways here in Queensland. And actually, it would make that impact through the depletion of staff, resources and finances.
Interview with Dale McDonald, Assets Supervisor, Central Queensland
Annette: Dale, can you tell us a little bit about your current role and responsibilities?
Dale: Yes, my current role with Queensland Rail Regional Facilities is the maintenance and supervision of the building assets in the central west area. So I look after from the north coastline, from Mount Larcom in the south through to St. Lawrence in the north; and then the central west line out to as far as Winton. We’ve got our stations, our depots, residences, quarters, trackside buildings. So yes, there’s a variety of different types of assets, all with their own different needs. I’ve been with Queensland Rail for quite a long time. I started in 1977 in the Rockhampton workshops as an apprentice carpenter. I was in the workshops until 2005.
After I finished my apprenticeship, I worked as a tradesman carpenter there for all those years and really enjoyed the time there. I’ve seen a lot of changes over those times. I started off in ‘77; it was still very much the days of production of cabinetry and furniture and joinery in the Rocky workshops. So there was a variety of work, good quality work, because we still had timber carriages back in those days and timber wagons. There was a lot of work done with the timber trades in those days.
Annette: So, I’m just wondering, do you walk around now and go, “I built that, I built that, I built that"?
Dale: Well, strange as it seems, I think that does happen, yes.
The Rockhampton railway employees honour board
Annette: Can you tell us about your involvement in the refurbishment of the Rockhampton railway employees honour board?
Dale: When I started in this role back in Rockhampton, with regional facilities, the honour board was mounted in the foyer of the Rockhampton Railway Station. The honour board was maybe five or six metres above floor height. So whilst it was there, no one could see it, and if you didn’t happen to look up, you probably wouldn’t have noticed it was there.
Annette: So what is it about the Rockhampton honour board that makes it special to you?
Dale: Well, Queensland Rail do have, of course, a number of locations that have honour boards that are supposed to honour our World War I veterans who went away to the Great War. On the top of the honour board, it says that it’s the employees who enlisted in the service of the Empire; that’s the writing on the top. But it’s an honour roll that has all the names of employees from Queensland Rail in that era around 1915, who enrolled, and of course went to the Great War. I did source a list of names from the records of all the people on the honour board, and they come from all parts of the central division, from as far west of Longreach, and then the Callide Valley here, and from Gladstone and Mount Morgan, all sorts of areas.
And more than likely, they all jumped on a train at some stage and came into Rocky and went from there. Unfortunately, not all of those 211 employees were able to return. The honour board does have, I guess, the names of some of the employees, some lettering, which unfortunately tells what happened to them in the Great War. So there’s letters against some employees’ names: W, which stands for wounded; DI, discharged injured; and unfortunately, of course, some of them have K beside them as well, which tells the story of the perils of the Great War.
Annette: Greg, during the First World War, what other contributions did the Queensland railways make as part of their war efforts?
Greg: The Railway Patriotic Fund, it was formed with voluntary subscriptions from the rest of the railway staff helping to make up the difference between military pay and railway pay, especially for families. The military hospital at the immigration depot in Kangaroo Point down in Brisbane, or Yungaba, as it was called, there was even a ward of 15 beds that was fitted out by the Patriotic Fund of the Queensland Railway Department. That was actually opened by the Minister for Railways. Queensland railwaymen had up until this time paid about £13,600 into the Patriotic Fund. And from that, they’d set aside about £400 especially for this ward. It actually worked out on being about £25 per bed, per head. As a patriotic symbolic gesture, one of the things I love when you see in photographs is those beds were decorated with coverlets, bearing a large red cross, and also the letters QGR for the Queensland Government Railways.
Annette: So that’s actually a lot of money back then.
Greg: I guess, Annette, you could say, by the size of the Queensland Railways, but I think it also indicates the desire to make a commitment and also, maybe it also said something about Queensland Railway employees, pretty big-hearted people. that’s actually a lot of money back then.
Annette: So this war was different to the Second World War experience for the Queensland Railways?
The Red Cross ambulance trains operated by the Queensland Railways
Greg: Yes, exactly, Annette. The ambulance trains that ran on the southern line, in many ways they did bring the war home to the local community. After 1916, those casualty lists grew and grew and grew. And interestingly enough, so did the frequency of the Red Cross trains, as we call them, on the line. There was one case in 1918, that three trains carrying around about 400 soldiers arrived on the platform here at Toowoomba. Then they travelled further on to their eventual destination down in Brisbane. The trains arrived at Central Station, then the sick, wounded and others, would be transported by motor car to Kangaroo Point Military Hospital. Literally, Annette, you would be seeing the Great War come home in front of you on a railway platform.
Annette: The war obviously had a great impact, not only on the railways, but on people as well. Where does the story of the honour boards come from?
Greg: Well, going back, and from what we can gather, in February of 1915 at the North Ipswich workshops, a group of employees had been appointed to oversee the fundraising for a memorial to record those who had enlisted in the Great War. This was two months before the landings at Anzac Cove. The monumental work, literally, was estimated to cost around about £750. And the Commissioner for Railways visited in September of that year. He said the Railway Department had been approached by the committee for a contribution of about £100 towards the memorial.
Annette: So it cost £750.
Greg: Yes.
Annette: And the Department was approached for £100.
Greg: The railway service stumped up £100 to start with, yes.
Annette: Do we know where the balance came from?
Greg: Employees. And they oversubscribed.
Toowoomba railway station and its First World War honour board
Annette: Not far from us today, there was a truly tangible reminder of the First World War, the Toowoomba Honour Board. Can you tell us something about its story?
Greg: Yes, that magnificent honour board at Toowoomba Railway Station. I consider myself lucky that quite often here on the platform, I can go down and just spend a few quiet minutes just contemplating the names on the board and wondering about all their stories. But it had been decided to erect an honour board to contain the names of the men who had enlisted from the locomotive, maintenance and traffic branches of the Railway Department in Toowoomba. And that was in 1917. By June of 1917, the Queensland Railways had reported that 2,473 had enlisted, 91 had been killed, and seven had died of illness. 13 had been reported missing, 105 had been wounded. The Honour Board Committee was appointed to progress the work unveiled in Toowoomba in April of 1918. And at the time of the unveiling, there were 210 names on the board, 20 of those who were recorded as having paid the supreme sacrifice.
Annette: Were there other honour boards put up around at the same time?
Greg: Yes, the railways also oversaw the dedication of the large staff honour boards or honour rolls. They’ve come to grace many railway stations throughout Queensland. Some of the most beautiful were made at the North Ipswich railway workshops. The first of these was at Central in 1915, to be followed in the following years at places such as Toowoomba, Rockhampton, Townsville and North Ipswich, as that war grew to consume more railway employees and their family members.
Annette: So, what were the special fundraising activities organised in conjunction with the Queensland Railways during the First World War?
Fundraising by the Queensland Railways
Greg: In early 1915 – and that was not long after the official naming of the magnificent new C-18 class steam locomotives – that was actually inspired by a British tradition that the Commissioner for Railways wanted to revive. The Commission discussed with the Belgian Consul the opportunity to showcase a decorated train drawn by the Lady MacGregor locomotive. For those out there who love their locomotives, that was C18 number 694. That was going to visit various towns on the railway between Brisbane and Toowoomba. The suggestion was that a committee on the train should sell articles on behalf of what they called the Belgian Fund. Stops would be made at various stations and that would allow local people to make purchases. It was a big fundraising activity, Annette. It was thought that if the experiment was a success, they’d actually extend it to run on Sundays subsequently. And they also planned trains to run from Toowoomba to Warwick, Toowoomba to Chinchilla, and then from Brisbane to Southport as well.
Annette: Do we know if their efforts were successful?
Greg: Very successful indeed. They ran quite a few of those, and as I said, it was again a way of showcasing the contribution to the Belgian refugees who’d been made homeless during the German invasion of their country.
Annette: Greg, it was really something heartfelt, and having those names painted so publicly on the honour boards meant something deeply significant, didn’t it?
Other Honour Boards for Queensland Railways employees
Greg: Yes, after the dedication of the honour board for railwaymen of the old Southern Division in 1918, many smaller other honour boards had found homes at railway stations. These weren’t ones actually for railway employees, but for local communities. The tiny stations and settlements scattered throughout Queensland, that reflected where many journeys had begun or ended for those who had actually returned home. Now, in 1922 at Warwick, the Commissioner for Railways, Mr JW Davidson, or Jim Davidson as he was known, he arrived there by a special train and he unveiled an honour board which had been erected at the Warwick Railway Station. That was actually in honour of the Warwick and District railwaymen who served in the Great War. The honour board contained the names of 100 men, seven of whom were killed. He actually said, “The erection of the honour board is the outward sign of our feelings, but we should show by our daily lives how much we appreciate what has been done for us."
Conserving the Rockhampton railway employees honour board
Annette: Dale, can you talk to us about what kind of condition the Rockhampton Station honour board was in, and the journey you’ve taken to see it restored?
Dale: I first needed to get the honour board off the wall so that we could get it down to ground level and have a look at what state and condition it was in. Basically, I guess you’d describe it – the best way is, it was filthy. So, years of grime over it, dust and grime. The paintwork had obviously deteriorated with age, which it does. The honour board is very old. It was built post-World War I, but you could see the paintwork and the printing or the sign writing on the board was all very sad and deteriorated. So, if you could visualise the paintwork sort of crackling and stuff. The actual sign writing painting is from that era; it was of a high quality.
Some of this was what they call gold leaf painting. The skill that was used back in the day, it’s like most things, an old English skill that they painted. So they – it’s like sprinkled – gold sprinkling over it, which highlights it. But yes, it was obviously in poor condition. I first spoke to our heritage strategist, Peter Osborne, and he pointed me in the direction of a conservationist who had done some work with him on other projects, from the Sunshine Coast, a lady by the name of Melanie Finelli. So, I contacted Melanie and sent her some emails. And as it turned out she was very interested. She did have a family connection in Rockhampton and she was quite interested in the project. And she happened to be coming through on holidays, so she agreed to drop in.
Annette: Perfect timing.
Dale: It was, yes. She agreed to drop into the station and have a look at it. And of course, once she had a look at it, she then went away and came back to me with her recommendations and her report as to what we needed to do. So, I transported the honour board to start the conservation work, which has been ongoing for about 12 months.
Annette: Wow, that’s a long time. So, she must be taking time to make sure she truly honours our honour board.
Dale: Yes. So the work is painstaking. It’s the sort of work that’s done with cotton buds, scalpel, different types of solvents to remove all the contaminants. It’s a unique craft that they employ, and it’s one of those things that takes a long time to do.
The North Ipswich Railway Workshops war memorial
Annette: So, Greg, that sense of remembrance and reflection was obviously very strong, not only in the Queensland Railways, but in the community as well?
Greg: Yes, the dedication that Ipswich Workshop’s War Memorial monument – Mr Mason, was the chairman of the committee, which was based at the North Ipswich Workshops. He officially handed over that memorial to the Commissioner for Railways, Jim Davidson, and at that time, the Commissioner said, had taken upon the duty of looking after that monument, and it devolved upon him during his term of office. It’s a duty that he willingly undertook. So, he actually took on that sense of custodianship, that something had come from individual employees, and that would then become something of the Department.
Now, at that stage, and we’re talking about that, Annette, at that stage, he had a staff of, he said, about 11,400. When the war broke out, the records at that time said about 2,000 had enlisted from the railway service. Commissioner Davidson said that he thought this was a very fair record for the Department. However, Annette, there was research that was done by a number of volunteers over the past couple of years for the Ipswich Genealogical Society. They went through all the Queensland Railway employee records that they can find.
The thinking is now, there was around about 13,000 employees in the railways, and of those, it looks like around about 3,300 had actually enlisted. It’s an incomplete number again, and it was a pretty prodigious effort that those volunteers did. But it was interesting that 100 years after the end of the war, it was the first time they could come up with a definite number for those who actually enlisted in the Great War from the Queensland Railways.
Other honour boards in Queensland with Dale McDonald
Annette: At North Ipswich, the workshop’s rail museum, there’s an impressive memorial that highlights the contribution of the Queensland Railways in the First World War. Dale, do you have any favourite or important war memorials you have seen over the years working in the railways?
Dale: Probably the Toowoomba honour roll at Toowoomba Station is the most outstanding I’ve seen. It takes a very prominent part in every year’s Anzac services. I did work in Toowoomba for 18 months, and I was there for two Anzac days, and it was a very good way of the children and the community recognising the Queensland Rail employees from that area who went away to the war. So, the Toowoomba honour board would definitely be the most prominent, most important, I’d say, the most prominent.
Annette: Dale, once this honour board is meticulously restored and displayed at Rockhampton Station, what is your hope for it in the future?
Dale: Well, my hope is that once it is brought back to life and being displayed for the public to actually see, that the children of the community are able to use it and view it as part of ongoing ANZAC Day celebrations and all celebrations about the time when these people, like these Queensland Rail employees, gave, in many cases, their lives to fight for what was in those days the Empire, but basically to defend their country.
Annette: Why are these honour boards so important to conserve and have available for our future generations?
Dale: The honour boards obviously were built at the time after the war to commemorate the employees who did sacrifice themselves, and their lives in many cases, and to remember them for future generations. So, the idea obviously was that – and we say with celebrations of ANZAC Day – Lest we forget. So it’s just saying these names are never forgotten because they played a significant part in our history, in Queensland Rail’s history and in Australians’ history.
Annette: Thank you so much for joining us today, Dale. It’s been great chatting with you. And thank you for sharing about the Rockhampton honour board.
Dale: No worries. Thank you very much for having me on. And yes, hopefully the honour board will be on proud display in Rocky Station for everyone to see.
Conclusion
Annette: Thank you for listening to our podcast today. There are still a few honour boards on display at Toowoomba Station, Ipswich Rail Museum and soon again at Rockhampton. Remember, we love hearing from our listeners. So please share, leave us a review or rating, and connect with us on the Queensland Rail Facebook or Instagram accounts. Here you can ask history questions or share your suggestions on what topics you would like us to cover in a future episode. We’ll see you here next time for another episode of the Queensland Rail History podcast