In this video, locals tell their stories of the Maryborough Railway Station, including famous visitors such as Dame Nellie Melba, and more intimate moments.

Myths surround Maryborough Railway Station, built as part of the vision of a rail connected Victoria in the pre-motor car era. Many locals ares still told that the station's presence in the town was a mistake.But Maryborough was an important juncture in routes, particularly freight, and the grand design of the station reflects this.

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TRANSCRIPT 

Betty Osborn: I suppose one of the most famous visitors was Madame Melba. And she loved walking. And she walked all the way down from her hotel in the centre of Maryborough to the railway station when she was leaving after her concert.

And when she was there, the ladies of the town were gathered around to farewell her, but then this rather tousled little young fellow raced up to Madame Melba and presented her with a bunch of flowers.

And everyone was quite horrified. But Melba, very composed, asked for his name and address, and thanked him. And so the newspaper said he rose higher then than his status as apprentice to a saveloy merchant.

Doreen Green: My father joined up and went overseas in World War I, left behind a wife and six children. He eventually got home, and a good friend of his was the local bandmaster.

And he marched the band up from the band hall. And everybody he met, 'Come on, come on, Archie's coming home!' Archie Mason's coming home.

By the time he got to the station, there was a crowd. Besides the ones from out of town where Dad lived.

And Mum said, 'The station platform was crowded!'

I looked at her and I said, 'Mum, the local station platform is...'I knew how long it was. It was a long station platform.

She looked at me, and Mum was very dignified and very much in control,and she said, 'I have spoken.'

(Laughs)

I said, 'Sorry, dear.' She said, 'It was crowded.'

Packed.

Alan Kenly: In 1947, I was transferred to Donald from Melbourne for the wheat season.

And I... We stopped at Maryborough on our way to Donald. And it was at midnight, virtually, New Year's Eve and there was a piper, a Scotchman playing the pipes, walking up and down the platform.

Reg Carr: When they had the 100 years of trains, I was stationmaster at the time and Mr Gibbs was the chairman and he hosted a dinner at Maryborough. And we had it on the old station restaurant. And it was rather unique. The whole dinner was cooked on the original stove.

Before the dinner, about 48 hours before, I had my boys stoke it up,the fireplace. Because Maryborough was open all night and there was staff all night, they used to go in and stoke the stove. So when the ladies come to cook, they did a three-course dinner and it was rather unique to see it cooked on the old stove. And it was cooked perfectly.

Betty: During the Depression years, a lot of young people, a lot of young men, would jump the rattler.

In other words, they would climb onto the trains to get to a regional town, so that they could get food vouchers. They only lasted a week so therefore they tended to go from one place to another. And they used to jump off just before the station at Maryborough and then they'd go and they'd sit under the peppercorn trees in the stationmaster's yard.

He had a house just in front of the station. And there they would tidy themselves up before they'd go down to the town and then cadge other food or work or whatever they could.

Greg Waters: We had some great fun when I was a kid, because we used to come down here and play in the yards and we'd go down the loco and we'd play.

And as I was telling you before about the bridge that was over the end up at the Carisbrook end, we'd get up to the top there, and of course, the engines would go backwards and forwards shunting and they'd be blowing this black smoke up, up like that.

And, of course, you'd have shorts on, and the black smoke used to go up the leg of your pants and around your undies and... (Laughs)

Oh, we used to... Then we'd try and drop stones down through the funnel of the engine.

Then the trains going up the hill on the Ballarat line... They used to go out slowly, you see, and we'd be down the bottom so we'd get on the back of the guard's van and the guard wouldn't know that we were there and we'd ride up to the top of the hill on the back of the guard's van and as soon as it started to gain speed to go over the hill, we would jump off then walk home again, yeah.

Oh, but we had a lot of fun. It was great.

Great back in those days.

Alan: And the other funny little thing, was one evening the train from Melbourne via Ballarat came in.

It was a railmotor. After it went, I had the little lady and her partner came in and they wanted to see me. They had a delicate matter to discuss.

And I said, 'What's your problem?'

And they said... She said, 'I went to the toilet and I got my powder...' She said, 'I was doing my face and the draft from the toilet came up and it took my roll of $20 notes down through the loo, the chute.' The chute, of course, in those days went straight onto the track, the permanent way.

And she said, 'Oh, I don't know what... Could you arrange for someone to have a look and see if it's still on the track?'

I said, 'Oh, yeah. No problem.'

So I rang the stationmaster at Clunes, 'cause I knew he was an exercise bug and he used to take a jog every evening.

And I said, 'Well, tonight go for your jog along the track there and see if you can see a roll of $20 bills.'

Anyway, next morning when I went to work there was a value for me, which is, you'd say a registered letter from Clunes to me.

And in it had the roll of $20 notes.

Well, after I'd finished the morning passenger trains, I went up to the ladies' house and they were just getting out of bed, it was about 9:30, and I presented them with their money and they were very, very happy.

Copyright
Maryborough-Midlands Historical Society