What made the news 100 years ago today? Sunday Trading.

What made the news 100 years ago today?

First up a story about Sunday Trading, something we take for granted nowadays, was still unheard of back then.

The Register (Adelaide, SA  1901 - 1929), Wednesday 25 February 1914, page 11

Sunday Trading

In the Adelaide Police Court on Tuesday, before Mr. T. Gepp, S.M., five shopkeepers were each fined - £2 0/6 for having kept their shops open for trade on. Sunday, February 16.-' The articles chiefly sold were lollies and cigarettes. Their names were M. Brackenridge, Flinders 'street;

M. L. Sams, -King William Street;

.M; Head, King William Street;

Robert Terry, King William Street:

and John Hancock, Pulteney street.

Mr W..H, Wadey appeared to prosecute.

The next newspaper story is an odd one for any times, past or present!

The Register (Adelaide, SA  1901 - 1929)
 Wednesday 25 February 1914, page 11 

UNUSUAL APPLICATION.

It is not often that a wife applies for the reduction of an order made against her husband for the maintenance of herself and children. Such a case, however, was heard in the Adelaide Police Court on Tuesday when Annie Bellman asked that an order for 30/, payable by Albert Henry Bellman.- should be reduced to 15/. 

Mr .C. Muirhead, who appeared for the applicant, said he did not suppose the defendant would object to the reduction. Defendant (emphatically) "-70b, no!" 

Mr. Muirhead: "But the wife wants some of the arrears",

Annie Bellman, the applicant, said she now had three children to keep instead of six, and in consequence did not require so much support from her husband.
 Defendant “I want my 'wife to keep away from me at my work. I would take other steps' if I could.” Mr. Muirhead “You ought not to say that. The woman is 'treating you most generously.”

The Bench (which consisted of Messrs.T. Gepp, S.M., H. Buttery, and A. D. Bennett) reduced the order as requested, with costs against the defendant.

Some people don't like to vote,. Others like to tamper with votes....some things always stay the same...

The Mercury (Hobart, Tas.  1860 - 1954), Wednesday 25 February 1914, page 5

BREACH OF ELECTORAL ACT.

AN OFFENDER FINED.

ADELAIDE, February 25

At the Adelaide; Police Court this morning a man named P. Wadey was charged with haying, on October 17, signed his Milieus a witness to an electoral paper which had been filled up without first been signed by the elector. He was fined altogether £2.

Until next week...

© 2014 Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

Kapunda's Railways - Part 2 “The Line Opens”

Kapunda's Railways: Part 2 “The Line Opens” 

Before we go much further with the history of the Kapunda Railway, we need to first look at its roots.

The Kapunda line opened officially on Monday the 13th of August 1860, it was opened by the then Governor of South Australia, Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell.

Workers building the line North of Kapunda

There was great fanfare at the grand opening ceremony of the Kapunda Line, with a celebratory train to ride the entire length of the line.
 The train left Adelaide station at 10:30am under instruction from the "Manager of Railways", C.S. Hare.

One engine was used as far as Gawler, The No.9, the largest engine in the fleet at the time
 The train numbered 13 carriages, which were full of guests.
Guests included, His Excellency, The Governor and his wife and entourage, Ministers of both houses of Parliament, The Mayor, and Members of the town corporation and many notable members of the Adelaide citizenry.

Every station on the line from Adelaide to Kapunda was adorned with evergreen shrubbery and flags, and well-wishers and onlookers. The opening of the Kapunda line was an event celebrated across the State.

Governor of South Australia,
 Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell. 

The train reached Salisbury at 11am, and Gawler at 11:26 am. In Gawler, more passengers boarded and a second engine was attached to the train. The train then travelled to Freeling, arriving at 12:23pm, where it stopped for a brief time and the passengers were allowed to refresh themselves very briefly

The train left Freeling at 12:35pm and stopped at 12:50pm at the bridge over the light river at the request of His Excellency, The Governor, to inspect the bridge, which was considered a masterpiece of engineering at the time.

The Light railway bridge was built using stone cut from along the railway lines route. The timbers of the structure were supported by transverse latticed beams, with a laminated arch either side. The “points of juncture” on the bridge were plated with heavy steel to withstand the weight of the heaviest trains in the South Australian Railways at the time.

This particular journey was a testing of the Light Bridge, with the two heaviest engines in the State fleet being positioned on it at once, the builders must have had great faith in their structure considering the importance of the passengers upon the train!

The train reached Kapunda Station at 1:17pm too much fanfare. The train was greeted by The Reverend Oldham, Captain Warburton, The Angaston Rifles, Captain Connor, Captain Brown and the Kapunda Rifle Corps.

The Kapunda Rifle Corps. presented themselves 50 strong, and accompanied by their band presented a guard of honour to the dignitaries and officials.

Under the guidance of the Station Master, and Master of the Goods Shed, Mr Baggett, The Governor was given a tour of the Kapunda Railway Station complex, before a brief speech was made by The Reverend Oldham.

Reverend Oldham presented the following speech:

"To His Excellency Sir Richard G. MacDonnell,
K.C.B., Governor-in-Chief of Her Majesty's Province of South Australia, May it please your Excellency, We the inhabitants of Kapunda and the surrounding districts, most cordially welcome your Excellency and Lady MacDonnell amongst us upon this most auspicious and interesting occasion, and would desire to 'record through you as Her Majesty's representative in this colony, the expression of our unabated loyalty and arm attachment to Her person and Crown.

 It is now nearly four years since this neighbourhood as honoured by a former visit from your Excellency and Lady MacDonnell ; since that time three commodious places of worship have been erected in the township,also, a Court-House and Police-Station, a Telegraph and Post-0ffice, and a large number of stores and other buildings, and rapid communication with the capital and other parts of the colony, and also with the adjacent colonies has been established by means of the electric telegraph ; and we feel happy in being now enabled to congratulate your Excellency on the most successful completion of the important undertaking, in reference to which, in great measure, your Excellency's former visit was paid; and also, in feeling assured of the happiness it will afford you in seeing at least in some degree the fulfilment of your Excellency's then expressed anticipation as to the increasing importance of this district.

"We hope and believe that the opening of the Railway to Kapunda, which calls us together this day will prove
but the commencement of many happy and prosperous years from the greatly increased facilities it will afford both for travelling and for the safe and rapid transport of goods, and we earnestly desire that your Excellency
may yet be spared long amongst us to see the fulfilment of these desires for the welfare of the colony which have 'ever characterised your administration.
 We again bid you a cordial and hearty welcome by Railway to Kapunda.

Signed on behalf of, and at the unanimous request, of the inhabitants of Kapunda and the surrounding districts, in public meeting assembled.

"W. OLDHAM, J.P., Chairman."

Governor MacDonnell replied with a considerably lengthy speech congratulating the townsfolk on the construction and opening of the line, and then proceeded to the crane at the goods-shed and lifted the first bale of wool and first bag of copper to a roaring cheer from the crowd.

The Governor was then transported into the town via horse buggy to the Sir John Franklin hotel where festivities went well into the night.

Kapunda now had an official link for transportation of goods and passengers via train into the city of Adelaide and to the wharves, a valuable connection that would open the grain belt, and copper mines to further export across the country and state and bring wealth back into the community.

Kapunda would eventually become the States largest wheat receiving station, an extension was later built to Burra, veering off at Roseworthy, whilst the Kapunda line was extended to Morgan to try and capture some of the trade from the paddle steamer transportation system.

The Kapunda line was a focal point of the town for many years, opening up industry and commercial prospects for the people of Kapunda and surrounding districts, and allowed local people to travel far and wide around the State and Country, something people would have previously found much harder to do with the standard transport of the day, horse and cart, bicycle or walking.

The last passenger train to Robertstown passed through Kapunda on May 20th 1989, but the Kapunda line still saw notable traffic up until 1996 when it was sold Genesseesee Wyoming Australia under a 50 year (+15 extension option) contract.

Since then the line has fallen into a state of disrepair and only see's line traffic when a light-weight engine, or nowadays an adapted 4 wheel drive, comes down the line once every few months to the Viterra silos as part of the contract to have line traffic, or lose the line back to the State Government,

As the region north of Gawler grows it becomes obvious that passenger train service to at least Roseworthy and Freeling may be needed sometime in the future, it would not be too hard to conceive of Kapunda once again having a train return to the town, however, would a new train station have to be built as the old one now houses a “Bed and Breakfast”? - only time will tell

People gather to watch the last train to Robertstown as it enters Kapunda

Please note, this post was originally made on a short-lived blog I wrote about Kapunda, due to the amount of time spent researching the paranormal, the Kapunda blog suffered a severe lack of posts - rather than lose the blog into the depths of Internet obscurity, I am reposting some of the research back onto this blog as much of it contains, History, Mystery and the Paranormal.

© 2013 Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

Kapunda's Railway - Part 1 "Washed Away At Fords"

Kapunda's Railway 

Part 1

"Washed Away At Ford's"

by

Allen Tiller

Kapunda Railway Station circa 1900

Some things get forgotten with the passing of time and the introduction of new technologies. It has been a long time since Kapunda last saw a train stop at its station, and many more years have passed since a steam train has entered this town!

Photo by Allen Tiller

The once-bustling train station is now a Bed and Breakfast, and the old Goods Shed is a crumbling piece of Kapunda's heritage going to waste. The Old Railway Hotel is now a private home, the old water filler a long-forgotten rusty relic, and the train line through the town, a piece of unused land that could be better suited to something more modern like a bike track, but I digress, this blog isn't about the now, it is about the history that surrounds one of the most important train lines and destinations in South Australia's railways history - The Kapunda Railway. 

I am going to start this series with the story of an accident out near Fords, a long-forgotten story, but an important part of the history of this town. Also, I see this as a way to honour the Men and Women who spent their working lives, and some, their deaths, building this great town through their hard work on our railways.
In 1913 on Thursday the 13^th of February, after a huge storm blew through the Light region, a goods train coming from Gawler to Kapunda came off the tracks near Fords. (just south of Kapunda)

The storm had brought with it a downpour that had washed away the lines near the 42J miles marker.

The accident had been witnessed by Mr Clancy and Mr Moore of Fords. The two men were out testing the line after the torrential downpour and had reached the eastern side of where the water had been pouring over the line.
The two men, standing on the line, were pitched into knee-deep water when the railway line gave way under the pressure of the torrent. As the two men recovered their footings and scrambled back onto the tracks, the goods train rounded the corner on the other side of the broken line from where the men were standing, and before either could raise a warning signal, the train plummeted of the line into the nearby creek, landing on its side.
Clancy and Moore watched as the driver Mr W. Critchley and the Fireman Mr A.H. Whaites climbed out of the engine and onto the side of the tipped over train.
 As the two men made their way over the locomotive, the water gushed and sent Mr Critchley into the seething torrent, where he was washed away with the current.

A message was telegraphed to the Kapunda Station and a party, including Dr Glynn, Station Master Mr A.S. Leach and Inspectors Gordon and Johnson was dispatched to head out to the train wreck.
The site was inspected by the light of the setting moon, but the reality of the disaster could not be fully comprehended until the light of the next day.
The engine was laying on its side in the now naturally flowing creek bed, awash with slime and mud, behind it lay carriages piled up on top of each other, all fully loaded with cargo, axles twisted and the wheels at right angles.
One wagon measuring at 22 feet long was standing straight in the air, supported by another 16-foot long carriage laying in a similar position, both being supported by the wagon with the trains water tanks. Only the last 5 wagons and the guard's carriage remained intact upon the line.

 What caused such a massive pileup? The spot where this accident happened was not considered at the time to be one of danger. The sudden and extremely hard downpour of rain overfilled the small creek culvert on which the train tracks lay.
 The culvert could not take the extreme amounts of water being forced into it and caused a backwash of water to be accumulated, the water level rose until it washed over the lines.
 The track was built on a bank that sat between 6 feet and 8 feet high, with the culvert running underneath, with the water pressure cascading across the line, much of the supporting ballast had been washed away. And as the train hit the weakened structure, it gave away, plunging the train into the cold currents of the creek.

 The guard who was in the last carriage of the train suffered no injuries and began walking back to Freeling to alert them of the accident before the passenger train made its way down the line, this was unneeded though as the storm had caused problems with lines in Smithfield and Gawler as well causing the passenger train to be delayed significantly

Fireman Whaites was interviewed by officials and his story is as follows;
“ The train left Freeling soon after 6 o'clock, not far from the station we ran through a body of water safely, when we soon passed the second body of water, we kept a lookout, but did not think it necessary to stop altogether.
Suddenly we felt the engine going and with only the width of the embankment we knew there was little hope, and in seconds we were in the water.
When she rested on her side I climbed out, and my mate followed me. The water was to my waste and when I got my footing I looked around for the driver to see if he was right.
As he got out he seemed to sink on his knees, and before it was possible to do anything the water carried him away.
One good Samaritan gave me a pair of dungarees and another coat, and I feel pretty right now, although it was a bad experience”

As for the driver, Mr Critchley, a search was carried out to find him, his water bag and toolbox were found a quarter of a mile down the creek. Mr Critchley's body was found about seven miles further down the stream, hanging to a tree in the middle of the creek, his body was badly bruised and it was most probable that he died of what we now call hypothermia.  

to be continued...

Please note, this post was originally made on a short-lived blog I wrote about Kapunda, due to the amount of time spent researching the paranormal, the Kapunda blog suffered a severe lack of posts - rather than lose the blog into the depths of Internet obscurity, I am reposting some of the research back onto this blog as much of it contains, History, Mystery and the Paranormal.

© 2013 Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

Oliver Peter Heggie

Oliver Peter Heggie
(17 September 1877 – 7 February 1936)

This post is in honour of an actor who many South Australians would not recognise. This man had a remarkable stage and screen career but is somewhat forgotten in his home state and his home town of Angaston in the Barossa Valley.
 The Anniversary of Mr Heggie's death is this week on Friday the 7th.

 O.P. Heggie (as he was often billed), was born in Angaston in 1877 and went on to star in a variety of theatrical works. He is perhaps best known for his role as the blind hermit in the film “The Bride of Frankenstein” (1935).


Mr Heggie was educated in Adelaide at Whinham College and at the Adelaide Conservatorium of Music. His first stage role was in 1899, with a small part in a version of The Three Musketeers.
 Eventually, Heggie went to England with Sir Charles Henry Hawtrey who was an English actor, director, producer and manager. Hawtry cast Heggie in The Lemonade Boy & A Message to Mars. It was from those two productions that a star was born!
Heggie's performance was strong enough in the Hawtry produced plays that Dame Ellen Terry, the leading Shakespearean actor of her day, invited Heggie to tour with her in the USA in two productions; Nance Oldfield & Captain Brassbound's Conversion. The tour was extremely successful in gaining acclaim and praise for its stars.
  After the tour through the USA, Heggie returned to England to continue his acting career, landing a part in the Queen Theatres production of Hornungs Stingaree- a play written about life in outback New South Wales.
  Heggie's list of accomplishments in theatre continued to grow with his reputation, earning him parts in productions at The Haymarket, The Kingsway and Adelphi Theatres, all theatres of great standing in the early 1900s.
  Heggie's performance that gained him the greatest acclaim was that of Sherlock Holmes. The author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote the character thought Heggie's performance was so great, that he wrote him a letter (Which Heggie dearly treasure). In the letter, Doyle said that Heggie's performance of the character of Holmes gave him great pleasure, as it was the first time he had seen him played exactly as He, the imaginative mind behind the birth of Sherlock Holmes, had wanted him played.

Heggie went on to star in many more theatre productions such as 'The House of Temperley', 'Lower Depths' & 'The Admiral Speaks'.  In 1927, he moved from the theatre into cinema, where he starred in 27 well-received movies and became a bigger star than he could've dreamt of from his theatre work.
He starred in such movies as “The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu” (1929), “The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu” (1930), “The Count of Monte Christo” (1934), “Anne of Green Gables” (1934), the aforementioned “The Bride of Frankenstein” (1935) as well as his final movie in 1936, “The Prisoner of Shark Island” - in all, he played parts in 27 theatrical cinema releases (IMDB link -http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0373773/ )

Oliver Peter Heggie was born on the 17 September 1877, Angaston, South Australia, Australia, and died on the 7th of February 1936 in Los Angeles California from pneumonia. Heggie was survived by his wife Lillian and his three children.

Rest In Peace Mr Heggie, you are not forgotten.

Partial filmography role (From Wikipedia)

• The Actress (1928) - Vice-Chancellor Sir William Gower
• The Letter (1929) - Howard Joyce
• The Wheel of Life (1929) - Col. John Dangan
• The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu (1929) - Inspector Nayland Smith
• The Mighty (1929) - J.K. Patterson
• The Vagabond King (1930) - King Louis XI
• The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu (1930) - Inspector Nayland Smith
• One Romantic Night (1930) - Father Benedict
• The Bad Man (1930) - Henry Taylor
• Playboy of Paris (1930) - Philibert
• Sunny (1930) - Peters
• East Lynne (1931) - Lord Mount Severn
• Too Young to Marry (1931) - Cyrus Bumpstead
• The Woman Between (1931) - John Whitcomb
• Devotion (1931) - Mr. Emmet Mortimer
• Smilin' Through (1932) - Dr. Owen
• The King's Vacation (1933) - Joel Thorpe
• Zoo in Budapest (1933) - Dr. Grunbaum
• Midnight (1934) - Edward Weldon
• The Count of Monte Cristo (1934) - Abbe Faria
• Peck's Bad Boy (1934) - Duffy
• Anne of Green Gables (1934) - Matthew Cuthbert
• A Dog of Flanders (1935) - Grandfather Jehan Daas
• Bride of Frankenstein (1935) - Hermit
• Chasing Yesterday (1935) - Sylvestre Bonnard
• Ginger (1935) - Rexford Whittington
• The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936) - Dr. MacIntyre (final film role)

.© 2013 Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

All content on “Eidolon Paranormal & The Haunts of Adelaide” sites, blog and corresponding media pages (eg Facebook, twitter etc) is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any means or process without the written permission of the author. © 2012, 2013

All photos remain the property of their respective copyright owners and are displayed here for the purpose of education, research and review under the copyright act "fair usage" clause.

Some photos used here on this site are sourced from The State Library of South Australia, and The National Library of Australia and http://www.gawler.nowandthen.net.au - all photos are out of copyright and have no usage restrictions implied.