The 1888 Tragedy at Semaphore.

 

In 1888, the newspapers of the day were scathing of 20-year-old Susan Schmidt, who on February 8th, had ridden on the footboard of a train carriage travelling to Semaphore. As the train crossed the points, it shook, dislodging Susan and throwing her under the train where she was crushed to death.^[1]

It came to light that Susan and a friend, Emma Fitts, had left Susan's parents’ house in the evening, and walked to Port Adelaide. They saw a friend off at Alberton station, then walked back to Exeter station, when the Semaphore bound train arrived. Rather than walk, they hopped onto the steps of the train from the opposite side of the platform. William Uden, travelling in the train, told the girls they had better get off the train, but they ignored him. As the train entered Semaphore station and crossed the points, it made a slight jump, dislodging Susan, who was flung under the train.

Porter, Charles White, who was on his way to the points, saw the train give a little jump and heard someone yell out from under the train. He was first to see Susan on the rails and went immediately for a doctor. When the train stopped at Semaphore, the guard William Swann, saw the danger lights lit up at the points by White and could see Susan lying around 100 yards from the train.

There was little compassion in South Australia’s media of the day. The South Australian Register wrote, ‘Susan Schmidt was run over and killed by the Semaphore train on February 8, owing to her recklessness in unlawfully riding on the footboard of the carriage.’^[2]

The Evening Journal stated, ‘A Sad Death from Recklessness – It must be a painful reflection for the parents of the poor girl, Susan Schmidt, who was run over and killed by the Semaphore train…’[3]

The Port Augusta Dispatch wrote, ‘Susan Schmidt tried to ride on the step of a Semaphore railway carriage last Wednesday. Verdict – nobody but herself to blame.’^[4]

Susan's body was transported to the Port Hospital where Dr Toil examined her, before placing her dead body in the morgue.^[5] Susan's lower body had been ‘completely crushed.’^[6]

An inquest into the death occurred at the Port Admiral Hotel on February 9, 1888, overseen by Coroner T. Ward. J.P.  Susan’s father Bennett Schmidt gave evidence at the inquest, stating,

She was 20 years of age last September. Last saw her alive about half-past 7 on Wednesday evening in company, with., two friends. They left his place and went in the direction of the Semaphore-road. Was awakened about a quarter past 10 by Mr. Warn, who told him of the accident. Directly saw it was his daughter that had been run over. She asked him to lift her up, and repeated the question in the train. She never told him how the accident occurred. Never knew deceased to be reckless.^[7]

 

The jury returned a verdict that ‘the deceased met her death by being run over by the Semaphore train, the accident is caused by her attempting to ride on the step of the carriage and added a rider that no blame was attached to anybody. ^[8]

 

Researched and written by Allen Tiller  © 2024

[1] 'Latest News.', Evening Journal, (9 February 1888), p. 2. (SECOND EDITION).
[2] 'ABSTRACT OF NEWS.', South Australian Register, (13 February 1888), p. 7.
[3] 'S.A. SWIMMING CLUB.', Evening Journal, (10 February 1888), p. 3. (SECOND EDITION).
[4] 'Grape Shot.', The Port Augusta Dispatch, Newcastle and Flinders Chronicle, (14 February 1888), p. 2.
[5] 'Latest News.', Evening Journal, (9 February 1888), p. 2. (SECOND EDITION).
[6] Ibid.
[7] 'CORONERS' INQUESTS.', South Australian Register, (10 February 1888), p. 7.
[8] Ibid.

 

 Gawler's Hotels

Foundation years of Gawler's Hotels

Golden Fleece 30-10-1839 (Also known as The Old Spot Hotel)

Old Bushman 24-9-1840

Prince Albert 1847 (as the New Bushman Inn)

Gawler Arms 1848

Willaston Hotel 1849

Kingsford (also known as the Globe Hotel ) 1851

Railway Hotel 1854 (also known as 'The Terminus' & 'Overway Hotel) - currently closed.

South End 1855 (also known as The Southern)

Gawler Belt Inn 1857

Engine and Driver 1858 (21st Street - now a private residence)

Wheatsheaf 1859-1873 (now Tikka Talian Restaurant.)

Criterion 1864

Exchange 1868

 A Haunting at the Hamley Bridge Railway Station.

 

In 2018, the owner of the former Hamley Bridge Railway station, Ms Jenny Lee-Justine, decided to sell her property. News coverage in the Advertiser newspaper claimed the home was haunted!
 The original Hamley Bridge railway station was further north of the 1880-constructed station located at 9 Railway Terrace.[1] Originally, the station was known as Alma Station, but this caused confusion and numerous complaints were received, which resulted in a name change to Hamley Bridge Station.[2]

The foundation stone for the Hamley Bridge over the River Light was laid by Mrs Hamley on Saturday, 25^th of July 1868.[3] His Excellency, Lieut-Colonel Hamley, Acting Governor at the time, and a small group of Government Ministers travelled from Adelaide to witness the foundation stone laying.[4]

In 1898, 28-year-old William Woods was killed at Hamley Bridge Station. Woods had previously worked at Gawler Railway Station, close to where he lived and was described as 'a careful and conscientious servant of the Railway Department.’[5]

In December 1910, the guard of the 3 o’clock train from Hamley Bridge to Port Pirie, while readying his train for departure, noticed something under the train between the station and carriages.[6] Upon closer inspection, he discovered the mangled body of a male. M.C. Hannam of Gawler was called for. Papers on the victim identified him as James Ried. It was believed Reid had fallen under the train and lost consciousness, the train being readied for departure had moved further along the platform, dismembering Reid's body and killing him.[7]

The Hamley Bridge station closed in 1984 and became private property.  The owner of the property in 2018, Jenny Lee-Justine, claimed that she once had a lady stay with her in the former railway building who was woken by a ghost. The ghost was wearing a railway uniform and carrying a lantern. Ms. Lee-Justine had a few photographs of railway workers at the station from 1911 from which they were able to identify the ghost.[8]

 

Researched and written by Allen Tiller ©2023

[1] 'Latest News.', Evening Journal, (14 April 1869), p. 2.

[2] 'TO CORRESPONDENTS.', The Express and Telegraph, (15 January 1870), p. 2.

[3] 'GENERAL NEWS.', The Express and Telegraph, (22 July 1868), p. 2.

[4] 'NEWS OF THE WEEK', South Australian Chronicle and Weekly Mail, (25 July 1868), p. 10.

[5] 'HAMLEY BRIDGE ACCIDENT.', The Express and Telegraph, (20 January 1898), p. 3.

[6] 'MAN KILLED AT RAILWAY STATION.', Daily Herald, (22 December 1910), p. 6.

[7] 'FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.', The Advertiser, (22 December 1910), p. 6.

[8] Lydie Kellner, ‘Historic railway station-turned-home for sale in Hamley Bridge.’, The Advertiser, (Feb 2018), https://www.realestate.com.au/news/historic-railway-stationturnedhome-for-sale-in-hamely-bridge/?rsf=syn:news:nca:aa:article.

 Victor Harbor – Granite Island Causeway

 In 1862 work began on a 195-metre jetty at Victor Harbor, which was completed in 1864. Between 1872 and 1875, the jetty was extended to Granite Island making a causeway with a railway on it.

The Granite Island Causeway was officially closed on 31 January 2022. Demolition work began in February 2022, with portions of the causeway to be retained at each end of the new causeway as viewing platforms.

The Department for Infrastructure and Transport began construction of a new causeway in March 2021. It was officially opened on Wednesday, 22 December 2021 by the Mayor of Victor Harbor, Dr Moira Jenkins.

The new causeway features rest areas, viewpoints and artworks by Ngarrindjeri-Ramindjeri peoples.[1]

 We visited in January 2022; the photos below are from our visit.

---

[1] https://www.victor.sa.gov.au/notice-board/projects/currentprojects/granite-island-causeway#:~:text=Decommissioning%20of%20the%20old,second%20half%20of%202022.

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

The Station Masters House - Peake

Station Masters House – Peake

Back in 2010, I had the pleasure of visiting a friend (and team member at the time) down south near Tailem Bend. We visited many places during our travels, including Tailem Town, but we also stopped at the Station Masters Hours at Peake.

We had been made aware of the house by a local who had suggested it for a possible investigation site, and I thought whilst in the area I would look into too it. While the history was interesting, of which we will get to shortly, the site was not suitable for an investigation of any kind without a serious clean-up.

On our inspection, we noted the large amounts of pigeon droppings inside, and one wall of the kitchen was entirely infested by swarms of bees.

Much too and fro-ing happened in the Eidolon Paranormal office, do we get in an apiarist to remove the bees, and clean the place ourselves, or do we not investigate at all, plus with no stories of a genuine haunting, only one of death, was it worthwhile? – in the end, the distance to travel and the cost of cleaning the site won out, and we let it be... Still, I wonder, if cleaned up (which would be a gift to the local Peake community) would something paranormal indeed be found in the Old Station Masters house?

Peake is a little farming community about 150 km east of Adelaide, not far from Tailem Bend. It was first settled in 1912 and named after the State Premier of the time, Archibald Peake.

It was a major stopping point for rail in the area, is one of many stops for loading grain onto freight trains, and also a passenger stop for people getting to local farms.

The town itself was very smaller at the time, and remains a small town, with a population of about 200 people currently.

The Station Masters House was built in 1912 and used continuously until 1990. The last Peake Station Master was Jozeff (Joe) Suchon. Mr Suchon was 78 years old when he died on the kitchen floor of the House back on the 8^th of January 1990.

Local legend has it that he was a very rude man and one who did not take well to his neighbours and other townsfolk, with only one person in the town who would visit him, on a very irregular basis, delivering wood in winter.

Mr Sucheon died in the kitchen, it is presumed of a heart attack, after bringing in wood from the little woodshed at the rear of the house, he fell in such a way that the rear door could not be opened inwards.

His body lay on the floor for over a week, in the January heat before being found, one can only imagine the smell and the mess. This poor man’s body could not be extracted any other way than to cut the lino floor around his remains and lift him out, a very messy and distasteful job for anyone to carry out.

Today the house is part of a tourist walk through Peake, and the local tourist catalogue, even states the above facts about Mr Suchon's death, even mentioning the fact you can see on the kitchen floor exactly where the lino had been cut around his body to remove his remains... Rest in Peace Mr Suchon

© 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.

Somphotos's 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.