It seems slightly mad but each of the Australian colonies chose different railway gauges narrow in Queensland, standard in NSW, and broad in Victoria. South Australia seems to have been even crazier doing all three! In the south they had the more expensive broad gauge but could not afford to run it into the outback areas so put in narrow gauge up there. Later the narrow gauge lines were replaced by standard gauge. We returned to Peterborough because is the only place in Australia where you can see all three gauges.
We passed through Bakers Swamp without noticing anything. Then reached our last dot on the map for this trip - Larras Lee and saw this. The roadside monument says: In Memory of WILLIAM LEE (1794 - 1870) of "Larras Lake" a pioneer of the sheep and cattle industry and first member for Roxburgh under responsible government (1856 - 1859). This stone was erected by his descendants. --- 1938 --- This is a repost from a few days ago. Thinking I would use this for this week’s Taphophile Tragics post I dug a little further into William Lee’s story, it’s a very colonial Australian one. William was born of convict parents, living his childhood years around the Sydney region. In his early 20s he was issued with some government cattle, recommended as a suitable settler and granted 134 acres at Kelso near Bathurst. He was one of the first in the area and did well. A few years later he was granted a ram and an inc...
I always learn the most interesting facts from your blog (besides the most interesting words :-)).
ReplyDeleteThis definitely touches my "railwayman's daughter" nerve.
Umm, I am sorry, this could be understood wrong: with interesting words I didn't mean the typo in the title but things like "poached egg daisy" or "quagmire" - you don't learn these at high school.
ReplyDeleteBill being a train buff from Europe could never understand this stupid system of each state having a different gauge. I agree with him. The narrow gauge in Queensland is plain uncomfortable on long trips. Amazing shot to capture all three in the one place.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly was crazy.
ReplyDeleteMore railway stories to come. As for those typos, I know I am a bad typist.
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