Railway Estate was an early suburb of Townsville and originally said to have been cotton fields. Laneways ran through the centre of most of the street blocks.
During World War II, I remember soldiers marching up Queens Road towards the railway line. They would sit against the fences during smoko. Some families constructed 'air-raid shelters' in their yards. When the siren sounded, we went two doors up to a shelter dugout in Townley's backyard. Blackout curtains were drawn at night.
The suburb housed quite a few 'high' houses and 'workers cottages' that had been moved from Charters Towers. The labour force was mostly made up of railway workers or wharf labourers.
Local stores fronting Railway Avenue were Byers Cash Store owned by Mr Digger Savage. This also housed the post office. Next to that was Mr Manson's shoe repair shop and Savage's Fish Shop. Wrights Butcher shop was next to Byers on Third Street. Across the railway line were Nethercotts Cash Store, a butchershop (owned by the other Wright brother), Mr Dick Parson's bicycle shop, another general store owned by Mrs Chin Tie and a small shop run by Mr Lister. Mr Lister's shop, across from the school, took up a small area in his front yard the size of a room and was mostly patronised by the schoolchildren. Further along was the Estate Picture Theatre and another butchershop owned by Mr Keller.
An orderman from Byers Store came around once a week in the morning to take grocery orders and returned in the afternoon with the goods. I remember Mr O'Brien from Oonoonba.
Green's and then Casey's owned the South Townsville Bus Service. Most children went to Railway Estate School or to St Francis Catholic School. At the state school, there was no uniform and children usually wore no shoes except for Fridays for sports. Many children walked to school - only the lucky ones could ride their bikes. Some students came by railmotor from Oonoonba, Stuart or Brook Hill. Fancy-dress balls were held each year and we practiced dancing the waltz, the Pride of Erin and the Barn Dance for weeks beforehand. Most of our family's costumes were made from grocery cartons and advertising signs from the local Byers Cash Store.
Sugar trains coming through the Queens Road Station dropped sugar canes off the open wagons beside the railway lines. We gathered these on our way home from school and chewed until all the sugar was gone.
Sometimes Mr Cox made his toffee umbrellas and there would be a steady stream of schoolchildren to his house in Third Street during the lunch hour to buy the toffees.
We had floods at the start of every year when high tides backed up the water at Sandy Crossing, the causeway between Railway Estate and Hermit Park. The rush of the water would be heard down the manhole outside our place and then the water would bubble back up the drains. We moved everything upstairs. A day or so later, when the water receded and the ground had dried out, things were returned downstairs. At high tides, families in the area walked down to the crossing in their togs for a swim on the causeway. If a car attempted to cross, everyone would move to the side and enjoy the wave made by its passing. Many a car had to be pushed by willing hands to the other side of the crossing.
Long live Railway Estate.
Comments (1)
Shauna Wood said
at 12:47 pm on Feb 9, 2010
I loved reading this Gaydon, just looking at the photographs of the houses bring back memories for me... thanks for sharing this history. Shauna
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