Pixley, Norman S. (Norman Stewart), d. 1988

University of Queensland eSpace

RECOLLECTIONS 
1920 Dalby — 1921 Travel to North Queensland 
by The President, NORMAN S. PIXLEY, 
C.M.G., M.B.E., V.R.D., KtG.N., F.R.HistS.Q. 
Read at the Annual Meeting of the Royal Historical 
Society of Queensland, 23 September 1982. 
A deep affection for the Navy has always been with me so, in 19111 
applied for entry to the Royal Australian Naval College, which was 
then being planned: I was at the time in the junior Naval Cadet Unit of 
Bowen House School. During 1912a letter was received from the 
Secretary to the Naval Board advising that the CoUege would not be 
established until the following year and, as entry would be confined to 
boys who attained the age oilZVi years during 1913,1 would not be 
eligible on account of my age. 
I had become an elderly person of 14 in 1912 so, in that year I 
joined the Royal Australian Naval Reserves as a cadet, and in 1914, 
the Commercial BarUdng Company of Sydney Limited at Brisbane 
Branch. In 1916 I was called up for active service with the Navy, 
became a Sub-Lieutenant in 1917 and, after demobilisation, rejoined 
the Bank at Brisbane in 1919, remaining there for a year. 
Early in 1920 I was appointed accountant at the Dalby branch of 
the bank, and after arrival by the Westem Mail train went to the 
Windsor Hotel mn by Mr. & Mrs. de Stokar and lived there during my 
sojourn in the town. The Bank had a staff of three, Mr. Dunshea the 
manager, the accountant and the ledger keeper Emie Farrar, who in 
the fiallness of tune became the General Manager. There were four 
other banks, the Q.N., Union, Wales and Commonwealth. 
Among the citizens were Victor Dmry, and Vowles, solicitors 
(Vowles was a member of the Queensland Parliament and a brother of 
Mrs. de Stokar), Doctors Hawthom and Jamison, dentists Punch and 
Killen (the father of Sir James Killen, a Minister in the Federal 
Parliament). 
The Sanitorium for tubercular patients (on the site of the present 
Dalby Hospital) situated a mile from the town, looked a desolate 
place with the dry conditions then prevailing in the district and on the 
odd Sunday walk in that direction one felt sympathy with those who 
had been brought there in the hope that the dry air would improve their 
condition. 
13 
During one week-end some of us travelled to look at Jimbour 
House, a large and most impressive residence built by Joshua Peter 
BeU in the I870's. Unfortunately on our visit the house was 
unoccupied and showed many signs of neglect, though later it was 
bought by the Russell family who restored it to its former glory. The 
picnic races followed by the annual baU were much enjoyed, butthe 
highlight of the year was the first visit by an aeroplane to Dalby. 
Everyone looked towards the east untU the plane appeared on the 
horizon and landed on the racecourse. It was piloted by Captain Roy 
King, who took people up on short flights over the town. I went up on 
one of these and took a snap shot of Dalby from the plane with a 
Kodak Brownie box camera. 
Not long afterwards Rowley McComb arrived in a plane and made 
a forced landing. He stayed at the Windsor Hotel and invited me to 
make a short test flight with him, which I readily accepted. The 
following week Darcy Donkin, a well known grazier came in his plane 
piloted by Bird, who afterwards became manager of Castrol m 
Brisbane. DorUdn offered his plane for several flights in aid of charity. 
Tickets were sold in raffles for each flight, and in one of these I drew a 
winning ticket. Some of my Dalby friends thought it a Httle unfair that 
I should have been up in a plane three times when they had not been in 
a plane at all, but realised it was the luck of the game. 
A visitor to the Windsor Hotel for a few days was Col. Harry 
Murray, V.C, CM.G., D.CM., etc., regarded I believe as Australia's 
most decorated soldier of World War I. He was quite a man and we 
enjoyed his stay. I met him in 1942 at Townsville, where he was 
commanding an army camp at the racecourse. 
Conde, the accountant at the Union Bank, who Uved on the 
premises, owned a fine gramophone with a complete set of records of 
'Rigoletto": one or two of us from the other banks who were music 
lovers, spent some enjoyable evenings with him. 
Private Transport 
Farrar, Mervyn Parrott of the Bank of New South Wales and 
myself enjoyed the Sundays when we were invited to teimis at the 
Palmers, who owned a property five or six miles from Dalby. We had 
to arrange our transport and on such occasions the green grocer in 
Curmington Street kindly lent us his horse and a set of hamess. 
Having hamessed the horse we led him along the street to another 
obliging retailer who owned a sulky, which he made available to us. I 
had a small gramophone with a few records. One of us held the 
gramophone on his lap, winding it up and playing the records so that 
we had music as we drove along — a foreruimer of the present day car 
radios and cassettes! A hurricane lamp was carried for the return 
14 
joumey after supper, and of course we had to return the horse and 
sulky to their owners on arrival at Dalby. 
Our transport situation improved when I bought a 1914 model four-
cylinder single seater Buick from Dr. Hawthom, which had been 
newly painted locally. It had acetylene headlights connected by 
mbber tubing to a rather handsome brass acetylene gas generator on 
the mnning board; carbide was placed in the lower section, above 
which a compartment contained water from which drops regulated by 
a small valve, fell on to the carbide below to generate the gas. After 
supper on our first visit to the Palmers in the car, we prepared for 
departure. Parrott opened the bonnet and turned on the petrol tap at 
the carburettor whilst, after opening the water valve on the generator 
and waiting for a minute or two, I applied a lighted match to the 
headhght bumers, but nothing happened. Visions of having to use a 
hurricane lamp for illumination, as we did in our horse-and-buggy 
days a week or two before, were fortunately dispelled on discovering 
that Parrott, when closing the bonnet had nipped the mbber tube 
connecting the generator with the headlights. 
The Prince of Wales arrived at Brisbane in August, and I had been 
invited by Mrs. William Collins to spend a night at Nindooinbah, 
where she had made arrangements to entertain the Royal party. There 
was also an invitation from the Websters of "Whinstanes" to a ball at 
which H.R.H. and his entourage were to be present. Thanks to Mr. 
Dunshea's permission and by travelhng to Brisbane and back by 
overnight goods train with passenger carriages attached, I was able to 
attend both functions with a minimum period of absence from the 
bank. 
In December, having been granted a week's leave for Christmas, I 
set forth for Brisbane in the Buick with my luggage firmly strapped on 
a wooden platform behind the driver's seat. For much of the way to 
Oakey, thick prickly pear several feet high had advanced to the fence 
on both sides of the road. After spending the night in Toowoomba I 
left early next morning and arrived at Brisbane without mishap, 
though most of the road from Ipswich onward, which ran over the 
Little Liverpool Range, was extremely unpleasant. 
During the latter part of 19201 had given some thought to my future 
in the bank, which would mean service for some years in country 
branches — a long way from the sea. I also had a great love for 
Moreton Bay, added to which it was mentioned in the press that the 
Naval Board was considering the resumption of Naval Reserve 
Training which had been temporarily suspended at the end of the war. 
For these reasons I felt it would be wise to retum and live in Brisbane 
and, on arriving home, discussed the matters with my father who said 
that he knew a wholesale firm which intended making an appointment 
15 
to their sales staff in the near future'. Having called on the firm and 
being accepted for the position, I went to the Brisbane office of the 
bank and tendered my resignation. 
NORTHWARD BOUND 
Early in 1921 I joined a Brisbane firm as sales representative, my 
territory covering the towns from Brisbane to Caims, and the 
Atherton Tableland. 
At that time there were several missmg links in the railway line 
mnning North. The rail line from Brisbane extended only to Yamba 
north of Rockhampton. The prosperous sugar town of Mackay was 
isolated except for communication by sea for passengers, cargo and 
mails, as the railway south from Bowen went only to Proserpine. The 
line south from Townsville ended at Ayr and Home Hill, while that to 
the north finished at Ingham. The railway from Caims south went 
only as far as InnisfaU. 
Thus to cover my territory required a combination of sea and rail 
travel. Rail to Bundaberg, Maryborough, Gladstone, Rockhampton 
and Mount Morgan, ship from Port Alma to Mackay and from 
Mackay to Bowen. 
Bowen to Proserpine by rail thence by ship to Townsville, rail from 
Townsville to Ayr, Home Hill, Charters Towers ^nd Ingham, on by 
ship to Caims, then by rail to InnisfaU and towns on the Atherton 
Tableland. Two small ships, the A.U.S.N. Company'sKuranda and 
Howard Smith's Mourilyan maintained a regular service with 
passengers and mails between Townsville and Caims through 
Hinchinbrook Channel. 
TAY(360 tons), built 1901 
16 
BINGERA (2092 tons), built 1905 
It was also possible on occasions to take passage in ships belonging 
to Bums Philp, Eastem and Australia Line and AustraHa & Oriental 
Companies. On one occasion during a strike of coastal shipping, five 
of us shared a two-berth cabin on the ovemight trip from Townsville to 
Caims in the old Tai-Yuan, a clipper bow ship of the A & O Line: two 
slept in the burUis and three on the deck of the cabin — somewhat 
fitfully I might say. 
When arriving by train late at night in some of the smaUer towns, 
hotels would have a blackboard with the numbers of vacant rooms 
chalked on it for your convenience. I covered my territory, which also 
included towns on the Kingaroy line, every six weeks. 
WYANDRA (4058 tons), built 1902 
17 
KURANDA (928 tons), built 1901 
Sometimes it was convenient to travel direct by ship from Brisbane 
and work on the way south, landing at Port Alma thence to 
Rockhampton. 
The A.U.S.N. Company's Bingera, 2092 tons, ran a weekly 
service from Brisbane to Townsville, calling at Gladstone for the 
maUs (which came by rail from Brisbane), thence to Flat Top Island 
off Mackay to land and pick up passengers and mail in the company's 
tender Tay, thence to Bowen and Townsville. The retum joumey 
omitted Gladstone. Other ships of the Line were Wyreena, Wyandra, 
Arawatta and Wodonga. 
<f 
•k%« « 
ARAMAC (2114 tons), built 1889 
Ships of the Howard Smith Company on the mn were Cooma and 
Bombala, their tender at Mackay being the Iceberg: I travelled in all 
the ships mentioned during 1921. 
THE FIRST TRIP 
I left Brisbane for Townsville in Bums Philp's Montoro early in 
January 1921. Included among the passengers were F.C Urquhart 
on his way to Darwin to take up his appointment as Administrator 
accompanied by his wife and daughter. He had just retired as 
Queensland Police Commissioner. 
After working Charters Towers, Ingham, Ayr, Home Hill and 
Townsville, I took passage to Caims, thence by rail to InnisfaU and 
the towns on the Atherton Tableland. Retuming to Townsville I 
boarded the Bingera for Mackay. A cyclone developed after sailing, 
so we had to take shelter m Whitsunday Passage for some time. After 
the weather eased, Bingera proceeded to Flat Top Island and 
anchored under its lee: there was a fairly heavy sea mnning with rain 
falling, nevertheless the little Tay came alongside and got her lines to 
the ship, but the vessels surged apart and the Hues parted. She made 
one more attempt and, this tune, another passenger and myself stood 
on Bingera's rail, jumping on Tay's deck as she surged up alongside, 
our suitcases and the mails being quickly lowered into her hold from 
Bingera's derrick, though one of the suitcases went into the sea during 
the operation. 
As the Tay fell away, her hues parted again, and she made off for 
Mackay carrying back the passengers who had been hopefully waiting 
to board the Bingera for Brisbane. As we approached the mouth of the 
Pioneer River my companion gloomily remarked: "That was my 
suitcase which was lost overboard, so my trip to Mackay will be 
useless. I came here to do an embalming job and all my equipment was 
in it!" 
Dave the "handy man" at the Grand Hotel, Mackay was at hand, 
whatever the hour, to look after those arriving or departing. He was 
also a mine of useful information and consequently was a popular and 
almost legendary figure among the regular travelling fratemity. 
Leaving Mackay in the tender/ceier^ with other passengers, some 
of whom had been unable to join the Bingera from the Tay a few days 
before owing to the weather, we boarded the Cooma off Flat Top 
Island and went direct to Brisbane. I then completed the first trip by 
visiting the towns in the southem portion of my territory from 
Rockhampton to Mount Morgan south by rail and, after a few days in 
Brisbane, was ready to go north once more. 
On one occasion a group of us was stranded at Caims awaiting 
passage to Townsville in the Kanowna, which was doing a trip for the 
19 
E & A Line, but was several days overdue. On two momings, looking 
out from the Strand Hotel verandah, smoke on the horizon raised our 
hopes but each time it was the dredge Trinity Bay retuming after 
dumping the spoil from dredging the channel cutting. 
During the day of the second dissappointment I went on board the 
Ceduna, an old Adelaide Steamship freighter and had a chat to the 
captain who was indulging in his hobby of wood-working at a 
carpenter's bench. The ship was sailing for Townsville that evening 
and he said he would be glad to take me if I did not mind sleeping on 
the deck as there was no spare cabin. His offer was accepted with 
alacrity. However my movements had not gone unobserved: some of 
my companions must have viewed my visit to the ship with suspicion, 
and followed the clues, for that night when the ship sailed, five others 
stretched out with me on the deck for the overnight trip. 
There were other "identities" who regularly travelled the North. 
Among them was Bill Northern representing Johnson and Johnson, 
who said that he realised his responsibility in providing the where-
withal to powder the thousands of babies in Queensland. In 
subsequent years he won a medal at the Tokyo Olympics for sailing. 
He and Dawn Fraser created a minor sensation with their antics 
during the grand march past at the conclusion of the Games. 
Another was cheerful Sam Harris, who represented a Queensland 
manufacturer of windmills, as at that time the cane fields around Ayr, 
which is in a dry belt, looked a forest of windmills used for irrigation. 
TRAVEL BY RAIL 
In the North, as most of the trips were made in daylight hours, 
sleepers were not required. On the retum journey from Ayr to 
Townsville the train which left at an early hour of the morning, made a 
stop at the small town of Guthalungra where breakfast was obtainable 
for which we were quite ready. For this reason someone had 
christened it "Gutsanunga", by which name it was referred to by 
some of the more vulgar travellers. On the coast between Rockhampton 
and Brisbane, sleepers were always used: these were all Pullman type, 
the seats being transformed into sleeping berths on each side of the 
carriage. At the end of each a section was curtained off for ladies. 
In the early moming two cheerful conductors, one with a large 
teapot and the other with tea cups, woke us and were welcome. On one 
occasion, two English women were in the sleeping section of our 
carriage: the conductors knocked on the wooden section then drawing 
the curtain to one side entered saying — "Coming ready or not". I did 
not hear what the response, if any, was. 
On one trip from Rockhampton it was sad to see three lepers who 
were travelling on the train in the care of a police constable with whom 
20 
they got out to stretch their legs at various stations. The three, who 
were youngish men, were on the way to spend the rest of their lives at 
the leper station on Peel Island in Moreton Bay. 
It is of interest to remember that all of the considerable roUing stock 
on the railways of North Queensland, including of course the 
locomotives and the rails, had been transported by sea to Bowen, 
Townsville, Caims and Cooktown. 
In TownsviHe I called on Sister Kenny, the remarkable woman who 
had established a clinic for the treatment of infantile paralysis in the 
Queen's Hotel building. My uncle. Dr. Aeneas McDonneH of 
Toowoomba had suggested my paying her a visit, as Sister Kermy had 
done her nursing training in his hospital and it was he who gave her 
encouragement during the early and difficult days of her long cmsade 
which lay ahead. 
(In later years the film "Sister Kermy" portrayed Dr. McDonnell 
as a dark-haired Scot who spoke with a strong Scottish "burr", and 
that depiction bore little resemblance to the real Dr. McDormell, who 
was bom at Kangaroo Point, graduated at Sydney University, and 
had greyish hair at the time of Sister Kenny's appearance on the 
Australian nursing scene.) 
I met in Townsville on my first visit a number of contemporaries of 
my father, who was there during the 1880's. These were Cradock of 
Alfred Shaw's, Cummins of Cummins & Campbell, Green of the 
Townsville Bulletin, J. WiUmett of J. WUhnett & Sons, Spencer 
Hopkins of HoIIis Hopkins, and L.C. Woolrych of L.C. Woolrych & 
Son. Woolrych, with my father, had won the doubles termis champion-
ship of North Queensland on several occasions. With their famihes 
and other friends whom I met in the coastal towns from Maryborough 
to Caims, I maintained the friendships during my many trips during 
the subsequent thirty-five years. 
At the time of which I have spoken, the closing of one area of rich 
achievement in North Queensland and the opening of another was not 
far off. By 1924 the isolated sections of the railway along the coastline 
had been joined together, so at last Brisbane and Caims were 
connected by rail. In terms of communication and supply, the rail link 
was of immense benefit to those who lived in the North. It paved the 
way for the burst of development which was to come, along the 
northem coast, in the vast hinterland of which Townsville was the 
port, and the wonderful country, including the Atherton Tableland in 
the Caims area. 
All of this was richly deserved by the fine people of North 
Queensland, whose capable and experienced hands were ready to 
grasp the new opportunities that offered. 


Recollections 1920 Dalby — 1921 Travel to North Queensland

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Recollections 1920 Dalby — 1921 Travel to North Queensland

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