The Busy Bungaree Station
At spud harvest time, Bungaree became the busiest station in Victoria. Below Mr Eddie Keeble remembers what is was like.
Eddie Keeble remembers the station. Laura Wade drew the picture above.
The rail was the life blood of Bungaree...items of farm machinery arrived by rail truck and a crane would be used to unload it...bullock teams would arrive with jinkers loaded with telephone poles from the Bullarook forest. The poles were loaded by crane onto special rail trucks...on one occasion I saw rail trucks being loaded with cabbages, grown on Mr Wilmot's property at Bullarook, for transport to Melbourne. Eddie Keeble.
The rail was the life blood of Bungaree...items of farm machinery arrived by rail truck and a crane would be used to unload it...bullock teams would arrive with jinkers loaded with telephone poles from the Bullarook forest. The poles were loaded by crane onto special rail trucks...on one occasion I saw rail trucks being loaded with cabbages, grown on Mr Wilmot's property at Bullarook, for transport to Melbourne. Eddie Keeble.
Max Lawless remembers how busy the station was:
People, spuds, chaff, oats and wheat could get transported. One of the tracks went out to the racecourse. The others tracks were used by the Ballarat to Melbourne trains to transport the goods.
The mail was hung on a stand and a man on the train would hook the bag off as the train went past. That way the train did not need to stop.
Some of the Workers' Names
Steve Lawless was one of the workers at the railway station. Daniel Brady worked at the station for 10 years as a head porter from Dunnstown. He left the station on September 1900.
Steve Lawless was one of the workers at the railway station. Daniel Brady worked at the station for 10 years as a head porter from Dunnstown. He left the station on September 1900.
Click here to listen to interviews.