CHARLEYS CREEK 1877 --- Part 1

The telephone comes to Charleys Creek; as do the police

Dalby Herald 17.3.77

Charleys Creek –A correspondent writing from this place says :-- Our police protection has arrived, in the form of two active intelligent constables –Maurice O'brien and Richard Graham. They have already shown the benefit of their arrival by the clearing out of the night-prowling gentry, who found the place would be too hot for them after the arrival of the police. We may now rest easy at night. The only great grievance we have now is the sly-grog-selling shanty. If the Excise or Police Department will put a stop to this they will confer a great benefit on the general public, besides affording protection to the legitimate trader.

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Brisbane 24/3/77

Noted that Tenders have been called for the construction of a telegraph line from Dalby to Cooranga Creek and Charley's Creek.

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Qld Times Ipswich 1/4/1877

In part

Mr. John Byrne, who is a sub-contractor on the Roma Railway, called on us yesterday and revealed a sad state of affairs among the men employed in constructing the line. It appears that for a long time past sickness has been very prevalent, particularly on No. 8 section--Bashford and Co.'s. At first the men subscribed the sum of £42 10s.,and submitted to a deduction of 4d. in the £ on all money paid them, the contractors and sub-contractors also giving Id. in the £----- for the purpose of providing a temporary hospital and medical attendance. But the expense of the hospital was greater than the men could stand, the number of sick being increased by many who took ill while seeking for work---- and it was only in existence some three or four weeks. From that time till the present the contribution of 5d. in the £ is paid for medical attendance alone. Dr. Howlin rides once a week from Dalby to Fountain's Camp on section No. 4 -a distance of about seventy miles. It is impossible for him to give the patients all the care they require, but Mr. Byrne bears willing testimony to the fact that he does all he can. For some time past Messrs., Bashford and Co. and the sub-contractor hare been sending down the sick to Dalby at a cost of 10s. per head. From Jimbour Creek Messrs. Overend kindly take them on the ballast engine into the township, where they are furnished by the Government with free passes to enable them to reach the Toowoomba Hospital. A paragraph from the 'D. D. Gazette' in another column describes the straits to which the hospital authorities are put in endeavouring to provide for the large number thus thrown on their hands, and the miserable treatment which some of the poor fellows are receiving owing to the want of accommodation. The urgent necessity for the Government giving some assistance has, we are informed, been brought under Mr. Miles's notice, but up to the present he has turned a deaf ear to all applications. What the men themselves want is that a temporary hospital should be established at Charley's Creek, and that the Government should aid it as it does other hospitals by granting £2 for every £1 contributed by the men. Under the circumstances the request seems to us to be a very reasonable one, and we earnestly hope that Mr. Miles will see him way clear to the granting of it. Mr. Byrne informs as that several deaths have occurred on the line, one of them being an Ipswich man named James Irwin, whose parents reside at Churchill.

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We are sorry to hear from persons arriving from Dalby (says Saturday's 'D.D. Gazette) that a very great and serious amount of sickness prevails amongst the workmen engaged upon Messrs Thorn and Bashford's sections of the Dalby and Roma extensions. Great numbers of men are laid up in Dalby, and batches of six and seven sick people keep arriving in Toowoomba. 'This is a very serious affair, and with the scanty accommodation afforded by our present hospital ,some difficulty must come. It appears that where the most serious part of the sickness occurs the water is very bad and totally unfit for cooking and

drinking purposes, and we are informed that there is no likelihood of any improvement until a good deal of rain falls, and when that occurs, as a matter of course, it will be said the cure is as bad as the disease, as the course of the line runs through long low-lying flat belt of scrubby country called Gogg's forest, and then all the work will be in a regular puddle.

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Brisbane Courier 17/4/77

New South Wales Intercolonial Exhibition of 1877

in part

The fine arts section of the Queensland exhibits has attracted some notice. The pictures in this court compare in many reports favorably with the more pretentious works in the art gallery of the building. They include the following :-Two landscape oil paintings, " Head of Charley's Creek, Queensland," and " A Quiet Lagoon," by Miss Ann Wheelwright, of Kangaroo Point, Brisbane ;

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Maryborough Chronicle 19/4/77

In part

persons licensed to sell postage stamps … Mr G Conroy, Charleys Creek…

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The Queenslander 9/6/77

Tenders have been called –for telegraph offices and platforms at Jimbour Warra and Charley's Creek.

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