Hunter Transport

The word transport arrived to NSW in the distant past.

The fact that it arrived, legally that is, is of minor importance. What is important is why it did.

It arrived in a most inhuman way. When England decided to rid herself of people it became convenient to banish them to the antipodes.

The process needed a name. The lawmakers of the time decided on a word that became synonymous with punishment,” transportation”.

Transportation, constituted a cruel imposition on the unlucky subjects’ physique, as one first had to survive the rigours of the voyage. Those who did were qualified to begin the rest of their sentence as convicts in what was to become a colony of the British Empire. The rest is history.

First Step

The vastness of the land must have posed an awesome burden on the new arrivals, both the banished and the enforcers. Apart for shipping the variety of transport modes was limited to animal traction. Not that humans were exempt from this duty.

For at least the first 50 years the colony relied on the most primitive and arduous forms of transport. That an attempt was made to initiate industry and some form of export apart from subsisting is remarkable. The fact that it succeeded proves that ambition wasn’t the only quality of the colonials.

The discovery of coal at Hunter River provided the impetus that fuelled the imagination of Governor King. His perseverance resulted in the establishment of an industrial development that transformed the transport system in the Colony. It also created the most consistent wealth-producing region in the country. It confirmed Lieutenant Shortland’s predictions: ” In a little while this river will be a great acquisition to the settlement.”

The transport revolution was spurred by the need to move goods and people.

Shipping was adequate for coastal and export trade. But the colonists had their sights on the vast expanses of the inland, the rivers offered limited assistance that sufficed for a brief period.

 “By the mid-century mark the Hunter Region had developed an effective transport system, given the current state of technology. Shipping was by far the most important part of the industry and until about 1830 sailing vessels carried virtually all of the Hunter’s imports and exports as well as the great majority of the people who entered or left the region. Thereafter paddle steamers took over the passenger trade and carried most of the general cargo but sailing vessels continued the transportation of coal, timber wool, grain and the other bulky produce of the area.” (J Turner – Transport in the Hunter)

The part land transport played during this time was subordinate to coastal and River-trade, but one must give it some credit for making the settlement of the vast interior possible. The role of the draymen and coach operators was vital. They took their trade beyond the boundaries of navigation and eventually west of the Dividing Range.

Without them development would have been limited to the coast and river valleys. By 1850, however, railways were being contemplated and their introduction heralded a partnership that was to see the integration of land and marine transport systems. A new horizon was opening to the stream of new land settlers.

The railway first appeared in the Hunter Valley in the humble form of horse draw tramway, but by the mid-1850’s the locomotive had steamed in. Both the AA Company and J Mitchell’s Burwood Estate had railways connecting their mines to the port. Rivalry between the two companies necessitated an act of the NSW Legislative Council that allowed simultaneous operations.

The Hunter River Railway Company was established on September 30 1853 with the aim of linking Maitland and Newcastle by private railway. By the middle of 1855 the first section was nearly completed, the second contract let to William Wright. But there was ‘a growing awareness that the railways requirements of the rapidly developing Australian colonies could not be left to private enterprise because of the scale of expenditure…” (J Gunn – Along parallel lines)

On 30 March 1857 Governor Sir William Denison boarded the train at Honeysuckle Point and arrived fifty minutes later at East Maitland after having stopped along the line to inspect the tracks’ engineering features.

“As R. G. Preston, the Historian of the Great Northern Railway has shown, the statistics for its first year of operation are impressive. There were only four locomotives, twenty-one cars and thirty-six wagons but 29,449 passengers and 1590 tons of goods were carried in 1857. Moreover income exceeded expenditure by 2,976 pounds, the enterprise was off to a good start.” (J Turner – Transport in the Hunter).

Despite its flying start railways were still many years behind steamships but this was the beginning. 

Development

A meeting of Newcastle businessmen in June 1875 formed the Newcastle Steamship Company, with the idea of furthering their interests. This move was a reflection of an established dislike for the Maitland – Morpeth commercial group, probably because of their priorities in dredging the river channels rather than the Port of Newcastle.

The Company’s ship KEMBLA covered the sixty miles between Sydney and Newcastle in four and a half hours on her maiden voyage, a very competitive achievement as documented by Terry Cullen.

Confronted by such opposition other companies slashed freight and passenger fares, with one company abandoning its route to Morpeth. It seemed bizarre that customers who used the service for four decades should lose it because of the rivalry between shipping companies.

These tactics did not stop the success of the Newcastle Company and a profit of 30% was announced at its first annual meeting, and in 1879, was able to buy from Australian Steam Navigation Company its Hunter River trade and the entire fleet engaged in it. The Newcastle Directory and Almanac for the year 1880 stated with a proud announcement by Alexander Brown: “ The above Company having purchased the entire fleet of the ASN Coy, in the Hunter River trade, are now in the position to afford the greatest possible facilities to Shippers and Passengers between Morpeth, Newcastle and Sydney.”

However change was in the air, the days of the paddle steamers were coming to an end with the advent of the propeller driven ships. Technology was advancing on several fronts, with the coastal railway system advancing toward Sydney.

Push of Progress

The Great Northern Railway had always been perceived as competition for the shipping trade plying between Morpeth and Newcastle. Trains took about an hour to complete the trip from Newcastle in any weather, compared with about three hours by steamer. As a result shipping lost many of their customers to trains. But trains had to yield back their advantage to ships when passengers or goods were bound for Sydney or other ports.

During the 1880s, a period of unprecedented prosperity in the Australian colonies, the steamship trade remained in the hands of established companies, but the golden age of steamers was waning fast, the coastal railway system advanced and developed.

Significant for the Hunter Valley was the Hawkesbury Railway Bridge Project.  “ Commenced in 1883 and complete except for the Hawkesbury Railway Bridge in 1887, this line linked the Great Northern Railway, which had been a separate railway system for thirty years, to Sydney and the rest of NSW. This had significant effects on many aspects of life in the Hunter Valley, especially on its shipping services.” (J Turner – Transport in the Hunter)

Before completion of the bridge a ferry service connected the two sections of the line to Sydney. The bridge was opened in 1889 and what was the last impediment to cargo travel fell away, and so did shipping trade between the capital of NSW and Newcastle. The railway became a powerful rival of the shipping companies, forcing them to amalgamate. On 1 January 1892 a new company was formed, the Newcastle and Hunter River Steamship Coy, which nominated Newcastle as its terminus. 

However, the company’s operations continued including the Morpeth service but in 1931, on the eve of the centenary of the first steamship service to the Hunter River port, the company withdrew its operations and its fleet.

A Binary System

While the railways were engaged in the struggle of survival with the shipping companies in the Hunter, other developments were taking place. The most significant development in the coal industry included development of colliery railways. A new dimension of shipping transport was emerging on a parallel line, the coastal shipping trade. Both developed as a consequence of and dependent on transport history.

The Great Northern Railway (GNR) became the bridge from the mines of the Hunter Valley to the port of Newcastle. Shipping lines became the highways connecting Newcastle to the other ports of the Australian mainland and other export destinations. A system that has survived to this day.

“The late 19th century also witnessed an expansion of colliery rail systems in the Lake Macquarie area. Railway lines served collieries in the western Lake Macquarie areas and to the north in the West Wallsend area. In the east the Redhead Coal Company opened its railway in the early 1890s. This line, later to serve the Belmont area, was destined to be the last 19th century colliery railway linking the last 19th century colliery in the Hunter Valley; its operations spanned a century. Its rich and varied history is traced in detail in two Ed Tonks publications, Adamstown via Fernleigh and Lambton by the Sea” (J. Turner – Transport in the Hunter).

The increase in efficiency of both mines and railways produced unprecedented demands for shipping activity. In addition to coal, general cargo and the timber trade were clamoring for shipping services. But shipping companies were being cautious, having learned from past mistakes.  By 1890 coastal shipping had reached a new scale. It eventually spawned a proliferation of crafts prepared to serve any customer. Enter the “Mosquito Fleet”.

Maritime historian Ronald Parsons who compiled the Newcastle Ship Register recorded an average of thirteen of these crafts. This number excludes those that were registered in Sydney. To understand the true nature of this kind of maritime activity which Terry Callen calls “humdrum but dangerous shipping” one has to note that many of these vessels were smaller than some contestants in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. Accordingly Callen has chronicled the flesh and blood exploits of these small coasters, which often carried no more than a crew of two. These small colliers were liable to be in serious trouble in case of bad weather, and many ships and lives were lost along the NSW coast.

Toward the end of the century the shipping trade had become the domain of large shipping companies mainly organised on an inter-colonial basis.

On January 1 1900 The Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate carried shipping advertisements from the following companies:  Union Steamship Coy. Huddard, Parker A Company’s Line, Mc Ilwrigth, Mc Eachern & Co Ltd., Dalgety Co. Limited, Howard Smith Line, White Star Line, P & O Company of Royal Mail and German Norddeutcher Lloyd advertised return tickets to London and Europe @: Saloon, 55 – 110 pounds. The only advert from a mosquito boat, the Barque Grenada, was of a different nature probably reflecting the conditions of the time, it said: “ CAPTAIN PUTT will not be responsible for any debt or debts contracted by any of his crew whilst in this port without his written authority”. Hard times indeed.

Preference for coal transport was now given to the larger ships, bulk loads being more economical, catering for both local and export delivery. Soon after the need for the Mosquito Fleet disappeared.

Reticulation

Almost unnoticed road transport was gaining momentum. Its progress was less spectacular than that of rail or maritime modes, nonetheless its significance lay in the ability to reach areas that could not be served otherwise.

Given the vastness of inland areas road transport was essentially needed.

The first century of settlement brought a realistic understanding of the immense opportunities awaiting those who dared to tame the wilderness of the inland. The Hunter Region was slowly being settled, and the most adventurous settlers were already spilling west of the Dividing Range. But roads were yet to arrive.

The principal roads were linking Maitland – Morpeth and the environs, the link to the south reaching Wollombi. Major problems were encountered when water had to be crossed, for bridges were inexistent, the road surfaces were plain dirt.

Surfaces improved when the main street of West Maitland was sealed. The Singleton road was gravelled, and the Singleton to Muswellbrook road completed in the late 1870s. Then construction began of the Muswellbrook to Murrurundi Route. J Turner writes:  …” the southern ascent of the Warland Range (to the immediate north of Wingen) was widened to 21 feet and metalled to assist teams over that difficult climb.”  These improvements were Government projects but partly paid by ten toll bars on the road to the interior, and by tolls on the ferries at Singleton and Aberdeen.

In 1857, 21 days were required to carry freight by road over the 119 miles between Newcastle and Murrurundi. By 1864 the trip took only 8 days, the cost per ton a mere 6 pounds 10 shillings.

But bottlenecks at the watercourses continued. The old bridge over Wallis Creek between Maitland and Morpeth was replaced and the bridge over the Hunter River at Maitland was completed in 1869. Bridges were completed over Williams River at Clarence Town and the Paterson River at Paterson in 1880 and 1888 respectively. These bridges replaced slow river punts and opened faster roads.

Better roads and improved technology were producing a more efficient transport system. New vehicles appeared and a change of traction animals also occurred.

The dray had changed slowly, but the wagon that replaced it certainly sustained technical modifications until it produced a reliable and stable four-wheel truck.

In Bullock Teams: the Building of a Nation –  Olaf Ruhen states: …” on any good road, too, the wagon’s greater efficiency made it replace the dray. Not only did it carry a greater load, it carried it more easily, and loading did not require to be balanced since it was distributed over four wheels….”. But whilst drays could also be hauled by horses, wagons owing to the increased load (up to six tons) were left undisputed to the bullock teams. As the wagon evolved wagons ruled the roads. The wagon of 1915 had 6 wheels and could carry 15 tons, in fact it was more a question of how much the road could take and teams could pull than what the wagon could carry.

The use of such massive wagons was probably restricted to transporting wool bales to the Great Northern Railway stations west of the Dividing Range, as it was unlikely that such loads were needed in the Valley where railway services were frequent; they were a general feature of the outback. But they could have been used occasionally to move timber from the great forests to the north and south of the Valley.

The Carriers

In the late part of the 19^th Century carriers exploited the flexibility of horses for general use in the towns of the colony of NSW. They were the preferred traction power of a widespread occupation, the carters. The importance of the profession is revealed by Bailliere’s Post Office Directory for 1867, in Morpeth it listed 400 businesses, farms and factories, among them were 17 carters and carriers: “…Edward Bragg, Michael Breeny, Anthony Bull, James Dwyer, James Ferguson Garretty, Cornelius Hall, Matthew Laidlow, James Marshall, Michael Mc Carrol, Arthur Mc Donald, Hugh Mc Laughlan, Richard Robinson, Joseph Sanderson, Robert Saunders, Thomas Spinks and Joseph Triklebank.

This number of carriers reflects how the services of a railway line and a river port could influence the importance of a small town like Morpeth. Ten years later 41 carriers were listed in the town of West Maitland, and East Maitland had 29. However, until the end of the century the carrying trade was dominated by small business, often on a scale of one man-one vehicle basis.

It is to be noted that Newcastle Council had issued licences to other 25 carriers who were: Wm Alderson, P Burke, J Copland, F Giles, J Howell, J Livermore, P Myers, J Rodgers, E Spence, J Wiggins, WS Bacon, W Bradley, – Doherty, J Hendry, L Innes, J Lynch, J Pit, J Ryan, R Ward, Mary Ball, J Cavanagh, – Fenwick, W Herman, G King, H Moate, – Porter, J Snipe, W Watson. They served 15 suburban areas.

Bacon, a former shipping captain became a prosperous businessman, shipping agent and general carrier owing his success to previous maritime experience.

To be noted in the interest of Hunter Valley transport history is a butcher business owned by Walter Edwin Bramble, born in England in 1857. He became enormously successful and his butchery was one of the largest in the Valley. J Turner writes that in 1888 the editor of Aldine History of New South Wales reported “Mr Bramble owns the premises, which are thoroughly complete and in every way suitable for carrying on the business. He has the largest sausage -machine in the colony driven by steam, also chaff cutting and corn cracking machines….”.    It may be significant, also, that neither Bacon nor Bramble belonged to the Newcastle Chamber of Commerce at that time, and, both men abstained from drinking alcoholic beverages. Brambles are recorded as a large carrying contractor employing 14 men and 35 horses.

The Industry

When gold was discovered in the Upper Hunter, around Moonan Brook and at Copeland, in the vicinity of the Barrington Ranges, the carters had to cope with increased demand for their services. This remote area of the Hunter was not served by either the rail or ship. From 1877 to 1885 the Copeland district had 5 mines and, at times employed 3000 people.

The development of road transport as an organised industry began in earnest when various carriers undertook to supply the mining towns and take away the produce of the mines. The latter activity, when gold bullion was being carried, involved police escort. Prominent in serving the needs of the area, was the most famous coaching company in Australia, Cobb & Co.

The establishment of a smelter at Cockle Creek, to the south of Newcastle, was to further stimulate the transport industry. It allowed George Hawkins to start a carrying business that was to develop into one of the largest in the Valley. Whilst significant, the operations of Sulphide Corporation were not the principal reason for the development of large-scale transport in Newcastle. If smelting was to be the future industry of the city, it wasn’t silver-lead and zinc, but iron.

Ten years were to pass before the arrival of the Broken Hill Pty Co., but the Port Waratah Works were to influence the transport industry more than any other in the history of the city.

The Movers

The new century provided more challenges to road transport. The year 1891saw Newcastle with a population of 50,000. This increased to 54,000 by 1911. Maitland was experiencing a period of stagnation. West Maitland, East Maitland and Morpeth registered less than 12,000 residents. However, these were large towns for those times. Services catering for passengers other than the railways were badly needed.

Trains left a lot to be desired when it came to comfort and convenience. This prompted the Newcastle Chronicle to write: “…great dissatisfaction exists among a great many of the travelling public as regards the ventilation and adaptability of some of the second class carriages now running on the Great Northern Railway. The seats are uncomfortable and have no support for the back. There is no fresh air at all in the second-hand coffins. Brawny men smoke, babies scream and the windows are screwed tight.”

Extensive mining in the suburbs caused roads to be in a deplorable state. More often than not pitfalls would occur creating dangerous situations especially at night. Despite these dreadful conditions horse-drawn omnibus services became common in the second half of the century, in 1881 James Morris of Tighes Hill provided a service of wagonettes and omnibuses to the city.

In his descriptive 200 Years of Transport in the Hunter J. Turner writes: “Some of the omnibus services developed into quite large concerns but none so extensive as Peter James’s Newcastle to Minmi via Wallsend line which also ran branch services to West Wallsend, Killingworth and cokle Creek. At its peak James had forty buses and two hundred horses.”

Trams and all

The arrival of the steam tram in Newcastle was heralded in 1885 when John Fletcher MLA made a case that the second largest city in the colony be provided with its own tramway. Sydney of course had the service operating since 1879. The single line from Newcastle to Plattsburg via Hamilton New Lambton and Lambton would cost 34,150 pounds, and the line was to be in operation by 1887.

The tramcars were self propelled and had a double-decker arrangement, soon to be modified to allow them to pass under the overhead bridge of the Lambton colliery which spanned over the public road! The modification reduced the carrying capacity from 80 to 40 passengers. The introduction was delayed several months for a change of route demanded by the colliery.

The service, which operated for 63 years, was not without incidents. The inaugural ceremony at 2pm of 5 July 1887 was marred by a breakdown and a derailment at Lambton Hill and Lambton. As the Newcastle Morning Herald put it, “…the Mayor, who went out resplendent in his robes, had to be brought back in a cart like a coster monger”. (J Turner – Transport in the Hunter) The offending tram returned empty at 10pm. The red faced official party made their way back home with their guests in omnibuses and carts.

Turner comments: “The tribulations of its opening would have provided rich materials for those great satirists of the Victorian way of life, William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. It was a long time since the town wits had so much fun”

In Australia rumours about the horseless carriage circulated about 1890, but no one took them seriously. Three years later David Shearer of Adelaide produced his steam carriage, it transported 9 passengers around the city at 25 miles an hour. Herbert Thomson of Melbourne went into production in 1900 and sold ten of them. At that time there was nothing to indicate that motor vehicles had any future as a mode of transport.

The first motorcar arrived in Newcastle in 1905, motor lorries soon followed.

The first 20 years of the 20^th Century went without producing significant changes in the Hunter valley, the advent of the Steelworks, the Great War increased the demand for transport services, but there were few signs of the impact the motor vehicle would make on society, aviation was regarded more as a toy than an invention that would revolutionise the future.

Boom Times

The South Maitland Coal fields had been booming for some time, the coal rush had transformed the quite rural areas of Kurri Kurri and Cessnock into very busy towns and nearly every mine had its own railway, in time they became The South Maitland Railways. The Great Northern line had reached Merriwa by 1917 and six years later the link to Dubbo was completed. A web of spur lines connected rural areas of the North West and the North Coast to Newcastle. Further developments of coal mines to the south of Newcastle produced more private railways. The collieries they served, Stockton Borehole, Rhondda, West Wallsend and Killingworth, all joined the main line at cokle Creek. Further South the Newstan mine also depended on its link to the Sydney-Newcastle line. 

The BHP had internal railways that served the needs of steel production and was linked to the main northern line at Mayfield. The BHP Journal in 1976 was commenting with Leon Oberg: “… while railways have played a major role in the development of Australia, few will realise the role railways played in BHP”

The first motor vehicle to be driven in Australia was driven in Melbourne in 1897.

It had a Gorgon oil engine, a chain drive and steering levers. Nevertheless, the first Motor Registry in the Hunter was introduced in 1910, it reveals details of the pioneers of motoring in the Region. Cars and trucks manufacturers included: Buick, Benz, Wolseley and Talbot. Pioneers of the engine age in the Hunter were Brambles who operated a FIAT lorry L 1123 rated 20-30 horsepower; Hawkins operated an International truck bought for 350 pounds. The Register of Motor lorries identified it as IHC Lorry, L1589, this occurred in 1915 according to Joyce Watt author of Hawkins’ biography.

People’s imagination was often captured by aeroplanes, but they made a minimal contribution to national economy compared to other transport modes. There were 44,443 motor vehicles in NSW in 1939, this did not include 83,997 Motor Lorries. By 1940 six major carriers ha joined Newcastle Chamber of Commerce: WE Brambles and Sons, HH Chadwick, the Gale Brothers, AF Toll who had taken over Bacon’s business, J Woolley and Sons, whilst H G Hawkins was not a member of the Chamber of Commerce.

In 1931 the Chief Commissioner for Railways urged citizens, particularly business people to boycott private motor transport, and to use rail services to transport goods. The Labor Government of JT Lang passed an Act of Parliament and instituted a Board of Commissioners for that purpose. Despite the depth of the Great Depression, and with the state as close as it has ever been to revolution the Transport Coordination Act was accepted; it was the beginning of a number of measures, including registration fees, petrol, and road taxes that were to severely impact all facets of road transport.

Public Transport

The revolution in the freight transport industry continued, with the introduction of palletised cargo and ship-based forklifts at the end of the war. All these changes were to lead to the long due transformation of passenger services in the Valley. Motorbuses became a formidable competitor of trams and railways. Mobility and flexibility was their advantage, comfort too was what the public expected. Private buses had a better choice of routes and competitive cost.

The government considered substituting trams with buses, but local authorities insisted the trams be kept, thus the system was electrified and continued for a further twenty years. Private bus services continued to expand and reached about every town and suburb in the Valley and Lake Macquarie. S Fogg was a leading pioneer of services in the Newcastle to Port Stephens route in 1935, it relied on the punt service at Hexham.

The Rover Motors Pty Ltd of Cessnock was established a decade before World War II, it takes the credit for pioneering the use of semi-trailer configured buses, successfully demonstrated to the Department of Transport in Sydney in 1944. Some services were eventually taken over by the Government when it introduced double-decker buses camouflaged during the war.

In the meantime railways were being restructured, from 1950 onward Newcastle steam engines were replaced with more powerful diesel powered locomotives. But even this failed to cope with the booming post war economy, the slack was taken up by motor transport. The Government increased railway charges and the taxes to interstate road hauliers to make them less competitive with rail transport.

The Act was disallowed by the Privy Council in 1954, as a breach of the Federal Constitution to free trade between the States.

During the war the Chadwick Company had a fleet of more than thirty-two trucks partly owed to growing production at BHP, emerging from the war with remarkable success. At its peak HH Chadwick and Son’s fleet amounted to over one hundred and fifty vehicles and employed 200 people.

AF Toll too was on the move. Heavily involved with transport of mineral sands for National Minerals, it developed a mobile conveyor system for loading this material onto ships. It allowed the ship to be loaded irrespective of the availability of wharf cranes. The efficiency of the system caused large quantity of North Coast sands to be diverted from Brisbane to the loading plant in Newcastle. At the time of the Toll-Chadwick merger in 1965 Toll had a fleet of one hundred and eighteen units.

During the devastating Lower Hunter Valley floods of February 1955 the railway system failed. About one third of the State railways were immobilised. It was left to private operators, to answer to call by the Government to help the communities.

The Facts

It is often said that logistics are the main part of strategy. The Roman army was well aware of it. The Legions augmented their lines of supply by colonising the countries they conquered, building foundries, and manufacturing shops for production of war material close to the fighting army. By contrast both Napoleon and Hitler’s armies were defeated in Russia when their line of supply became too extended and the transportation network failed. Japan didn’t learn either.

The great achievements of Newcastle’s industries during the Second World War were never matched by the performance of its transport network. The extensive production range of the local industry was hampered by an inadequate transport system stretched to breaking point: particularly shipping.

Shipping was in short supply due to military requisition and successful enemy attacks. In 1940 ten ships were sunk by raiders and three more by mine laid by raiders. Several cargo ships were lost to the action of Japanese submarines, the BHP Co’s Iron Chieftain, Iron Crown, Iron Knight, carrying iron ore from South Australia were torpedoed with the loss of 56 lives. Other vessels leaving the port with finished product suffered the same fate. Difficulties continued after the war.

Production of coal fell, so did that of coke, pig iron, steel ingots, and other steel merchant product. J Turner writes that: “…by 1956 the Port of Newcastle was silted up and its plant obsolescent “. A situation described by the Chamber of Commerce as a “ chaotic state”.  Basically the infrastructure of the port was what Turner describes as “state-of-the-art method of the 1870s”.

The Australian Coal, Shipping and the Harbour explained, that the State Government “pillaged” the port of Newcastle, by diverting the revenue of the port into consolidated revenue and neglecting the programme for port improvements. This situation led Ian Stewart to write in Shaping The Hunter –  “ the port Committee assumed that the existing coal loading facilities…would remain adequate”, the declining demand for coal given as a reason.

Another reason was that the regulation of the Australian economy in the war years was still affecting the operations of private transport. Commercial transporters were affected by all sorts of shortages, from spare parts to fuel. The Government formed the War Transport Pool consisting of A.G. Hawkins (Chairman), Harry Chadwick, Allan Bramble, Vic Toll, Lee Nicholls of Gale Bros., W. Marshall who represented the brick-carters, and R Berry of Dungog. This board controlled the distribution of petrol, tyres and spare parts as well as manpower, it performed a vital role in wartime.

However, by the end of the decade the transport industry had recovered to the point that improvements in the design of motor trucks were threatening to put an end to interstate general cargo shipping industry, and railways were unable to re-establish their dominance of land transportation. 

Reconstruction of a Region

The emergence of the Upper Hunter Valley as a major source of quality coal and its proximity to the surface, reinforced the importance of rail transport. It became evident that new lines were needed, as well as improved technology in both mining and transport operations.

Coal would eventually come to the port but in some cases it was carted from the mine to railhead by a fleet of motor trucks. At times trucks would deliver coal directly to stockpiles for storage or blending.

Improvements in passenger services eventuated with the electrification of the Newcastle-Sydney line in 1984 and the introduction of the XPT on the Sydney-North Coast service fulfilled old promises. It had a marked effect on the towns of the Upper Valley, and the interior, when extended to serve the New England region. Prior to this event air travel was the preferred long distance travel mode.

Air Transport

Long distance transport is more efficient when served by aircraft. Military use of this service has amply demonstrated the versatility and reliability of this mode.

Newcastle’s Williamtown Airport has suffered in the past from having to share its operations with the RAAF Base. The controversy in regard to an alternative site was settled when Charlie Jones, Minister for Transport and Civil Aviation decided in 1975, to extend the runway and build a new terminal. The intention then was to cater for international flights. But this view was criticised in a report by Gutteridge, Haskins and Davey Ltd., in their 1993 “Newcastle Airport Plan” with: “the proximity of Newcastle to Sydney represents a situation where competition exists between the rail, road and air modes of transport; whereas over longer distances air travel has a significantly higher proportion of the market, the viability of passenger and freight services by air between the Hunter and the capital of the State is particularly vulnerable to changes in road and rail transport systems”.

The completion of the Newcastle Freeway (F3) added to the problem of competition as people opted for private car transport, a switch that caused a growing threat to rail services as well. Passengers turned from the airlines to road and rail, resulting in annual passenger movements dropping by more than 50,000 in the following decade, to a low of 60,000 passengers per year. Newcastle Airport’s resurgence has lifted the terminal’s movement of passengers to 750,000 in 2005. ‘The fastest growing regional airport in Australia’ (NMH) is adding a new dimension to service to the public and the tourism industry with a forecast increase to 840,000 passengers in 2006.

Fast Track

The stream of innovations was accelerating, the appointment of high-calibre Railway Manager, David Hill, was a triumph. Under his direction rail services were greatly improved, remarkable was the reversal of the historical trend of huge annual railway deficits. Punctuality and reliability were welcomed by increased patronage. Seven million passenger journeys were being made each year by 1991.

In 1988 State Rail embarked in large scale upgrading of rail lines in the Hunter Valley, $90 million were spent on track improvements and a further $20 million on 100 new 100 tonnes coal wagons.

Fundamental changes improved services of City-Rail as a philosophy was adopted by the NSW Parliament Transport Administration Act 1988, to operate railways “efficiently in accordance with sound commercial practice”. This prompted Brian Cogan to write: “… a large scale restructuring of organisation and management … turned its sights from serving the public to serving the customer “. This market-oriented approach resulted in a long-term advantage to Newcastle, it consolidated the city’s position as a key hub for railway activity in NSW.

FreightRail trains moved from colliery to the port in interminable fashion, comprised of as many as eighty four 100 tonnes gross wagons hauled by up to four diesel-electric locomotives, trains from the North West transported 2.5 million tonnes of wheat annually as well as large quantities of ore concentrate from Cobar and iron and steel product. The forecast of 100 million tonnes of coal per year, most of it transported by rail, will see partial privatisation of the railway system, it will become necessary in order to produce the necessary organisation and infrastructure requirements.

The past three decades witnessed the unbridled aggressiveness of the Australian road transport industry. The increasing size of trucks and their frequency of use, in times of heightened environmental awareness has caused the community to demand restrictions of their use on some roads. These restrictions provide the medium for coexistence and goodwill between the community and the industry, in the interest of environmental respect. Jeff Horn of Newcastle is an example.

Horns Transport won the environmental award in 1994, and 1996 when they were awarded the NSW Road Transport Association Master Carriers of the Year, also winning their Environmental Excellence Award. His company sees commercial advantage in good community relations. He admits philosophically: “…carriers in the past – we are talking 20-30 years ago, had to abide by the conditions customers imposed on them. But now its’ not what the customer imposes, its what the community expects, which is different. So not only do you have to be aware of what your customer demands, you have to be aware of what the community demands.” (J Turner, Transport in the Hunter)

In the future coal transport may not see large fleets of trucks, or interminable trains moving to the port, there are more environmentally acceptable technologies being considered, such as pipelines and other infrastructure. Looking further in the direction of oil production one has to wander what changes the road transport industry will have to accept in the not too distant future.  

Acknowledgment

It is impossible to describe details of every event when the task is to condense 200 years of history into a few pages.

Readers whose interest lingers beyond the scope of these lines are advised to read John Turner’s excellent “200 Years of Transport History in the Hunter”.

Other sources of information have contributed to the final work in a modest way. We thank all contributors for their cooperation.

Victor Cattaneo 2006