Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 171
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[Page 171]
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turkeys and laying hens among the pine trees on the surrounding Common, where the depot and main camp was located. On Sundays the traditional Christmas dinner was served as the midday meal and all this fine fare was provided for a pound a week.
A shiny new steam locomotive from the famous Hunslet works near Leeds, in England, drew a long rake of open trucks, and long "flat-tops" loaded with steel rails and long beams. It set out from the depot for railhead early in the mornings, and returned about 5.30 p.m. This "ballast" train, as it was called, also carried the men out to the gang sites, and brought them back to the depot camp again.
To "make the pay", the Paymaster, accompanied by a local policeman and the assistant engineer, both armed, went out on the ballast train paying the men as he arrived at each gang; an all-day job. As soon as a gang was paid, all work ceased for the rest of the day, and many of the navvies formed themselves into a big "two-up" schoo ; others hastened away to the nearest pub. I have seen a man lose almost the whole of his hard earned four week's wages in less than an hour in one of these gambling rings, which were operated by an intimidating, pugnacious, platelaying (rail fixing to sleepers) ganger, Doyle, and two "bruiser" lieutenants. A large proportion of the monthly pay went into their pockets, as it took a very courageous man to refuse their challenging invitation to "come in".
Because so many of the men lost their wages in this way, they were often unable to pay off their indebtedness to the boarding house keepers, who had probably been "grub-staking" them for up to a month; particularly Mrs Rooke, who, quite naturally took a violent dislike to Doyle and his two henchmen. She would wait for the ballast train, crowded with navvies, to return to the depot in the late afternoon, and as it slowed to a halt, point to Doyle and denounce him, screeching at the top of her voice. Her language was lurid and her recital well rehearsed. She cast aspersions not only on Doyle's parentage, but also on the criminal records of his male relations and the profess-