SYDNEY (GOULBURN) RAILWAY COMPANY 150TH ANNIVERSARY
The Hon. I. M. MACDONALD (Parliamentary Secretary) [5.00 p.m.]: I wish to place on record my support for an important event in Goulburn, the 150th anniversary of the commencement of railways in New South Wales. On 7 September 1849 the Legislative Council passed legislation to unite in a company William Bradley of Goulburn and Thomas Barker of Mummel and Woodhouselee, Charles Cowper of Taralga, and others, for the purpose of building and maintaining railways in the colony of New South Wales. The Sydney (Goulburn) Railway Company was born, constituted by an Act of Parliament, which received Royal Assent on 10 October 1849. That Act was passed in this Chamber.
On various occasions in 1846 the people of Goulburn met at Mandelson’s Hotel, now the Mulwarree Private Hotel, to agitate for the provision of railways in Australia. Their continuing commitment to that cause was rewarded by the Government’s action to legislate for the establishment of the company. Goulburn and Yass residents then became the principal subscribers of capital to the new company.
Two Goulburn citizens, William Bradley of the Goulburn Brewery and Lansdowne Park, and Thomas Barker of Mummel and Woodhouselee, then became founding directors of the company. Charles Cowper of Taralga - an area that the President would be well acquainted with - was also a founding director of the company, becoming both manager and director later. In due course, Cowper betrayed the company and its shareholders. As honourable members would know, Cowper was known as Slippery Charlie when he became Premier of New South Wales.
Page 634
William Bradley was to become one of the largest shareholders in the company. Thomas Barker was to remain as the longest serving director of the company, and became the first Commissioner of Railways when the Government stepped in and nationalised the company in 1855. That was a good step, because railways should essentially remain in public hands. The newly constituted company then proceeded to plan and build the first steam railway in Australia. The first section of railway, from Sydney to Parramatta, was built as the first stage of a line to Goulburn.
The purpose of the railway was not so much to provide a system of transport for the populace of Sydney, but to transport wool and other produce from around Goulburn to Sydney wharves, for shipment overseas. In other words, the railway to Goulburn was an export-driven infrastructure. The railways were a Goulburn and district initiative - although that might be disputed by some people. We should be thankful about that, because our President’s parents met on Goulburn station. The railways were conceived and built to service export markets for Goulburn and district produce.
Exactly 25 years before, to the very day, on 10 October 1824, Captain William Hilton Hovell, Hamilton Hume and their party arrived in Bungonia and Goulburn on their famous expedition of discovery through the southern part of continental Australia. Captain Hovell was one of the principal movers of community action in the Goulburn district for railways from 1846 onwards. Captain Hovell’s daughter, Emily Elizabeth, had married William Bradley in 1831, and Hovell then came to live in Goulburn for the rest of his long life. The Hume and Hovell expedition rightly holds an honourable and popular place in Australia’s history. Many communities have plans for celebrating the 175th anniversary of the expedition.
The Goulburn district must also act to celebrate these important anniversaries and promote the real significance of the Goulburn district in Australia’s development, past and present. Goulburn’s role in founding and establishing the railways as a non-government community enterprise is less well-known today. It later became a Government enterprise, and a very successful one at that. This 150th anniversary must not pass unremarked. It should also be remembered that the Goulburn Brewery is Australia’s oldest.
To celebrate the anniversaries there are plans to release a special ale known as the Goulburn Black. Its label will feature locomotive No. 1, which hauled the first steam trains for the Sydney Railway Company. A bottle of that ale will undoubtedly become a collector’s item. The special brew will also be available in the famous three-litre Goulburn stubby. I commend the people of Goulburn and highlight their important role in the development of Australian railways.