At approximately 9:48am AEST, on 5 May 1947, a crowded picnic train derailed on a sharp left-hand curve between Ferny Grove and Camp Mountain stations on the now-closed Dayboro railway line, in the suburb of Camp Mountain approximately northwest of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia.

The Camp Mountain train disaster is still the largest loss of life in a rail accident on the Queensland railway network with 16 fatalities, including both the driver and fireman of the train; 38 were injured.

History and background

A branch line was opened from the North Coast railway line at Mayne Junction (north of Bowen Hills station) to Enoggera in 1899, which was extended to Ferny Grove and Samford in 1918, finally reaching Dayboro on 27 September 1920.

By 1908, banana growing in the Samford district had become one of the area's most important industries, and in 1926 and 1927, more bananas were sent from Samford railway station, just down from Camp Mountain, to Sydney and Melbourne than any other station in Queensland. This successful industry existed until the banana bunchy top virus wiped out the crops in the early 1930s. Dairy farming and timber were other industries in the district and out to the end of the line at Dayboro, as well as the quarrying of granite at Camp Mountain, used in the foundations of Brisbane City Hall. It was one of a number of chartered trains to travel on the line on the day, conveying groups to numerous picnic locations in the scenic country area north-west of Brisbane.

The service departed from Roma Street railway station at 8:50am, then Central railway station in Brisbane at 8:59am.

Incident

After receiving authority from Ferny Grove railway station to enter the section of track to Samford, the train slowly climbed the Samford Range. Especially due to the hilly area, the speed limit on the Dayboro line at the time was on straight sections of track, and through curves.

As the train descended Camp Mountain Knob, it suddenly picked up speed before the first curve, approximately after crossing the peak of the Samford Range. Carriages rocked dangerously, causing luggage to fall from overhead racks, lighting fixtures rattled, and women and children began screaming.

The fireman of the train, Mr Augustus Knight (known as Gussy by his workmates) from Grange, was killed instantly from being crushed by the wheels of the engine. The driver, Mr Charles Hind, 50, of Woolloongabba was alive, however pinned across the thighs and knees against the train's boiler in the cabin. Scalded with escaping steam, an ambulance officer gave Hind a syringe of the painkiller morphine, which he injected into himself.

  • Francis Kevin Armstrong (passenger)
  • Gregory Thomas Brown (9-year old passenger)
  • Reginald Burns and Lois Anita Burns (husband and wife, passengers)
  • Moira Edith Christiansen (passenger)
  • Daphne Cordelia Cochrane (passenger)
  • Francis Ernest Delaney (passenger)
  • Ida Beatrice Dowd (passenger)
  • Howard Clyde Whitehead Hind (driver)
  • Michael John Kearney (passenger, 12-year-old student at St Laurence's College)
  • William Patrick Kitchen, Olive Irene Kitchen, and Trevor Joseph Kitchen (husband, wife, and 9-year-old son, passengers)
  • Augustus Charles Knight (fireman)
  • Robert Harold McNamara (passenger)
  • Frank Aubrey Pitman (passenger)

At 10:00am on 8 May 1947, memorial services were held at the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St Stephen and St John's Anglican Cathedral in Brisbane. Seven victims of the disaster rest in five Brisbane cemeteries.

Line closure

After the construction of Samford Road over the Samford Range after World War II, traffic on the Dayboro line declined, with a general shift to road transportation. The Dayboro line was closed beyond Ferny Grove in 1955 and the line in the vicinity of the accident site was converted into a sealed rural road, McLean Road South.

Memorials

thumb|Locomotive No. 824 at Injune, 2008

Locomotive No. 824 from the accident was repaired and placed back into service, working around South East Queensland. In 1958 it was transferred to Toowoomba, and withdrawn from service in May 1967, 20 years after the disaster. At that point, as a donation to the Bungil Shire Council, it was towed to the South-Western Queensland town of Injune, approximately north-west of Brisbane, at the end of a branch line from Roma that had recently closed on 1 January 1967. It sits behind the town's ambulance station and a high fence, The locomotive has incorrect numbers and builder's plates, as the originals were purchased by a railway enthusiast when it was withdrawn from service.thumb|191px|Memorial cairn to commemorate the Camp Mountain train disasterThe accident site is commemorated with a stone cairn and plaque on the northern side of McLean Road South, erected by the Pine Rivers council in 1988.

References

Further reading

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