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One of my very early site surveys on the Bonalbo Line, in my usual style, overviews first, then details...

[N.B.]

N.B. I have mentioned that I have a copy of this report a number of times on the Facebook group, I have now finally scanned it. Please excuse the lack of OCR, I'm using Linux, and don't have suitable OCR software on my workstation.

A number of years ago, I visited the State Archives in Saint Mary's, Sydney, and requested files on a number of subjects. One such request was on the ill-fated Casino to Bonalbo Branchline. In the file was this Parliamentary report written by one Colonel M. F. Bruxner, then Minister for Transport, and the owner of the Sandilands Estate. As is known, the highway from Ballina through to Tenterfield, passing through Casino and Tabulam, is named the Bruxner Highway, which I sense was a massive insult to the people on the part of the Government, an immortalisation of the man who hammered the nails in the coffin of the railways of the North Coast.

However, in far more formal works, as a historian, amateur as I may be, my feelings and opine are not part of the story. My notes here concerning my opine on events would never appear in anything I may happen to publish in future, only hypotheses that can be supported by the facts. This being said, I have been told I will be shown where Col. Bruxners grave is when I am ready to undertake that site survey. Go figure.
You may also note that the beginning of the report actually deals with the equally as ill fated Guyra to Dorrigo Branchline. I decided to post this in the Casino to Bonalob Branchline sub-forum as the C to B Branch is the primary focus of my research.

Cheers!

From the collection of stuff I'm scanning.

G'day everyone,

I noted a reference in Ian Kirkland's "The Forgotten Railways of the Northern Rivers" to a company by the name of Moonem wanting to submit a proposal to the Railway Commissioner to electrify the then-planned Casino to Bonalbo Branchline. Ian had not annotated this reference, and me being the sort that I am - that is, quite curious about anything to do with electric locomotives - cracked open the phone book, found Ians number, and called him.

I mean, thats what you do, right?

After a quite informative hour long discussion (and a later invitation to lecture at the Alstonville Historical Society, that invitation issued just before the COVID lockdown last year, which has sadly delayed any lectures indefinitely), Ian pointed me to the ballpark of where I'd find the reference. See here:

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/130314933?searchTerm=moonem%20casino%20bonalbo

I've also attached a cropped screenshot of the article to this post.

If I had known at the time I hung up the phone to Ian about exactly what proverbial rabbithole I was going to fall into, I may never have made that call!

If nothing else, I must say the story of Moonem, and the personalities associated with it, some of which may surprise you, is a Hell of a tall, rousing tale, a bit of a scally wags caper, and one I much enjoy. I just gotta get it out of mere thoughts and into book format.

At this point, most of my materials are packed away, or in a backup I've not sorted yet, but not yet in storage. I plan on going through these in the coming weeks to prepare to put various possessions into storage, in my resources I have obtained is various information on Moonem itself, a small amount of further information regarding the unsolicited proposal to electrify the branchline, and most importantly, materials from the Parliament of New South Wales, a report written by one Colonel Bruxner, then Transport Minister, regarding his rationale behind the cessation of works of the Guyra to Dorrigo Branchline and the Casino to Bonalbo Branchline. This report, I believe, may be quite illuminating to many as regards timelines and such.

Additionally, I've obtained various draft plans and survey plans, as well as having made GIS plots on contemporary SiX Maps and NSW Planning Portal Maps, and I've conducted a few on site surveys of various sections of the as-abandoned branchline easement between Casino and Mallanganee.

At this point, I know my posts on the Facebook group have been rather well received heretofore, so this is my attempt to try a writing and presentation style I feel far more comfortable with, a test to see what response my writing style, content, and resources may receive. I much prefer short academic report style writing, suited to a scientific technician (which I have worked as - nuclear physics and chemical engineering, as well as telephony and electronics) and I also prefer visual resources over a wall of words, despite how punctuated and syntactical I write. My writing style has been suggested for use on blogs, but I have no interest in the constant grind of keeping new and fresh content up to a blogs audience, I again prefer short report style on forums because I can attend to any writings when I feel the desire to. I am quite sadly aware, one cannot do this type of writing on Facebook.

There are other reasons I prefer the written word, I believe they will become apparent as time goes on.

Cheers!

Boris.