Charing Cross and View Point Bendigo, postcard, ca.

1900

Wrong Side of the Tracks: The Forgotten

Victims of the Bendigo Tramways
The innocent history of the Bendigo Tramways is presented to us as a faade, hiding a past of
death, injury and controversy. The stories of the men, women and children hurt by the
Bendigo Tramways have been forgotten and excluded from the interpretation of history
presented to Bendigo tourists.
The Bendigo Tramways brought
happiness to some people but brought
death and despair to others. Many
Bendigo residents who lived before the
1970s remember riding the green and
yellow SECV trams to school and
worki. Many people born after 1972
know the trams as a tourist attraction,
transporting people around and
showing them the magnificent city
that is Bendigoii. The vibrant, happy
past of the tramways is significant to
the history of Bendigo, however very
few people remember the death that

they caused and the lives that they

ruined.
Early Days
Discussions of a tramway being built
in Bendigo occurred as early as the
1880s. Some people were excited about
the ideaiii whereas others were
concernediv. At the time, horse-drawn
cabs hauled people around Bendigo
and its surrounds, however it was a
small city and it was common for
people to walk or ride bicycles. A
council meeting in July 1887 led to the
contemplation of a tramway being
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builtv. Before the installation of the

tramways was approved, there were
worries about tram accidents.
Pegasuss worries were very valid in
a letter to the Editorvi. At least thirtyone known incidents occurred during
the eighty-two years of trams being
run commercially in Bendigo,
although only a few major ones will be
mentioned. The majority of the
accidents occurred between 1890 and
1920, with fewer accidents occurring in
future years.
Early Accidents
Just one month and two weeks after
the commencement of battery trams
running between Eaglehawk and
Bendigo, an accident occurred. While
going over a hill in Jobs Gully, the
brakes on a crowded tram failed to
work and the carriage reached high
speeds before derailing onto the road.
A young man riding the tram fell off
and was partially run over by the
tramcar, dislocating his shouldervii.
The battery trams stopped running in
September 1890 due to insufficient
battery strength and were replaced by
steam trams in February 1892viii. Mrs.
Kennedy decided to catch a tram just
after eleven-o-clock on the morning of
Saturday the 17th of September, 1892.
She was running late for the tram and
chased after it when it had left the stop
on the corner of Mitchell and
Hargreaves Street. After catching up to
the tram about twenty yards from the
stop, she proceeded to board the tram
but lost her footing and got caught

under the tram. She was taken to the

Telegraph Hotel where she lived her
final hours in pain and agony with a
broken pelvisix. This brought
awareness about the danger of trams
and there were no accidents for a few
years afterward.
Disembowelment
Just over two years later on Monday
the 22nd of October 1894, 53 year old
Joseph Harris had been drinking and
celebrating with friends while
watching a sporting event in central
Bendigo. He was being escorted home
by a friend because he was the worse
for liquorx. While staggering up the
street, a tram came over a hill. The
driver saw the two men and quickly
applied the brakes, but the tram was
slow to stop. He ran down Harris quite
ferociously. Once the tram was
stopped, the conductor stepped off to
see the damage, and upon lifting up
the flap at the front of the tram saw the
head and shoulders of deceased
projecting from under the motorxi.
The man was literally disembowled
(sic)xii and there was a trail of blood
running down the street and pieces of
flesh scattered on the road nearby.
This gory and brutal mishap was a
very serious incident that created a
widower wife and 2 fatherless
children.

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Steam tram in 1892 Taken from Bendigos

Vintage Talking Trams

Child Fatalities

An Early Death?

Not even six months later, another

incident occurred. A buggy was being
drawn by a horse in California Gully,
near the Jobs Gully crossing. The
horse got spooked by a nearby tram
and backed the buggy onto the tracks.
A tram hit the side of the buggy and
pushed it along the road until it could
stop. In the buggy was the Thompson
family; Henry, his wife and his
daughter. Mary, only two years and
eleven months old, fell out of the
buggy after the collision and she was
caught under the motor, her legs being
severed. She died at the scene due to
shock and blood lossxiii. This is not the
youngest death to occur due to tram
accidents. Later that year, another
child aged two years and seven
months was run over while walking
behind a shunting tram with her
family. She was killed instantly by the
weight of the tramxiv. Another infant
mortality occurred in January 1896
when two and a half year old Ernest
Bryant was crossing the road with his
older brother, returning home from a
pub directly across from their house.
Their mother was calling them across
the road because of the approaching
tram, unfortunately young Ernest fell
onto the tracks. He was hit by the tram
head on and was dragged under the
carriage until the tram could stop. He
was still alive, but died minutes laterxv.
Many children were killed by the
trams in a short period of time. This
shows how dangerous the trams were
to the population of Bendigo.

On the 29th of July 1896, a seventy year

old deaf man by the name of Fritz
Foeger crossed the road and did not
hear the warning bells of an incoming
tram. He was hit head on and was
dragged under. A post-mortem
discovered that he suffered from a
broken neck at the base of his skull, his
right arm was fractured and lacerated
below the elbow and his right leg was
broken just below his knee. He died
instantly at the scenexvi. At the time,
the tramways were under a lot of
scrutiny. The tracks and roads were in
disrepair and many people were
complaining about the smoke from the
steam-powered tramsxvii. People at the
time suggested making trams
cheaperxviii and others were happy at
the prospect of the trams coming to a
stopxix.
A Gruesome Passing
On a winter day in 1898, a young tram
driver by the name of William Phillips,
aged 24, jumped onto a tram on the
corner of Mitchell and Hargreaves
Street. It was observed by witnesses
that his mackintosh caught on a
moving wheel. He was dragged under
the tram and severely injured. He
actually survived the ordeal but
quickly perished to these fatal
injuriesxx. An inquest into the matter
states that his entire chest was broken,
several of his ribs were fractured and
his collarbone was dislocated on the
right side. To add to these horrific
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injuries, the upper lobe of his left lung

was completely torn through by the
ends of his broken ribs and it was full
of blood. There were other wounds on
his body, but they were not life
threateningxxi.

taken to hospital with a fracture at the

base of his skullxxv. The fear of getting
injured by a tram or train was so
severe in 1902 that life insurance worth
4500 had 2000 dedicated to injury
caused by railxxvi.

Safety First

Electricity

On the 13th of February 1899, it was

reported that a man by the name of
Alfred B. Condliffe rode his horse
down Pall Mall after doing business
with famous architect, William Beebe.
He did not hear a tram coming up
behind him, although the tram rang a
warning bell and applied its brakes.
The horse heard and began to panic,
running onto the tram tracks right in
front of the oncoming tram. The tram
hit him and he was taken to the
hospital but was already absent of life.
He had abrasions to his forehead, legs,
chest and abdomen. There was no skin
torn open on his torso but several of
his ribs were broken and he suffered
from many internal injuriesxxii. This
was a terrible incident that actually led
to trams becoming safer. For the first
time in the almost nine years that
trams had operated in Bendigo and
after many deaths, a judge advised
that trams should be fitted with
guards or cow-catchersxxiii, so that
people who got hit head on by the
trams would not get caught
underneath them. Ironically, a man
was injured in 1903 after he fell in
front of a tram and hit his head on the
lifeguard fixed to the
undercarriagexxiv of the tram. He was

On the 21st of April 1903, the electric

tramways were officially opened,
replacing the outdated stream trams
which operated for over ten yearsxxvii.
Tracks and overhead wires had been
laid around Bendigo for the last two
yearsxxviii. Two months after the
commencing of electric trams services,
overhead wires fell in town and trams
were stopped. The breaking of the
dangerously high voltage cables
caused loud explosions and a
pyrotechnic show which onlookers
watched before the power was turned
offxxix. Luckily nobody was injured.
[Below] A model of an electric tram used on
the tramways taken by J. Smeelie 2015

Bicycles and Buggies

The infrastructure which allowed
trams to function proved harmful as
well. A man riding his bike in 1906
misjudged his speed and fatally rode
into a pole which held up the
overhead wiresxxx. Not even a month
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Jack Smeelie Making History 2015

later, a mans bike handle caught the

front of a tramcar and he was violently
thrown onto the road. He was taken to
hospital with a fractured skull among
other injuries which proved fatalxxxi. A
horse-drawn buggy that was carrying
four people capsized when the wheel
got caught in the groove of the track. A
man suffered a broken nose after he
was thrown from the buggy, but his
wife was not so lucky. Forty-five year
old Mrs. Marie Maranta hit her head
quite hard on the ground and
fractured her skull. She died within an
hour of being admitted to hospitalxxxii.
Tis but a Scratch
On the 31st of December 1910, a miner
named W.M. Austin hopped off a slow
moving tram opposite the Manchester
Arms Hotel on Eaglehawk Road. He
lost his footing while exiting and he
was run over by a second tramcar
while stuck on the tracks. He was
taken to hospital in a critical condition.
It was observed that the flesh was torn
off his right leg below the knee and the
bone was completely crushed. His left
leg was badly fractured but the flesh
was still attached. Doctors were forced
to amputate his right leg above his
knee and it was feared that his right
leg would be removed as wellxxxiii. He
was very lucky that his life was spared
on that day, but he was a cripple and
would never walk again. These death
machines continued to travel the roads
and injure the population.

Horsing Around
Not even two months later, Hanley
Evely was riding his horse along
Eaglehawk Road when something
startled the horse and it ran onto the
track in front of an oncoming tram.
The horse was directly hit and Evely
was thrown into the air with such
force that he landed on the front of the
tramcar before rolling off onto the
ground. He was not seriously injured
and he later found another horse and
rode home to tell his family the bad
news. The horse that he originally rode
was suffering from a broken back. It
trembled with pain for a while before
somebody produced a revolver. Two
shots were fired but they both missed
and the horse was in more pain than
before. A hammer was borrowed from
the nearby Little 180 Mine and a blow
or two on the head from this served to
terminate the beasts agonyxxxiv.
Although a human was not severely
injured, an expensive horse was killed
due to being hit with great speed by a
tram.

[Above] Three trams sit side-by-side at the

tram depot J. Smeelie 2015

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Age of the Automobile

On the 24th of June 1935, a double
seater touring car crashed into a tram
at Long Gully. James Abbott, 22, was
driving the car but swerved off the
road and into the path of an oncoming
tram. He hit it with such force that the
side of his car was torn away and the
tram cabin was caved in. Thirty
passengers on the tram were shaken
but not injured. Of the six passengers
in Abbotts car, three were taken
straight to hospital. Abbott was
suffering from a concussion and a
lacerated scalp. His friend, Battista
Planta, had cuts and abrasions on his
body. A woman in the front seat
received head injuries from the shock
force of the accident. The three other
passengers in the back seat were
bruised and in shock, but otherwise
healthyxxxv.
Although the trams in Bendigo helped
people get around town, they also
caused grief for many others. From the
research presented here, seventeen
cases were mentioned where people
were killed or injured by trams over a
forty-five year period. These events are
never mentioned by the Bendigo
Tramways to tourists and this proves
that the company is purposely
forgetting certain aspects of their
history so they can present a pleasant
and peaceful story. This forgotten
history should be uncovered and made
common knowledge, not hidden away
behind closed doors. With proper
awareness and remembrance, these

people who were killed or injured by

trams will never be forgotten.
Keith S Kings, Bendigos Vintage Talking Trams
(Bendigo, Vic: Bendigo Trust, 1996), pp. 31-35
ii Ibid, p. 36
iii Progress, Tramways for Sandhurst, Bendigo
Advertiser, 31 Jul. 1886, p. 6
iv Experience, Tramways for Sandhurst,
Bendigo Advertiser, 7 Aug. 1886, p. 6
v The Sandhurst Tramways, Argus, 9 Jul.
1887, p. 10
vi Pegasus, Tramways for Sandhurst, Bendigo
Advertiser, 8 Jun. 1887, p. 6
vii The Dangers of Overcrowding Tram Cars,
Age, 28 Jul. 1890, p. 6
viii Keith S Kings, Bendigos Vintage Talking
Trams (Bendigo, Vic: Bendigo Trust, 1996), p.
25
ix Fatal Tram Accident at Bendigo, Riverine
Herald, 19 Sep. 1892, p. 2
x Terrible Tramway Fatality, Bendigo
Advertiser, 23 Oct. 1894, p. 3
xi Ibid.
xii Ibid.
xiii The California Gully Tram Fatality,
Bendigo Advertiser, 17 Apr. 1895, p. 3
xiv Sad Tram Fatality, Age, 9 Sep. 1895, p. 6
xv The Recent Tramway Fatality, Bendigo
Advertiser, 24 Jan. 1896, p. 3
xvi Tram Fatality At Bendigo, Mount Alexander
Mail, 29 Jul. 1896, p. 3
xvii Sparks From Tram Motors, Bendigo
Advertiser, 26 Jul. 1895, p. 2
xviii Tram, The Trams, Bendigo Advertiser, 31
Jul. 1896, p. 2
xix Cabman, The Tramways, Bendigo
Independent, 28 Aug. 1896, p. 4
xx Shocking Tramway Accident, Argus, 23
Jun. 1898, p. 6
xxi Fatal Tram Accident, Bendigo Independent,
24 Jun. 1898, p. 4
xxii Shocking Tramway Fatality, Bendigo
Advertiser, 13 Feb. 1899, p. 3
xxiii The Tram Fatality, Bendigo Independent, 18
Feb. 1899, p. 3
xxiv The Tramway Fatality, Bendigo Advertiser,
18 Aug. 1903, p. 4
xxv Ibid.
xxvi Bendigo Exhibition, Sydney Morning
Herald, 21 May. 1902, p. 8
xxvii Keith S Kings, Bendigos Vintage Talking
Trams (Bendigo, Vic: Bendigo Trust, 1996), p.
29
i

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Ibid, p. 28
Sensation at Bendigo, Mount Alexander
Mail, 16 Jun. 1903, p. 3
xxx The Cycling Fatality, Bendigo Advertiser, 23
Nov. 1906, p. 5
xxxi A Cyclist Killed, Age, 11 Dec. 1906, p. 8
xxxii Buggy Fatality, Argus, 23 Mar. 1908, p. 8
xxxiii Young Miner Injured, Age, 2 Jan. 1911, p.
6
xxxiv Sensational Tram Accident, Bendigo
Advertiser, 20 Feb. 1911, p. 5
xxxv Crashed Into Tram, Argus, 24 Jun. 1935, p.
9
xxviii
xxix

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Bibliography
Primary Sources

Sparks From Tram Motors, Bendigo

Advertiser, 26 Jul. 1895, p. 2

A Cyclist Killed, Age, 11 Dec. 1906, p. 8

Terrible Tramway Fatality, Bendigo

Advertiser, 23 Oct. 1894, p. 3

Bendigo Exhibition, Sydney Morning

Herald, 21 May. 1902, p. 8

The California Gully Tram Fatality,

Bendigo Advertiser, 17 Apr. 1895, p. 3

Buggy Fatality, Argus, 23 Mar. 1908, p. 8

The Cycling Fatality, Bendigo Advertiser,

23 Nov. 1906, p. 5

Cabman, The Tramways, Bendigo

Independent, 28 Aug. 1896, p. 4
Charing Cross and View Point Bendigo,
postcard, circa 1900, <http://
handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/213911>

The Dangers of Overcrowding Tram

Cars, Age, 28 Jul. 1890, p. 6
The Recent Tramway Fatality, Bendigo
Advertiser, 24 Jan. 1896, p. 3

Crashed Into Tram, Argus, 24 Jun. 1935,

p. 9

The Sandhurst Tramways, Argus, 9 Jul.

1887, p. 10

Experience, Tramways for Sandhurst,

Bendigo Advertiser, 7 Aug. 1886, p. 6

The Tram Fatality, Bendigo Independent,

18 Feb. 1899, p. 3

Fatal Tram Accident at Bendigo, Riverine

Herald, 19 Sep. 1892, p. 2

The Tramway Fatality, Bendigo

Advertiser, 18 Aug. 1903, p. 4

Fatal Tram Accident, Bendigo Independent,

24 Jun. 1898, p. 4

Tram Fatality At Bendigo, Mount

Alexander Mail, 29 Jul. 1896, p. 3

Pegasus, Tramways for Sandhurst,

Bendigo Advertiser, 8 Jun. 1887, p. 6

Tram, The Trams, Bendigo Advertiser, 31

Jul. 1896, p. 2

Progress, Tramways for Sandhurst,

Bendigo Advertiser, 31 Jul. 1886, p. 6

Young Miner Injured, Age, 2 Jan. 1911, p.

6

Sad Tram Fatality, Age, 9 Sep. 1895, p. 6

Sensation at Bendigo, Mount Alexander
Mail, 16 Jun. 1903, p. 3
Sensational Tram Accident, Bendigo
Advertiser, 20 Feb. 1911, p. 5
Shocking Tramway Accident, Argus, 23
Jun. 1898, p. 6

Secondary Sources
Kings, Keith, S, Bendigos Vintage Talking
Trams (Bendigo, Vic: Bendigo Trust, 1996)
W.H. Robinson, Steam Tram No. 5, 1892, in
Kings, Keith, S, Bendigos Vintage Talking
Trams (Bendigo, Vic: Bendigo Trust, 1996)

Shocking Tramway Fatality, Bendigo

Advertiser, 13 Feb. 1899, p. 3
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