1891 – Railway worker Thomas Hanna was asleep on a railway tricycle when an engine and trucks came around the corner.
The railway was under construction, and was part of a short strip of line between Bowen and the wonderfully named Bobawabba (south of Home Hill).
Hanna was killed about 46 miles from Bowen at Wilson’s Creek. The tricycles were designed to run along the lines doing track inspection.
There is little information available about the incident, except that Hanna was “going round a sharp curve” when he was run into by the contractor’s train.
Given that the magistrate’s enquiry found he was asleep at the time, and that motorized tricycles were not yet in use, it is more likely that the train was going around the bend and Hanna wasn’t going anywhere.
Hanna’s headstone lies on the ground in the Bowen cemetery.
Source: The Queenslander, Saturday 20 June 1891, p 158
Way to go Australia 