P G Henry
5/5
"The Normanton-Croydon railway, completed on July 20th 1891, carried ten-thousand passengers per year at its peak. (It's still in use as the Gulflander historic railway.) The 6000 Croydon gold-rush residents relied upon 300 Chinese to supply them with fresh fruit and vegetables. Most European Australian country townsfolk would have suffered from scurvy but for the Oriental community's cultivating market gardens. Chinese cooks were sought after by station managers. Their horticultural industry achievements convinced Robert Watson, the railway engineer-surveyor, that the land could grow whatever was needed in regional Queensland.
I walked Croydon's wide streets, the Chinese temple nothing but an archaeological dig nowadays. I noted the Club Hotel's proud boast of having been established in 1887 (and hoped the counter-meal cook didn't purchase ingredients from the 'Quality BUTCHER' across the street), left a sign, and carried on to where the Normanton-to-Croydon line had reached by December 15th 1890 – Blackbull Siding."
