["The Marble Bar Railway" (Letter to the Editor), The West Australian, Friday 12 June 1896, page 3]

THE MARBLE BAR RAILWAY.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,--

A matter, the immediate determination of which must vitally affect the fortunes of the colony, has now been brought forward for solution. I allude to the opening up of Port Hedland and the construction of a railway thence to Marble Bar. An alternative route has been proposed, and is supported by the residents of Roebourne and Cossack, which will be about 100 miles longer than the Port Hedland line and will, instead of furthering the interests of the Nor'-West goldfields, tend, I fear, much to retard their progress for reasons set forward beneath. As we are unable, through lack of Press representation here, to plead our cause locally, and the nearest journal, published at Roebourne, is altogether antagonistic to our interests, I crave for space in the columns of your powerful journal to lay before the people of Western Australia the fallacy of this Cossack proposal, and the enormous advantages which must accrue to the colony through having another great gold-yielding area opened up by the medium of a railway from a port which has been pronounced by experts, as next to Albany, the finest harbour the colony possesses, viz., Port Hedland.

The first question which arises is naturally the relative qualifications to be classed as a port, of Cossack and Port Hedland. I fear, so far as the former is concerned, there are none. At Cossack, which is an open roadstead, all the gold in this colony could not materially improve the anchorage. Vessels are compelled, through the shallowness of tbe water, to anchor some five miles out and to discharge their cargoes into lighters. This has again to he re-lightered into vessels for the Port of Condon, and perhaps once more lightered there when being landed. With what interminable loss, tronble, and expense this frequent handling is accompanied any unprejudiced business man may easily comprehend. At Port Hedland, however, the Government, by the expenditure of a very small sum of money, could make a suitable landing place, and the vessels might then come alongside and discharge their burdens direct into the railway tracks, whilst passengers would be able to go aehore without risking their lives in a cockleshell, getting wet, and submitting to the exorbitant charge of four shillings imposed upon every person landed at Cossack. As proving the immeasurable superiority of Port Hedland over the other port, I may mention that, although it is as yet uncharted and has not even been surveyed, vessels which are now engaged in the Singapore trade have come in there with perfect safety without a pilot, and as the companies know that if their ships are damaged they would inevitably lose the insurance, this is, I take it, a very apt criterion of the confidence which the big shipping firms repose in that port's capabilities, and affords an inkling of what a magnificent possession we have at our very doors, waiting to be utilised. The line, if constructed from Port Hedland to Marble Bar, would be about 110 miles in length, and present no great engineering difficulties, the deepest outting being only five feet, whilst there are but two rivers to be bridged. Branch lines might be run on to the Western Shaw, Eldorado and Mallina, thus serving all the gold mining localities between Marble Bar and Roebourne.

A point which seems to have been completely overlooked by opponents of this scheme, in the animosity which they exhibit towards us, is that Bamboo Creek, about 40 miles from here, is every bit as important a town as the Bar, there being at time of writing some 300 men employed on the mines in the immediate vicinity of that township, and there is work for many more. Contrast the other (Cossack) route. There would be an increase of expenditure, taking the cost of construction and allowing for the extra 110 miles, of £110,000, whilst this line would also touch at a point on its way to Cossack called Cook's Bluff, whick is only 50 miles from Port Hedland. The utter absurdity of dragging a railway so many miles further, for us to fare worse, simply to gratify a few shipping agents, is at once apparent. Again, from my knowledge of the district, I am inclined to think that £1,000 per mile will not by any means build this line, for there are innumerable rivers to be crossed, some fifteen or so. There are also the deviations which it is proposed that this most accommodating railway shall make to touch Mallina, Pilbarra, Western Shaw, Eldorado, and which must vastly increase the expenditure and length of the line, as, owing to the mountainous nature of the country whioh these twists and turns will have to cross, there would be endless tunnelling and spanning of valleys by means of bridges. There are, too, other items which, with those I have mentioned, would, I am afraid, were there no alternative route for us, render our railway an absolute impossibility for many years to come. Roebourne and Cossack are towns eminently inferior in importance and wealth to the mining towns out back which would be served by the Hedland railway. So far as I can see or hear the principal business of the inhabitants of Roebourne and Cossack is the collection of endless charges upon all goods whioh pass through their hands consigned to this and similar localities, and which are consequently landed here for sale at fabulous prices.

Were Port Hedland opened up an invaluable property would be added to the colony's resources, the innumerable transhipments of goods would be avoided, and the goods would be landed here in better order and at reasonable rates a week or so after having been shipped at Fremantle. Wages might then be reduced and many more mines worked upon a paying basis. Coal could be used as fuel for the batteries, and, lastly, but not by any means leastly, the exorbitant charges by which the multitudinous agents, etc., who infest Cossaok and Roebourne subsist, would be abolished, and life in these far away parts would be made less dreary and monotonous, for with a railway to Port Hedland we could run south, mingle with the greater civilisation, and return like giants refreshed to our toil, without the journey occupying, as at present, several months.

Thanking you in anticipation, and offering the importance and urgency of this matter as my excuse for my wordiness.

Yours etc.

PRO BONO PUBLICO.

Marble Bar, May 20.