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Marian Mill Perry Now at the Bennett Brook Railway, WA |
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Perry 2601.51.1 (ex-Marian Mill) awaiting its next steaming at Melaleuca Station on 1 February 2004.
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Builder |
Mile
End, Adelaide |
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Builder’s Number & Year |
2601.51.1 of 1951 |
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Wheel Arrangement |
0-6-2T |
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This locomotive originally worked at the Marian Mill, near
Mackay, which was owned by the Marian Central Mill Co Ltd and first crushed
cane in 1895. In 1966 Marian Mill was sold to the cane farmers supplying the
mill via the Marian Mill Co-operative Society Limited, which amalgamated in
1988 with the nearby Cattle Creek, Farleigh, North Eton, Racecourse and Pleystowe
Mill to form the Mackay Sugar Co-operative Association Limited. I’m not sure when the Marian Mill
Perry loco was withdrawn from sugar service, but during the 1990’s it was preserved
as the running locomotive at ‘Melaleuca Station’, Chinderah, NSW, a
railway-themed roadside attraction featuring local produce, a picnic ground
with farmyard animals, and a steam train ride looping through tropical gardens
and around an artificial wetland. (Chinderah is north of Murwillumbah on the
Pacific Highway, near the Queensland border and surrounded by the sugar cane-growing
areas alongside the Tweed River feeding into the nearby Condong Mill. A 2’
gauge mill railway was once a feature of the Condong Mill, but there is now little
trace of that operation.) Melaleuca Station has since
changed hands and now operates as a Memorial Garden and Crematorium, with a portion
of the once extensive grounds now returned to agriculture and the railway
dismantled. The Marian Mill Perry was sold to the Bennett Brook Railway, arriving
at its new home in Western Australia on 24 June 2009. At that stage an
overhaul was planned with an expected return to service in 2010, but to my
knowledge the Perry is yet to work at the Bennett Brook Railway. Instead, its smaller sister Perry
0-4-2T ‘Betty Thompson’ (b/n 8967.39.1 of 1939) has instead been the usual
running loco in recent years. The photos on this page date from the webmaster’s visit to
Melaleuca Station on 1 February 2004, showing the ex-Marian Mill Perry loco basking
in the sun as it awaited its next steaming day, together with its train of
two open tourist carriages. |
A second view of the ex-Marian Mill Perry loco on 1 February 2004.
Keeping company are some of the farmyard animals that were
part of the Melaleuca Station attraction.
The loco is standing over a rudimentary ash pit at its
customary stabling point.
Builder’s plate detail. 1
February 2004
References
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a |
Light
Railway Research Society of Australia Inc. Web site 'Preserved
Australian Sugar Cane Locomotives' list |
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b |
Wikipedia
page for Perry Engineering Co Ltd, |
Page updated: 6 August 2018
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