Historic carriage with special Bundaberg connection restored

Megan Dean

A 100-year-old guard’s van, which is one of only two still in existence in Queensland, has been lovingly restored by passionate members of the Bundaberg Historical Railway Society.

Constructed of timber and brass the ornate carriage may no longer traverse the tracks but can still take its passengers on a trip down memory lane.

From paper-wrapped parcels to vintage uniforms, stepping aboard the restored DAV 993 – or Davidson A class Van - is akin to stepping back in time.

Bundaberg Historical Railway Society president Jim Morris said the restoration had been a labour of love for about half a dozen of its members.

“It’s our pride and joy to look after it because it's only one of two in existence in the Queensland Railway,” Jim said.

“It's made a great difference to us because it's such a popular tourist attraction for us.”

The society has been working overtime to complete the project this year in time for the carriage’s 100-year anniversary on 6 December 2021.

It was commissioned in Ipswich as a first-class sleeper carriage and has gone through two transformations to become what it is today, a guard’s van with passenger seating.

Jim said at the time, which would have been around 1981, the guard was in charge of the train and this particular carriage was “palatial”.

“The guard was in charge of the train as opposed to the driver, so he guarded the train, hence the name guard.

“His responsibility was to make sure everything was recorded when they arrive somewhere, when they left.

“He had the ability to make a cup of tea, the ability to - if the carriage was on its own - to shut it down with a hand brake.

“Communicating with the drivers at the front, he could use this valve here just by going clunk, clunk at the air pressure, and the driver would know ‘whoops, time to go’ if they couldn't see each other.

“They used to pay the men on the track cash every week, so that was part of their job.

“So they played an important role in the life of Queensland railway.”

The carriage was donated to the museum in 1989 through a chance meeting in Rockhampton.

In another twist of fate, the very same carriage had been used previously by the museum in the 1980s to ferry passengers between Bundaberg and Gin Gin.

Life members contribute to restoration

Bundaberg Railway Historical Society life members Eddie Wolff and Gary Fletcher are two of the members that, alongside Jim, have spent countless hours restoring the carriage.

Each of them also have a special connection to the railway but circumstances had prevented both from pursuing a career in the industry.

For Eddie, whose father was in the railway for 30 years, he was unable to take up a lad porter position at Roma Street because he had no family to stay with in Brisbane.

Instead, he completed his blacksmith apprenticeship in Bundaberg and worked with Bonnells for 46 years.

“So when jobs come up here that need a tradesman, I'm the only tradesman in the group, so I cop everything,” Eddie laughed.

At 84 years of age he’s also the club’s oldest member but that didn’t slow him down in the restoration process.

“I did the clamps that hold the fence each end, like on the verandas, did the timber work on the verandas and steel work where the gas bottles go.

“There was a lot of rust in them - had to cut out and put new steel in - and various jobs inside here.

“I like to see the guard's van completed to its near original condition.”

Gary was destined to become a third-generation railway worker and follow his passion to drive locomotives, before his father told him he couldn’t work in a job that would involve so much shift work.

Instead, he became a teacher but his passion for rail never diminished.

“I've always had a longing for the railway station,” Gary said.

The opportunity to restore the historic guard’s van was a dream come true.

“I was very keen to get into it because I could see, like Eddie, getting it back to what it was when it came out of the Ipswich Railway workshops in 1921, a hundred years ago, and we did our bit to try and get it back to that sort of condition.”

He said they were not only preserving railway history but an important part of Queensland’s history as well.

“We're rapidly changing and there's the era, the kids today, just didn't experience what I experienced, and they don't know about how the railways virtually opened up the state.

“If it wasn't for the railways, a lot of the places would not have been opened up and developed like they were.

“And that part of the history is sort of being forgotten by today's generation.

“And of course, they won't have the thrill of travelling around on the back of a train anymore because the guard’s vans have been taken off the trains, they no longer exist.”

Both men have seen incredible development in the railway industry in their time.

“Well, I've started off with the steam locos and put your head out the window and you got soot in your eyes,” Gary said.

“It was painful and you soon learnt not to do it!

“And then you progress to the diesel haul trains. And now we've got the electric trains, and then we've got also the tilt trains.

“We've progressed from the maximum permissible speed of 80 kilometres an hour to 160 – double - in my era.”

The Bundaberg Railway Historical Society is eagerly applying some finishing touches to the carriage restoration and are excited to share the guard’s van with resident and visitors.

The Bundaberg Railway Historical Society museum is located at 28 Station Street, North Bundaberg.

The guard’s van, and the many other interesting items on display within the complex, can be viewed Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays between 8.30 am and 2.30 pm.

Admission:  Adults - $6; School age children - $3; Seniors -$5; Family - (eg 2 adults, 2 children) - $15; Groups by negotiation.

For more information head to the society’s Facebook page.

50 years of safety and security for Rechenberg

Georgia Neville

When local business Rechenberg was established 50 years ago, it was a man in a van travelling throughout Queensland offering security and locksmithing services.

Now, the third-generation business has grown to a team of over 30 people and monitors tens of thousands of alarm signals across every state and territory of Australia and New Zealand on a daily basis.

The local company is celebrating 50 years of their safety and security services this month, with managing director Michael Rechenberg looking back on the changes that had impacted the business over time.

“It is great to be able to keep our national headquarters here in Bundaberg and while we have established an office in Brisbane, most of the operations are run locally,” Michael said.

“A lot of people just see Rechenberg as locksmiths from what they see from the shopfront or when we are cutting keys and doing different things in store.

“In the back end though, we are actually monitoring alarm clients all over Australia and New Zealand, so every state and territory we cover with the alarm monitoring side of things and there is a lot of different technology involved as well.”

Rechenberg was originally established in Bundaberg in 1971 by Mr Gordon Rechenberg and his wife Marion as a family business named Lock Sales and Service.

The company specialised in locksmithing, with the focus of the business on security in the form of locks, safes and related services.

Gordon first delved into the world of electronic security in the mid 1970s, being one of the first to do so at the time.

“Dad started the electronic security side of the business around 1975 and then started a control room in the late 1970s with technology that was pretty much ahead of its time, especially for a regional centre like Bundaberg,” he said.

With changes in business, the electronic security side slowed and closed, taking Lock Sales and Service back to basics.

In 1992, Lock Sales and Service was renamed to Rechenberg Locksmiths Pty Ltd, which was changed to Rechenberg Pty Ltd in 1993.

This marked the business' second foray into electronic security with the supply, installation and monitoring of alarm systems via their 24/7 control room.

This control room opened a world of opportunity for the team, enabling them to expand their reach further than ever before and monitor electronic security systems, medical alarms, and other electronic devices.

“The boom was probably right time. right place,”Michael said.

“In the early 1900s the electronic side of the industry really took off and I guess we were already equipped to run with this so perhaps there is a little bit of luck that we got into it when we did.

“It all started again because I was out and about on the tools at that time after completing my apprenticeship.

“From the business we had at the time, I had customers saying to me you need to get back into the electronic side so I started to ask the questions and pushed to restart it, with it opening and growing very quickly from there.”

Ten years later in 2003, the business had outgrown its location, moving to 7a Maryborough Street, which was Bundaberg's former ambulance station.

“To ensure it was suitable for all of Rechenberg’s requirements, the building underwent a major renovation with the control room being purpose-built to Australian standards,” Michael said.

“This allowed Rechenberg to be one of the few Grade A control rooms in Australia and allowed us to monitor Australia-wide from Bundaberg.

“Our only real restriction for who and where we can monitor now is that they speak English – so we can monitor anywhere in the world as long as they speak English – from right there in Bundaberg.”

Michael and the team look forward to continuing to provide their high quality services to both the local community and those around Australia for many more years to come.

“Looking into the future we will continue to work on the electronic security side of the business,” he said.

“We do a lot of different things such as alarm monitoring and we continue to look to move away from being a security alarm monitoring company to an alarm monitoring company.

“While that sounds pretty much the same it is different being a security device to being a medical device or it could be anything that sends an alarm out to monitor, that type of thing.”

Ian Watson's career takes flight in Bundaberg

Ashley Schipper

Bundaberg man Ian Watson has had an extensive career as a pilot and aircraft engineer which has taken him across Australia and the world.

As part of Bundaberg Regional Council's Our People Our Stories project, Ian has been recognised for his work at his former business Watson's Aviation.

It was established in 1997 at a hangar at the Bundaberg Airport and focused on aircraft repairs and rebuilds.

“In that time, we also used to build the wings and centre section for the replica spit fire fighters,” Ian said.

“Some were pretty extensive rebuilds from age, corrosion, neglect, fatigue.

“On the side we built 33 sets of spitfire wings, and each was about 200-man hours… it kept my staff in jobs.

“We had between six to eight people employed for about 10 years.”

Before his Bundaberg business was established, Ian said he got his start in the aviation industry after becoming a diesel fitter mechanic.

“I went to Papua New Guinea as a mechanic in the Sepik River area and got involved in building air strips in remote areas,” he said.

“I worked as both a mechanic and on improving existing airstrips and while I was doing that, I had the opportunity to have a go at flying which is where I first started to learn to become a pilot.”

Before locating to the region, Ian said he worked on many different locations with planes and was even employed as a pilot mechanic on a cattle station during 1980 and 1986.

“I did a small amount of crop work spreading and dropping fertiliser over crops,” he said.

After moving to Bundaberg and operating Watson's Aviation for more than a decade, Ian went mobile as an aircraft engineer.

“I also got involved in a research and development project for an overseas military developing a drone engine in partnership with the Australian Government and a small team,” he said.

“We spent nearly 12 months converting a Jabiru engine for use as a drone engine for the military.

“We had lots of failures; we had more failures than we had successes but you learn a lot from failures.

“Eventually we got some pretty smart stuff that worked and, in the end, it was relatively simple.”

Nowadays, Ian has put his pilot licence away and spends his time teaching backpackers the English language and the “Aussie way of life”.

He said while he had achieved some amazing and technical things in the world of aircraft engineering, he would always be old fashioned at heart.

“I’ve lived most of my life without ever having a phone,” Ian said.

“Same with flying, I don’t even use a GPS, I just turn that off and use the old DRD system, which is Deduced Reckoning Navigation.

“My motto in life is just do the very best you can with what you’ve got and if you haven’t got much, just do the very best you can.

Creativity flows in Heather's family garden

Morgan Everett

Since moving into her Norville property over 50 years ago, Heather Ryan never imagined her garden would be as bright as it is today.

Sprouting from a collaborative effort between Heather and her creative son, the outdoor space has been bought to life in the past 18 months.

The garden features a variety of flowering plants and fruit trees which Heather said has seen her spend far more time in her outdoor space.

“I like to stand there watering the garden and if I see a weed I can tend to it straight away,” Heather said.

“Coming out to see everything growing and the variety of colours brings me joy, but I especially love my roses and orchids.

“I have a number of garden lights which allow me to also enjoy the garden at night.”

Although not from a family of gardeners, Heather has always loved gardening including everything from planting to propagating.

“I’m always looking to grow the number of plants in my garden and find propagating my own plants a great way to achieve this,” she said.

To further enhance the garden designed by her son, Heather has added her own touch, incorporating a number of animal statues throughout.

“If I’m out and see a statue that I like I will buy it, I love what they add to the garden,” she said.

Heather said the pomegranate trees featured in her backyard held a special place in her heart, thanks to treasured memories of her son.

“I used to suffer from really bad nose bleeds, I’ve ended up in an ambulance three times because of it,” she said.

“He made me drinks out of the pomegranates along with orange juice as it’s really good for you.

“I now use the pomegranates to make my own juice.”

The garden has a range of other fruit trees including mandarin, lemon and orange trees.