Glimpses of the Past

4 August 1939

In 1874 and 1875 a length of about 300 feet was added to the wharf, making it over a quarter of a mile in length. A lot of timber and goods came by steamer and sailing vessels in the next few years. When the goldfields were found a lot of people came by steamer and W.A. got a bit of a shove ahead. In fact in a few years you would not think that Bunbury was the same old place. Sheds and buildings were all over the place. 

In 1887 a railway was built to Boyanup. It used to be run at first with two horses though there was a couple of engines and several carriages and trucks in the sheds. 

In 1892 and 1893 the Perth-Bunbury railway became a fact and there was a lot of shipping for a few years. Millars' Timber Co. bought Port 'and Son out and opened up mills all over the timber country. Hayward and Son had built a larger store and Forrests mill also made the north end of the town look up.

When the Boyanup Bunbury railway was surveyed it ran from the wharf to the back of Millars' Timber Mill and along Wittenoom-street to what is now the council chambers, which was the station yards with sheds etc., on past the place where the court house now stands, past the back of Mr. Mitchell's stable and in front of Stirling Hospital, throngh where Dr. Kelly's house stands, and across Spencer-street and joined the present line at the back of Bunning's mill. Then it went on through Picton and Dardanup to Boyanup but did not cross the Preston River. From there the horse and bullocks took the goods to Donnybrook and Greenbushes to Bridgetown and other places. When the Bunbury-Perth railway came through they did away with the Wittenoom-street line and filled in the lagoon at the foot of Arthur-street and Princep-street and built a station on the site of the present station. The line ran from Clifton-street to the wharf down Victoria-street to Henry Street and to the wharf. When the station was burned down a few years later the line in Victoria-street was taken up and the present line past the silos was put down for railway traffic only. 

The whole of that part of the foreshore has been so altered that anyone who now came back to Bunbury say after 25 years, would hardly know the port. Also the water which at one time came to Forrests office corner is now several hundred feet further out and the harbour is now in a very bad way for want of a couple of deep berths as now there is only about 26 feet of water where 10 years ago there was 29 feet. Something will have to be done to save the port as at the present rate of silt in another 10 years there will be no water in the place for any large ships.