Can never find a toilet when you need it

Amusing item in the Education Departmental file on Dalcross School.

Dalcross School site at the group of sugar gums

 Dalcross School No. 4381 (named after Dalcross pastoral station, part of which was taken over for the Dyers Estate soldier settlement) opened temporarily in a room in the residence of Miss Helen D’Alton on 27.4.1928 till 13.7.1928, then in new premises on 16.7.1928 on 5 acres Allotment 34C Lallat Parish.

Section of the Lallat Parish map showing the school site

In 1927 the Education Department had purchased the site with house, from the Closer Settlement Board. The school operated in a weatherboard soldier settler’s home altered for the purpose. A shelter shed was erected in 1934. The school closed in April 1946.
The books were sent to Rupanyup State School. The 29’x14’ building was considered unsuitable for removal, and was sold by tender to Mr R. McRae of Rupanyup in August 1965, to become a plumber’s shop. 
The site is now landlocked and only a row of sugar gums mark its position.

The Argus article

The file item concerns the school's toilet/outhouse/out-office/loo/lavatory. There is an article from the Argus newspaper 7.7.1955 by Michael Fitzgerald.
One night in March some locals in a truck drove to the Dalcross school site and removed one of the toilets (there was a boys & a girls toilet. The school had been closed for nine years and the buildings were still there). In the morning the landowner rang the Rupanyup police (he was on Leave), so he then rings Constable Megee at Marnoo. Megee investigates and when driving through Rup, spies the loo in the backyard of a house owned by the Rupanyup Football Club (for the new team coach), then in the Wimmera League (Megee was the president & coach of the Marnoo Club, then in the Southern Wimmera League).
A week passes and low & behold the missing loo turns up back at Dalcross.

The Chief Commissioner's letter

The Chief Commissioner of Police & the Education Department are notified.
Megee presses charges, a summons is issued, and the case scheduled for the next court sitting at Rupanyup. The Police Divisional Inspector was to attend the Hearing in August, to ask that the case be struck out. No further Police action was contemplated.

The final fate of the toilets is unknown. 

But in light of the above, is the screen shot below related to the Dalcross incident? (taken from Malcom McKinnon's "Chronicle of a country life" the photographic work of John Teasdale of Rupanyup who filmed social life in the town in the 50s & 60s).

Railways - Bolangum line

Approaching Bolangum station from the west, with Mt Bolangum on the horizon

The Bolangum branch line officially closed in October 1983, passengers services ended earlier.

Lubeck station building (from VR.net)

 Lubeck was the junction of the main Melbourne to Adelaide line, and the Bolangum branch line. The birth of the town was closely associated with the arrival of the railway. The main line was extended from Stawell to Murtoa through Lubeck in 1878, and the railway station opened in February 1879. The station site was created with earth excavated from the Lubeck dam. Initially the station served as the Post Office.

Lubeck today, with the platform mound in front of the silos

Jackson is no longer a station, and is clearly a disused grain receival site too. To reach Jackson I had to pass five B-double trucks carting grain from surrounding paddocks to other locations!

Jackson, with the platform mound in the shadow of the silo

The dilapidated Rupanyup building (V.R.S. photo)

The line to Rupanyup opened in June 1887. The red brick station building is now privately owned.

Rupanyup, looking east towards Bolangum, 1959 (from "C.R.S.V.")

Rupanyup again, after the line closure (V.R.S. photo)

Burrum 

Burrum, looking east along the line to Banyena

Banyena

Harvest activity at the Banyena silos

The rail-line crossed the Richardson River east the Banyena silos and curved south towards Marnoo.

Remains of the Banyena trestle bridge over the Richardson River

 

Work on the line to Marnoo started in September 1908 and it became the terminus of the line in June 1909. Part of the line was washed away in a flood in August 1909. The silos first opened for the 1940-41 wheat harvest.
A daily passenger and goods service for many years, it decreased on a once-a-week timetable, before ceasing altogether. 
The two platforms remain at Marnoo, and the silos are still active, however the water tank (left) has not been utilised for many years.

Passengers looking towards the Marnoo township in 1968 (from "C.R.S.V.")

Bolangum bound goods train at Marnoo, 1961 (from "C.R.S.V.")

The Marnoo passenger platform looking to the highway intersection (V.R.S. photo)

Below - Remains of the Bolangum line crossing the Marnoo-Kanya/Bolangum Inn Road. A gravel road runs down the railway reserve beside the old line. The Bolangum silo is just visible in the centre of the photograph on the left of the native pines.

The line finally reached its final terminus at Bolangum in July 1927, existing for only 56 years.The silos and grain shed are no longer used.

Bolangum's silos and platform mound (V.R.S. photo)

Bolangum rusting away

 Further information and photographs at

 VictorianRailway Stations and Neville Gee's "VR stations and stopping places" and John Sargent's "Country railway stations Victoria" series and Mark Bau's VR.net site.