Deepwater History
DEEPWATER RAILWAY STATION
CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT PLAN

SECTION 2• DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE • PAGE 14

Great Northern Railway, as long as the junction was kept under state supervision and control. Henry Deane, the newly appointed Engineer-in-Chief of the Railways, stated in evidence that the scheme was `very desirable' and `perfectly practicable'.69 After some debate, Parliament passed an enabling Bill that received the Governor's assent on 1 April 1892/70 However, the onset of severe economic depression in 1892-3 and a sharp slump in silver prices defeated the project.'71

The Great Northern Railway, Regional and International Trade

Colonial communication-brokers in the late nineteenth century had a global vision for their operations. Edward Eddy, Chief Commissioner of New South Wales Railways from 1890, believed that farmers should not only have their own regional markets, but also be able to ship abroad and `command the markets of the world'.72 Large-scale pastoralists such as William Thomas Cadell, station manager at the Deepwater holding, were also thinking along the same lines.

Upon commencement of operations in September 1886 Deepwater was said to be the `busiest second class station on the Great Northern line'.73 The shearing season in New England traditionally takes place in late spring, and W.T. Cadell immediately took advantage of the railhead to transport the Deepwater clip in late 1886.74 The station management also used the railway to ship stock to major meatworks in the early 1890s. Later, stock were slaughtered locally at Tenterfield, chilled and then freighted to major markets.

These ventures were only possible after the introduction of important technological developments in rail-freight, namely the introduction of chilled trucks on the Great Northern line in about 1890, or soon after a direct rail link had been established with Sydney.

Improved arrangements were made when the latest chilled meat truck built by Hudson Bros. in Sydney arrived at Tenterfield. The experiment was a success, as the freight arrived in Sydney in `first class condition' and was sold for a good price
at auction.75

The Deepwater pastoral holding management appears to have placed little faith in these early local processing operations.76 Rather, W.T. Cadell generally chose to employ large and established slaughtering firms at Aberdeen and Riverstone. Although sending livestock to Aberdeen and Sydney was not as efficient as processing meat locally, established firms offered greater security to large pastoral concerns in the early years of the chilled meat trade. Special trains were needed to
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Sources
69 Ibid., para. 76.
70 Deepwater and Mount Galena Tramway, Statutes of New South Wales, 55 Vict., 1891-2 (Sydney, 1892), pp. 69-79.
71 ARDM, 1894 (Sydney, 1895), p. 44.
72 Tenterfield Record, 10 January 1890, p. 2.
73 Tenterfield Star, 13 October 1886, p. 2.
74 Deepwater Pastoral Station Diary, 9 December 1886; 16 December 1886; 20 December 1886, University of New England and Regional Archives, Armidale.
75 Tenterfield Record, 11 July 1890, p. 2.
76 Deepwater Pastoral Station Correspondence, University of New England and Regional Archives, 29 December 1892, V2200, fol. 62.