Historical information

On 17th April 1919 a stock train travelling north crashed head-on with a goods train coming in the opposite direction. The driver thought he had been given the all-clear to proceed into Sunbury and it was only when the train was approaching the Macedon Street bridge that he saw the red light and it was too late. The accident caused damage to rolling stack and disruption on the Bendigo and Maryborough lines. The train coming from Bendigo smashed onto the platform at Sunbury. The driver of the stock train was thrown under the van and suffered a broken arm and facial injuries. The fireman was thrown clear of the tracks. A local Sunbury doctor treated them before they were taken by a casualty train to hospital. A crew from Melbourne came to Sunbury to repair the damage. The track was cleared by that afternoon.

Significance

This rail crash is one of a number that have happened in and near Sunbury over the years.

Physical description

A black and white photograph with a cream border, of a goods train smash at a railway siding. The carriages have 'jack-knifed'. Four men are on the tracks looking at the damage while a number of onlookers are surveying the damage from a footbridge. There are boxes of rabbit carcasses in crates stacked in the foreground.