How Robert Dale entered the World
Dec 2012. by Phil Purser. edited by Trevor Keightley.

ABOVE: This family photo, taken circa 1950 in Home Hill, of Edna Dale and three of her four children. Heather Dale, 5, is photographed in front of her mother, while Robert Dale is on the left of the photo and Kevin Dale at right.

Believe it or Not?’

When Robert’s mother opened her eyes that morning on Thursday, 25th January, 1940, she could not possibly have imagined the day that lay ahead for her–during which she would experience the full gamut of human emotions, from total devastation to joyous elation and all points in between.

In fact, what transpired that day is so bizarre that if the forthcoming story was not able to be backed up by numerous credible witnesses, no one would believe it.

Edna Dale and her husband, Norm Dale, lived 57k from the tiny town of Aramara. It is much the same today as it was back then, but then it had a working Railway Station. Today Aramara is still a blink-and-miss town on the Maryborough-Biggenden Road, in fact, the most interesting part of Aramara is its name – it can be spelt the same forward and backwards.

Edna, well pregnant at the time, decided to advise her husband that she should go to hospital for the birth of their child. They decided to travel to the railway station at Aramara and catch the 4pm train to Maryborough. To get to the train she had to endure the 57km ride by timber truck from their property. The train ride was another 70km, via Hunters Hut, Thinoomba and Mungar Junction to Maryborough.

After boarding the train Edna felt the need to go to the toilet, she told her husband and off she went. (In that era toilets were an 8inch pipe down to the rail tracks in lieu of the flush basin we enjoy today.) As Edna sat on the toilet she was powerless to stop the forces of Mother Nature and the result was the unannounced, but not necessarily unexpected, birth of her baby. With the baby being wet and slippery, it slid down the chute right through to the tracks below.

One cannot begin to imagine the terrible fate that awaited the baby at this point, either by smashing his skull or getting flung under a wheel... It was recorded that the train was doing between 48/56km per hour at the time.

The train had no emergency stop cord to pull so there was no way of alerting the Driver or the Guard so the train proceeded towards Marybourgh. On arrival at Thinoomba, the next railway stop, Norm and Edna got in touch with the Marybourgh Ambulance via the Railway phone. The Ambulance took Edna and Norm to the Lady Musgrave hospital for a health check and the police were notified of the accident.

It was noted in the Chronicle that the Inspector of Police, N.J. Carseldine, ordered Constables R.E. Quinn and J.W. McNeil to make a hurried dash to Thinoomba. On arrival the 2 constables were joined by Colin Conrad and Ambulance officer, M. Fielding. They boarded a pump trolley and started to search with only torches and a lack of detail to where to look.

Then after a while the search party thought they heard a child cry but no baby was found, then the search party heard it again, they searched in the long grass beside the tracks and found the baby covered in ants which probably saved him by making him cry.

The baby was rushed to Lady Musgrave Hospital to be reunited with his mother in what surely must be the most extraordinary survival story since Queensland was first settled.

Robert’s death certificate shows he died aged 36, on the 22nd June, 1976 and place of birth as “In Train near Hunters Hut, Gayndah Line.”
This shortened story was taken from the book wrote by Phil Purser that he promised he would investigate for his mother to get the correct facts, we thank you Phil.