YOUR STORY:

Thursday January 25, 1940 was a day that gave expectant mother Edna May Dale and her husband, who resided 57 kms from the tiny township of Aramara, a gamut of human emotions from total destruction to a joyous reunion.

Aramara in 1940 boasted a few houses , a railway station and a fuel depot.  

It is the only town in Australia that can be spelt backwards or forwards in same way .

Edna became aware that her pregnancy with her second child was not going the full term and decided to go to Maryborough on the 4.pm train from Gayndah  after travelling from Aramara to be near medical aid for the birth.

A short time after boarding the train, Edna needed to go to toilet (toilet on trains in those days consisted of a seat with a hole that discharged directly onto the rails below).

Edna gave birth whilst sitting on the toilet and as a result, the baby went straight onto the railway line below, and having no means of alerting train crew as to what had happened, she had to wait until the train arrived at Thinoomba to alert crew.

Edna's husband alerted Maryborough ambulance via railway phone who then met at the train at Yerra and took Edna and her husband to Musgrave Hospital for a health check.

Police were alerted and police inspector N.J.Carseldine ordered constables RE Quin and JW Mc.Niel to Thinoomba who was met at 6.pm by railway felter Colin Conrad with a pump trolley.

In company of police officers and an ambulance officer, Mr.Fielding set off with torches to search for the baby but not knowing where to start the search, they set off with little hope of finding the child alive.

They kept going in the hope that during the search on the rail tracks, one of searchers thought he heard a baby cry but a further search failed to find any trace.

Shortly after hard another cry and decided to search along side of the tracks where the baby was found covered in ants at 905 pm.

How the baby got to area where it was found is still a mystery as the baby could not have crawled there and a dingo theory was dispelled owing to no teeth signs on the baby.

The death certificate showed the baby died aged 36 years of age on June 26 1976.

The birth certificate shows the birth place on the train at Hunters Hut on the Gayndah line.

Jack Mc.Niel reached rank of Inspector and police superintendent and passed away early 1998.

I wish to thank MRs Joyce Dale for this information.