Iron Road: The Story of the Roebourne-Cossack-Point Samson Tramway by Lindsay Rollo

Book Description

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Iron Road: The Story of the Roebourne-Cossack-Point Samson Tramway is a historical account set in the North-West of Western Australia, spanning the period from 1880 to 1925 and beyond. The central theme of the story centres on the Roebourne to Cossack Tramway, but the book is more than the tramway itself; it is the story of the early settlers of that time. It identifies the strong local leadership and the community’s struggle to gain funding for a range of basic services to meet their needs, including public financing to build the tramway from a miserly government located 1600 kilometres to the south.

The story explores the community's ongoing campaign to sustain the tramway for forty years in a harsh environment, made more difficult by the constant exposure to destructive willy-willys and floods. It identifies the people and includes their unrelenting battle with indifferent governments, including intransigent railway commissioners, and highlights the uninterrupted changes arising from the social, economic and political events of the time. It is a story that is particularly critical of government and underlines the absolute mismanagement and failure of government to recognise the unique features and difficulties faced by the early inhabitants of the North West.

The fact that this tramway was built at all and survived for close to forty years is a testament to the spirit and endurance of the early North West settlers. Without their input, direction and ownership, the Roebourne-Cossack tramway, and later the Roebourne-Point Samson railway would not have existed.

Richly illustrated, with bibliography and index.

Lindsay Rollo grew up in Roebourne in the early 1960s.