Chapter 6: - Rail, Tram and Bus Union of NSW

*On Wooden Rails Chapter 6 8/30/05 8:50 PM Page 205 

Changing Work Cultures 

Work in the rail industry has 

generally been perceived as a 

male domain – a place for blokes. 

Many in the industry and outside 

the industry to this day have 

difficulty in acknowledging that 

women also work across most 

functional areas of the railway. 

While women have never 

dominated the employment 

numbers of the railways, they 

have been there doing the job 

alongside their male counterparts, and often under lesser 

conditions. 

As mentioned previously, Hannah and Haynes, in their 

‘popular rail book’ comment that very few stories 

collected were about women. “There is a very good 

reason for this: for the first hundred years of its 

existence the railways employed very few women. 

Women didn’t become train drivers, firemen, guards, or 

stationmasters until relatively recently”. 

“Even today with equal opportunity enshrined into our 

industrial awards, women still only make up a small 

proportion of the railway workforce. In NSW for 

example, there are 2770 train drivers and only thirty one 

of them are women. Of the 2070 track workers on the 

permanent way, only four are women.” 1 

While it is irrefutable that women rail workers have been 

neglected in many of the histories and accounts of the 

industry, simply looking at the employment numbers 

misses a number of major factors and trivialises the 

significance of employment of women in the railways, 

within the industry and the labour movement more 

generally. Despite small numbers, women have 

occupied a substantial place in the railways, and in some 

1 Haynes and Hannah, op.cit., p 232 

On Wooden Rails - Celebrating 150 Years of Work on the NSW Railways 

Chapter 6: 

No Place for a Woman 

First appointed Woman Driver, Ms Mills (state Rail Archives) 

important ways have shaped the 

industrial and workplace relations 

landscape. There is an argument to 

be made that the tensions and 

practices relating to women 

workers on the railways have gone 

a long way to shaping the gender 

relations across major industries in 

this State and country. 

As with many industries that are 

predominantly male, the relatively 

small numbers of women on the 

railways has more to do with recruiting and defensive 

work practices and cultures, rather than ability to 

perform the work. The myths surrounding so much rail 

work have been actively maintained over 150 years, 

serving to restrict women’s employment to areas 

considered ‘more appropriate for women’, customer 

service, administration and cleaning. The same myths 

and claims of certain work being too heavy or strenuous, 

or too dirty, or lacking adequate facilities still get an 

airing today, but they are gradually being broken down 

by the reality of a substantial number of competent 

women performing across most job areas. 

The tensions around women’s employment in some 

areas of the industry have existed for a long time, with 

the attitude and view of many that the rail industry is 

simply ‘no place for a woman’. There has been 

animosity in relation to women taking up employment in 

areas other than those traditionally considered 

acceptable, that is on stations or in servicing roles. Even 

in areas of industrial support for pay equity, the common 

argument was not so much in favour of women gaining 

parity with their male colleagues, but rather defending 

male workers from a reduction to female wages and 

conditions. 

Chapter 6 - No Place for a Woman 205



In 1967, the RailRoad carried an article by the Goulburn 

Sub-Branch Secretary that captured some of these 

concerns. The article referred to the ‘invasion’ of female 

labour during the war years, in the cleaning sheds, and 

as ticket collectors, and, more recently, into the goods 

sheds and the parcels office. He was concerned that ‘the 

influx of women would result in men resigning or having 

their career opportunities closed off.’ 2 

Conversations with managers and co-workers, provide 

evidence of ongoing discomfort among much of the 

male workforce with increasing numbers of women on 

the job. This says more about the comfort zones as well 

as insecurities of these workers, and a reality check that 

demands that not only do some of these attitudes need to 

change, but that the job is changing and industrial 

conditions are also being influenced by these trends. 

Women are not ‘breaking down’ established conditions, 

as is so often the catchcry, quite the contrary, increased 

women’s employment is adding a new and different mix 

to the industrial demands of the workforce. Much of it 

having a civilising effect. 

As the balance of gender shifts so too do the 

interpersonal dynamics in the workplace, the 

acknowledgement of different facilities, and importantly 

an acknowledgement of different ways of working. 

Issues of ‘family friendly’ policies and work practices 

are buoyed as more workers with family responsibilities 

are employed on the railways. Whereas in the past, the 

social outcast status of much rail work was borne by 

male workers and their families adjusting to shift work 

and broken hours, is gradually shifting. The need to 

organise rail work that reflects a concern for greater 

parenting responsibilities by male and female workers, 

and a need to consider employees’ whole life 

requirements is increasingly taking centre stage in many 

industrial agreement negotiations. 

2 RailRoad, 20 January, 1967 p5 

206 

Women Cleaners AC Department (State Rail Archives) 

It must be remembered that women have always had 

roles in the rail industry, whether it be in running the 

Triple Rs and customer service facilities, station work, 

cleaning, and certainly during national emergencies, 

such as wartime, filling a wide range of occupations. 

Women have also played an important, if under-stated 

complementary role to the employment of their male 

partners. When a man was ‘in the service’ this usually 

meant that his wife and family shared those service 

conditions and responsibilities. A number of the 

illustrations of work contained in this book, demonstrate 

that the life of the remote fettlers was shared by their 

womenfolk, and in many situations, the country station 

master, fettler, gatekeeper, signalman, job was shared 

(formally or informally) by his partner. It was not 

unusual for the wife of fettlers or station masters to be 

engaged on gatekeeping duties or station duties, for 

example. 

In other ways, women have always played an important 

support role on the railways, through women’s 

auxiliaries and organising groups. The support provided 

to organise social and industrial events to either provide 

relief to unconscionable working conditions or to coordinate 

strikes or other industrial actions is well 

documented. These were not ‘sandwich and cup of tea 

roles’, but organising and campaigning roles essential to 

the industrial disputes. 

In more recent times, with employee shortages in some 

areas, and in particular the recruitment and training 

activities to secure more driver numbers, we are seeing 

more women cross some of the traditional occupational 

boundaries in the industry. It was not long ago that the 

thought of a woman on the footplate would have been 

generally ridiculed and met with hostility. More 

recently, even the sacred threshold of the footplate has 

given way to women drivers. First in very isolated and 

small numbers, now with increasing regularity. 

This section of the book does not make any special 

claims in relation to women workers, nor does it appeal 

to special dispensations or considerations. It doesn’t 

argue that women are ‘taking over’ the railways or are 

the dominant force in the workforce. Rather, it simply 

acknowledges the work that women have performed and 

continue to do in the railways, and to give that work and 

its place in the railway story its due and proper place. 

Linda Carruthers, RTBU Research and Education 

officer, who has been closely involved with efforts 

around organising and educating women members, 

Chapter 6 - No Place for a Woman


claims that the number of women employed in the 

railway is “not particularly significant, with currently 

around 11% of the workforce as women. The numerical 

proportion is not the issue, but how these women work 

and are treated in the industry, and what they can bring 

to the workplace is whats important”. 3 

Industrial officers such as Eileen Powell, gained a 

reputation as tenacious fighters for union conditions and 

entitlements during the 1930s, as well as a tireless 

campaigner and activist for pay equity and related issues 

for women workers. . Her efforts and organising skills 

during the Refreshment Rooms campaign and 

successful award claim are recounted in this Chapter. 

Eileen Powell has earned a respected place in the history 

of the labour movement. She first became involved in 

ALP politics by attending branch meetings with her 

mother at the age of eight. She joined the ALP at the age 

of fifteen and was Assistant Secretary of the Stanmore 

Branch when she was sixteen. This was the same time 

that she started work in Trades Hall performing 

secretarial duties. She was employed by the ARU 

between 1936 and 1944. Apart from building a 

reputation as skilled organiser and communicator, and 

her work around winning an award for Triple R workers, 

she spent much of her life campaigning for women 

workers. 

She was actively engaged in Pay Equity work from the 

mid 1930s with the Council for Equal Pay. She gave 

evidence in the 1935 Female Wage Case in the Industrial 

Commission (at the age of 22), appeared with Evatt in 

the 1942 Female Wage Case, and officiated on the Labor 

Women’s Central Organising Committee. Eileen was 

the Australian correspondent for the ILO Committee of 

Experts in the 1940s and 1950s, and appeared in the 

1969 National Wage Case which adopted the principle 

of equal pay for equal work. 4 

These efforts around pay equity, as well as her union and 

Labor party activism were maintained throughout her 

life. Her work included, organising both in the ALP and 

the union movement, broadcasting on 2KYand public 

speaking, writing and editing for RailRoad and the 

Labor Council, as well as documenting many of these 

aspects of the labour movement. Eileen was on the 

project committee for the ARU official history, Working 

Lives, written by Mark Hearn in 1990. Eileen Powell 

passed away in 1997, and in her passing, the labour 

movement lost a remarkable and dedicated ambassador. 


Pat Groves was the first woman to be become a 

‘signalman’ on the NSW railways in the 1977. Despite 

hostility from superiors and colleagues, Pat continued to 

work in signalling, and as a union activist. Pat was 

involved in lobbying for a full-time women’s organiser 

position in the ARU in the 1980s. Pat was instrumental 

in lobbying for the establishment of the ARU Women’s 

Committee. .In 1981 the Branch Conference had agreed 

to establsih a women’s committee, but seemed to take a 

back seat to other industrial issues. The Secretary’s 

Report to the 1984 Conference, reported that “while in 

the process of establishing the Committee and making it 

fully operational, the 1982/83 crisis intervened and 

other campaigns developed…. And the A.R.U.’s total 

energies were directed towards the retention of 

jobs…The committee did, however, manage to meet on a 

number of occasions and is beginning to operate on a 

strong basis.” 5 . Similarly, the proposal for a woman’s 

organiser was defeated by 2 votes at the 1987 State 

Conference of the ARU. 

Pat expressed her concerns and disappointment at the 

obstacles and slow response to changes that would 

encourage more women to enter the industry. ‘They are 

moving in slowly. We have two signalmen, women 

signalmen, a few ASMs, shunters, guards, fettlers, but 

never in a mad rush.’ 6 

Similar stories can be found in many areas of the 

industry. Hearn provides the example of Mary Stratton, 

who joined the industry as a Station assistant at Town 

Hall in the 1950s at the age of thirty seven. She earned 

28 pounds per fortnight for ten hour days with two hour 

3 Interview with Linda Carruthers, 

4 Rosemary Webb, Commemorating Our Dear departed Equal Pay Activists, Workers Online, Issue 3, March 1999 

5 ARU Conference Reports, 1984, p75 

6 Pat Groves interview in Hearn, op.cit., p 136 

Station Announcer (State Rail Archives) 




breaks in the middle. Mary was forced to retire, losing 

seniority and superannuation entitlements, to have her 

child. When she returned and reapplied for her job, the 

Department decided that she ‘was too old’ at forty one. 

“I said to him [the district superintendent] ‘Well if I’m 

not too old to have a baby, I don’t see that I’m too old to 

put my arm out with a flag.’ And he said, “well fair 

enough”, so he passed me. My mother lived at 

Chippendale and I used to take the baby –it was a five 

o’clock start at Town Hall, so I used to take her in at 

four o’clock [in the morning] and then go on to work, 

and then I’d go back to mum’s and take her home.” 7 

In addition to the poor provision for the requirements of 

mothers and parenting at the time, people like Mary also 

received hostility from co-workers. “I think I was one of 

the first [women] that started on the platforms…. They 

just ignored me, the guards, they wouldn’t take the right 

of way from a woman, they just ignored me, they’d take 

it when they were ready.. Because there weren’t many 

women on the railways at that stage … only station 

assistants and cleaning women, cleaning the trains.” 8 

Jim Walshe, former ARU Secretary recalls the efforts by 

a member, Janet Oakden who was then employed in the 

Railway Refreshment Rooms, who wanted to cross over 

and be trained for the footplate and become a driver. The 

AFULE was opposing her ambition to be the first 

woman on the footplate, and she was requesting help 

from her union to fight the obstructions. As Jim points 

out, this put the ARU in the awkward and unwelcome 

position of fighting another union over the issue. 

Nonetheless, she persisted and was determined to join 

the driver’s ranks. 

208 

Janet Oakden 

7 Mary Stratton cited in Hearn p 121 

8 Mary Stratton cited in Hearn, p 122 

9 Interview with Jim Walshe, July 2005 

Jim describes an ‘unusual support role’ played by 

driver’s wives who turned out in numbers at the union 

meeting to discuss the claims. The women at the 

meeting raised their own concerns about a woman being 

in barracks with their husbands. Janet was apparently 

unsympathetic to these concerns, replying that if she ‘ 

fancied him and chose to sleep with their husbands she 

would.’ 

The tensions created by Janet Oakden’s desire to take on 

the ‘male domain’ of the footplate and the unions was 

only stopped by her failing the medical due to colour 

blindness, and leaving the industry to return to Britain. 9 

The irony of much of the resistance to women working 

in the railways, is that on the one hand there was a 

‘feminine’ argument around the work being too hard or 

heavy for women. ‘We are not opposed to women 

workers, but the work is unsuitable for them’. While on 

the other, women were employed in some of the most 

onerous, difficult dirty and laborious jobs in the 

industry. Women (and in particular, migrant women) 

were employed in large numbers, for example, in the 

carriage cleaning sheds in Sydney, the ACDEP air 

conditioning depot at MacDonaldtown, workshops and 

similar locations. Rather than being non-existent or 

inconsequential, the rail culture and operations priorities 

rendered much women’s work invisible or disguised it 

as marginal. 

In recent times, and in particular a resolution passed at 

the RTBU National Council in 2003, supporting the ITF 

campaign to develop affirmative action strategies for 

women in unions, the union is putting more effort into 

providing education and training and organising women 

members. Linda Carruthers has been involved in 

organising a branch women’s conference with women 

from across all areas of the industry, and in joint union 

activities with women from other transport unions. 

Currently a Women’s Campaign Committee is being 

formed within the NSW Branch of the RTBU. 

This chapter has selected a number of individual women 

and work illustrations, to demonstrate the range and 

depth of activity by women in the railways workforce. 

The extent to which some of these earlier stories have 

become relegated to history, while other aspects, 

especially in relation to the particular requirements of 

women workers remain live issues in the current work 

practices. 



Tea Without Sympathy 

Women of the Triple R 

In their recent book, Haynes and 

Hannah comment that very few stories 

collected were about women. ”There is 

a very good reason for this: for the first 

hundred years of its existence the 

railways employed very few women. 

Women didn’t become train drivers, 

firemen, guards or stationmasters until 

relatively recently”. 

“Even today with equal opportunity 

enshrined into our industrial awards, 

women still only make up a small 

proportion of the railway workforce. In 

NSW for example, there are 2770 train 

drivers and only thirty one of them are 

women. Of the 2070 track workers on the permanent 

way, only four are women.” 1 

Only in the area of station assistants and managers are 

there significant women workers (approximately 16% of 

the workforce). While some of these claims, and mere 

focus on numbers of women employees is challenged 

elsewhere in this book, a celebrated area that was 

predominantly made up of women, was the Railway 

Refreshment Rooms. 

The Railway Refreshment Rooms (or Triple Rs) were 

both a worksite for thousands of men and women on the 

railways, and often operated under very austere and 

harsh conditions, but they were also a unique part of the 

long distance train traveller’s experience. The Triple Rs 

were an important public and social ambassador for the 

railways, employing a range of staff and spurning their 

own mini-industries of bakers, butchers, and others 

servicing the refreshment rooms on the stations. 

The fact that trains used steam power and need to be 

changed, watered and re-coaled, meant long delays at 

some stations, on what by modern standards were very 

long travel times. Thus, wherever there were main loco 

yards or junctions there were Triple Rs. In some places, 

passengers sat down to silver service three course meals 

in ornate dining rooms. Other stations just had fruit, pie 

and coffee stalls called ‘tearooms’. The railway pie was 

the fast food of the steam era. 


RRR Staff, Coffs Harbour, 1947 

Early accounts of a ‘rest room’ at Sydney Terminal were 

said to be via the supply of pastries by a Mrs Moon. 

Haynes and Hannah quote the official Departmental 

History of 1955 to support this quaint claim: 

“The first refreshment room [at Sydney Terminal] 

consisted of a counter and two stools. It was open only 

shortly before the departure and arrival of trains. 

Supplies were brought to the station by a kind old lady 

from her pastry cook shop in Botany Road. It was quite 

common to see hungry passengers anxiously looking out 

for Mrs Moon and her basket when she was a little later 

than usual.” 2 

The first refreshment facility, however, seems to be the 

claim of Mr Henry Dudley, who applied to the railway 

manager in 1855 to rent a room for the provision of 

refreshments. Finally, in 1856 he was leased a room for 

two pounds a week. His wife was also employed at 

Sydney station as a ladies’ waiting room attendant. At 

that stage, stoves were not allowed on the railway 

premises, making it difficult to provide hot 

refreshments. Dudley tried to get around this obstacle by 

erecting a tent on grounds near the station. His tent had 

twice caught fire from sparks from passing engines, and 

in 1857 nearly blew over in strong winds. He abandoned 

the venture in 1859. 3 

1Jim Haynes & Russell Hannah, All Aboard! Tales of the Australian Railways, ABC Books, Sydney, 2004, p 232 

2Ibid, p 235. In the tradition of populist histories, the authors didn’t bother to trouble their readers with details of the reference 

they cite. 

3See Andrew Messner, Train Up ! Railway Refreshment Rooms in New South Wales, ARM Management, Sydney, 2003, Pp 7-9 




Railways Commissioner John Rae described this aspect 

of the railways operation in the early 1870s as 

‘defective’ and ‘much behind our neighbouring colonies 

and England and Europe’ 

In strong contrast to the great saloons in other parts, “the 

keepers of what are facetiously called refreshment 

rooms on our Railways are little more than applestall 

holders, and vendors of lollipops and stale pastry, 

serving out junks of sandwiches and messes of tea and 

coffee to their customers, without any regard to their 

accommodation or comfort” 4 

The decades of the late 1870s onwards saw an era of 

major railway expansion. Grand stations which 

incorporated state-of-the-art refreshment rooms were 

built at Albury, Junee and Werris Creek. 

Until just prior to the First World War, all the 

refreshment rooms were leased to private operators, but 

after 1915 the government stopped renewing leases and 

took over the running of the refreshment rooms. In NSW 

at the height of the steam era, there were over 120 such 

rooms scattered over the rail network. They proved a 

lucrative business for operators, who often had leases for 

several refreshment rooms. The larger refreshment 

rooms also provided accommodation for travellers. 

The move from private lease to government control of 

the refreshment rooms proved to be a financial success, 

going from losses under the lease arrangements in 1915 

to a profit of over 68,000 pounds in 1920. The splendour 

of the facilities and quality of service was also getting 

good reviews. 

210 

Platform Buffet Service, Central 1948 

“I recently had occasion to spend a day at Werris Creek. 

I engaged a room at the R.R.R and also had my meals 

there and desire to testify to uniform courtesy of the 

manager and his staff and to the excellent service 

rendered generally. Everything was spotlessly clean and 

the food good and well served…..The whole conduct of 

the establishment was in such a striking contrast to that 

of the other public houses visited during a tour of the 

north-west that I feel impelled to give it official 

recognition.” 5 

Pub With No Beer 

Early refreshment room proprietors made regular 

representations to the Railway Department requesting 

permission to serve alcohol to passengers, reporting 

requests and abuse by passengers not able to buy 

alcohol. 

This however, was also a time when the temperance 

movement was gaining momentum, which among other 

activities, lobbied to prevent the extension of liquor 

licenses to the railway refreshment rooms. They also 

gained unlikely allies in some publicans, especially 

those located near to railways, who saw licensed 

refreshment rooms as an intrusion into their business. 

Others argued that alcohol on railway stations was a 

recipe for disaster. The Newcastle Morning Herald 

editorial of 19 February 1879 summarises some of the 

sentiments of those opposed to licensing the Triple Rs. 

“We ask whether it would not be better, in the interest of 

all classes of society, to leave well alone. Hitherto we 

have been able to conduct …. Our railways without the 

assistance of Licensed Refreshment Rooms …. What is 

wanted is …. Real Refreshment Rooms; that is, 

comfortable halting places, at which travelers may not 

only partake of wholesome and necessary refreshments, 

but have a reasonable time allowed them to do so.” 6 

The sale of liquor at refreshment rooms was finally 

sanctioned in 1883, but was restricted to ‘bona fide 

travellers’ and was forbidden to rail employees. 

The chances of travellers becoming inebriated from their 

stop at the refreshment rooms was unlikely. 

Notwithstanding that the major Triple Rs provided full 

meals and quite extensive menus, stoppage times for 

meals and drinks were kept to a minimum, and were 

usually between 10 and twenty five minutes. 

4 Cited in Haynes and Hannah, op., cit., p235 

5 Letter from Inspector of the bank of NSW, tendered to Royal commission into the railways and tramways in 1924, cited in 

Chris Banger, The Railway Refreshment Rooms of NSW 1855-1995, Part 1, ARHS Bulletin, Vol 54, no 789 , July 2003, p263 

6 Cited in Messner, op.cit., p 13 



Working on the Triple R 

Female waitresses (or the women in grey or Triple R 

Ladies as they were referred to) earned about 35 

shillings per week (just under half the wages of men). 

They were not classified as permanent workers and had 

no access to government superannuation, long service 

leave or sick pay. If sub-managers were married, their 

wives commonly assisted with management duties at 

country refreshment rooms. Women performed the bulk 

of the catering and kitchen duties, waiting and counter 

service, as well as cleaning, ironing and laundry at 

localities offering accommodation. Larger rooms 

employed a male chef who supervised female cooks, as 

well as young boys – ‘usefuls’ – to perform general 

duties. 7 

The Triple Rs were generally staffed by a manager 

(usually male), several women in the kitchen or serving 

and a boy who did odd jobs. Prior to being taken over by 

the Department in 1916, they were privately operated 

and not within the ambit of the Railways Act, or within 

the coverage of the Australian Railways Union and it 

suited management to keep it that way. 

Long hours in broken shifts were worked to service 

passengers at all hours of the day and night, seven days 

per week. There were complaints of understaffing, long 

shifts, and harassment, poor wages, injuries and death, 

and consequently very high turnover of staff. Andrew 

Messner provides information for one six month period 

prior to the depression in 1929, where more than 20% of 

the female refreshment rooms staff at Central resigned, 

whilst another 27 were terminated. 8 

Railway Refreshment Rooms, Coffs Harbour 

7See Messner, Train Up !, op.cit., pp 34-36 

8Ibid, p 37 

9Cited in Hearn, op.cit., p66 

10Cited in hearn, p64 


“You see they had to be on duty when trains came in, to 

prepare and serve a train which might take two hours. 

The larger rooms served full meals, the smaller rooms, 

light refreshments. But when the train went out and the 

clearing up was done, the girls would be off for a couple 

of hours and then back to meet the next train.” 9 

Hours of operation of the refreshment rooms were often 

like 2.30 am to 4.30 am, followed by 7 am to 8.30am; or 

9.30am to 11.30am followed by 9.30 pm to 11.30pm to 

accommodate main traffic. 

An eight hour day was usually spread over twenty one 

hours of the day. The women in grey were often known 

as being ‘grumpy’ – which would seem perfectly 

understandable under the circumstances. Many also 

lived in railway accommodation and had compulsory 

deductions from their wages for meals and 

accommodation, even if they lived off-site. 

The grievances outlined and the particularly high turnover 

of staff, indicates a deeper set of concerns than just 

the immediate industrial issues. The accounts of 

harassment and denigration, coupled with husband and 

wife management teams in country locations, has an 

almost feudal tenor about it. The blatant neglect of, or 

concern for refreshment room workers welfare or safety 

in coming and going from the job at all hours is 

alarming. The impression is more of abused and bullied 

house servants of the spoiled aristocracy than of public 

employees. 

Lorna Bridge, who worked at the Grafton Refreshment 

Room, described the varied and hard work at the Triple R. 

“There was a terrible lot of work to be done, you know, 

washing walls, cleaning windows, cleaning silver, doing 

the brassware, polishing floors. Everything was done on 

hands and knees – scrubbing and polishing. Curtains 

had to be washed and you know, just everything. I was 

tea and sandwich girl. Oh, everything, just flat out from 

daylight ‘til dark.” 10 

By the end of 1938, there were over 1,200 staff 

employed in refreshment rooms across the state. Sydney 

Station was the biggest refreshment room operation in 

the state and while not offering accommodation, 

employed over 200 staff to work the two dining rooms, 

bars, platform kiosks and fruit stalls. The refreshment 

rooms also prepared wicker baskets for travelers and 

‘basket boys’ were a regular sight on major stations. 




“Apart from the usual array of waitresses, counter-girls 

and usefuls, the Sydney dining rooms were managed by 

chefs who supervised a team of grill, fish, vegetable, 

sweets and pastry cooks. Butchers, piemakers, 

tobacconists, cordial makers were also employed onsite, 

as were a large complement of kitchen, scullery, 

pantry, cleaning and boiler-room staff……[from the 

early 1920s] two musicians were also on the payroll at 

Sydney, and a matron was employed to oversee the 

wellbeing of a large staffing complement.” 11 

Feeding the Troops 

During WWII the Railways were requested to provide 

meals and light refreshments to defence force personnel 

travelling by rail throughout NSW. 

The war years, with packed troop trains, with schedules 

and movements mostly kept secret, saw the Triple Rs 

feeding up to 4000 troops at a time. The inability of the 

Triple Rs to cope with this upsurge of business was 

initially overcome by supplementing permanent staff 

with volunteers from the Red Cross and Girl Guides. 

“The most important country refreshment room in NSW 

for troop movements during the early stages of the 

mobilisation was Albury. During one 48 hour period 

6,000 men arrived there in 12 trains and were provided 

with meals before departing for Victoria.” 12 

In addition to troops that stopped at the rooms, they also 

provided packed refreshments of sandwiches, fruit and 

cake. “ During March 1942, 9,000 United States troops 

were conveyed to Brisbane from Sydney on 18 trains. 

These men were provided with meals at every 

refreshment room on the North Coast route. ……..In one 

36 hour period, 13,500 troops bound for Brisbane were 

conveyed in 27 trains originating from both Melbourne 

and Sydney. These troops were served 26,850 meals and 

were provided with 3,792 packet meals by the 

refreshment rooms along the route.” 13 

Other activities during the war that the Triple Rs were 

called on for catering, usually at very short notice, 

included movement of German and Italian (and later 

Japanese) prisoners of war, transported by rail to 

prisoner of war camps. The R.R.R were called on to 

cater for other related facilities, such as the construction 

of the military aerodrome at Tocumwal, catering and 

canteen facilities for the defence and munitions works at 

11 Messner, op.cit., p 41 

12 Chris Banger, op.cit., p264 

13 Ibid., p 264 

14 Interview with Lorna Bridge, in Hearn, op.cit., p68 

15 Messner, op.cit., p44 

212 

Catering for the Troops (State rail Archives) 

St Marys and the work of the Allied Works Council, 

established to build aerodromes, barracks, docks, 

bridges and roads. All of these projects and those 

involved with them needed to be fed. 

Lorna Bridge worked on the Grafton RRR during the 

war years, and recalls the chaos of the work: 

“When the troops came in we’d have to start work at 4 

a.m. And then we’d have to work right through the day 

then, until about half past seven at night. And then 

sometimes when the train came in, a late troop train 

we’d work up until about ten. We had hospital trains and 

prisoner of war trains …. We had trestles down the back 

and we used to feed them there …..mostly Italians and 

Japs. Sometimes there would be 3000 on one train, yes 

my word, we used to get through them though. We didn’t 

have any dishwashers in those days, we used to do 

everything by hand.” 14 

There are also many memories of people being stranded 

due to accidents, bushfires or floods and the like, to find 

solace at the Triple R. 

It seems that Triple R china and crockery were also 

popular collectibles. Messner reports on media accounts 

and railway data that shows a disappearance just after 

the war of some 35,000 spoons, 25,000 cups and 

thousands of towels from the refreshment rooms. This 

could be due in part to a policy by the Department, to 

minimise stoppage times, that allowed passengers to pay 

a deposit , take their drink with them and claim a refund 

at the next stop. 15 



Unionising the Triple R 

Prior to the Triple RRRs coming under direct control of 

the Railways Department, the employees were not 

railway employees or covered under the Railways Act. 

They could not be covered by the ARTSA. As Mark 

Hearn recounts, management wanted to keep them 

separate from the mainstream workforce and the 

conditions they enjoyed. 

Rosemary Webb also points out that even when the 

refreshment rooms came under Departmental control, 

catering staff were not classified as permanent, but 

rather on a permanent casual basis which meant they 

were denied job security and benefits enjoyed by 

permanent employees. 16 

The Secretary of the Shop Assistant’s Union made initial 

union representations in the early 1920s on behalf of 

refreshment room workers to management. It wasn’t 

until 1923 that the ARU first admitted and classified 

catering staff with other non-salaried employees such as 

porters and usefuls. In 1928 refreshment room workers 

were integrated into the general Traffic Branch of the 

ARU. 17 

The only award relating to the refreshment rooms prior 

to 1938 was that covering the Hospitality, Caterers and 

Restaurant Employees Union. The ARU had formed its 

own RRR Division in 1923, with CJ Starkie (porter at 

Petersham) elected as Divisional secretary and Miss AF 

Graham (Central Refreshment Rooms) as Divisional 

President. These two activists laid the early essential 

groundwork in raising the plight of the refreshment 

room employees with management and within the 

union. 18 Rather than consolidate or improve their 

bargaining position, the move into the Traffic Branch of 

the union clearly weakened it and the groundwork of 

organising by Starkie and Graham. 

With the subsuming of the Refreshment Room Division 

within the Traffic Branch and the rolling of their key 

organisers, came the lack of commitment to the plight of 

these workers from some of the union officials. The 

Refreshment Rooms no longer had specialist 

representation from its own division, or its own 

organisers. Industrially, this ‘merger’ left the 

Refreshment Rooms under-represented, if not seriously 

neglected for some time to come. 


The grievances in the refreshment rooms, as outlined 

above, centred around working hours, broken shifts, 

grade classifications, understaffing, compulsory 

deductions for accommodation, occupational health and 

safety, permanent employment and management’s 

refusal to allow employees to wear union badges. 

Workplace representatives were also frustrated and 

undermined in their efforts by some of the full-time 

union organisers. One example is in relation to 

representations by Starkie on behalf of a Miss Mitchell 

at Central, who was forced to pay for on-duty breakages 

(a regular grievance was that such breakages were 

automatically deducted from wages). The union 

organiser, Davis had compromised with management, 

agreeing that she would pay for the breakages. 19 

The already appalling conditions of refreshment room 

workers deteriorated further during the Depression years 

and despite continued efforts and representations to the 

union, by union representatives such as C.J Starkie and 

Miss A.F. Graham little was done to improve the 

situation for ten years. A major campaign was eventually 

organised by the ARU in the 1930s (under the leadership 

of the new Secretary, Lloyd Ross, but primarily 

organised by Eileen Powell). 

Eileen Powell (who was later to become the 

unsuccessful Labor Party candidate for the federal seat 

of North Sydney) organised the ARU’s RRR campaign 

that began in 1937. ‘We were getting reports from the 

per way reps and traffic staff that the girls were working 

under very poor conditions’ 20 

Her skill as an organiser and strategies are well worth 

keeping in the modern organising guide book. She 

toured the worksites to gather information on conditions 

16Rosemary Webb, Commemeorating Our Dear Departed Equal Pay Activists, Workers Online, 5 March 1999 

17See Messner, op. cit., Pp 36-37. See also Rosemary Webb, A Refreshing Advance, Workers Online, 2 July 1999. 

18Rosemary Webb, A Refreshing Advance, op.cit. 

19Rosemary Webb, A Refreshing Advance, Workers Online, 2 July 1999. 

20 Hearn, op. cit., p 66 

Catering Services Staff, 1964 




and where hostile employers existed, she organised to 

meet the women out of work to discuss their conditions 

and joining the union. She used popular media such as 

Women Today to gain public support and embarrass the 

government, before making an award application. 

The following extract relating to the RRR campaign 

from Women Today, illustrates the strategy of appealing 

to general sentiment around working conditions and 

reflects a subtlety that goes well beyond sloganising or 

rhetoric. : “What would my women readers say if their 

husbands came home and said: ‘My boss has started a 

boarding house at the factory and all the employees 

must live there, or if not pay board to him just the same’. 

Wouldn’t their wives be indignant?” 

The ARU took its case to the NSW Conciliation 

Commissioner in 1938, to be granted only a small wage 

increase, but no response on the other grievances about 

accommodation, hours or meals. So, the union appealed 

to the full bench of the Commission, represented by 

Eileen.. 

“It was unusual in those days, well it was unknown for 

a woman to be in the arbitration court and there were 

very few in the legal profession. When the judgement 

came down they cut the spread of hours, made provision 

for overtime, increased wages …. And abolished the 

compulsory board and lodging payment, so that meant 

that the girls who could live at home …. Had their wages 

increased by the one pound a week they were paying for 

board and lodging. So it was a very good result for 

them.” 

The success with the Full Bench made Eileen the first 

woman advocate to argue and gain an award in the 

Commission. After 8 years with the ARU, running 

Railroad and organising members, Eileen resigned from 

the ARU, to care for her mother and took up a position 

at the Labor Council’s radio station 2KY 

End of an Era 

In 1957, the US based consultants EBASCO were 

retained to report on all areas of railway operations, 

including the refreshment rooms. It was noted in the 

report that the metropolitan Triple Rs and kiosks were 

operating at a profit, whereas some of the country rooms 

and buffet services were declining. The consultants 

suggested a return to the past, recommending among 

21Women Today, September 1937, cited in Hearn, op.cit., p 68 

22Eileen Powell, 1938-40 State Secretary’s Report, p 14, cited in Hearn, p 68 

23Chris Brady, op.cit. p265 

24Chris Brady, op.cit. Part II, ARHS Bulletin Vol 54, No 790, August 2003, Pp 297 ff 

214 

other things, that ‘the operation of most of the country 

rooms should pass to private lessees… and that some 

rooms should reduce their level of service or be closed’. 

The rooms at Blayney, Carrathool, Culcairn, Dungog, 

Gloucester, Harden, Molong, Penrith, Queanbeyan, 

Tamworth, Wagga Wagga, Wellington and Yass Junction 

all closed around the time of the release of the report. A 

number of other country refreshment rooms were leased 

to private operators. In the 1960s more rooms were 

closed, including Bathurst, Moss Vale and Coffs 

Harbour. 

While refreshment rooms were moving towards final 

retirement, the Triple R service was renamed as Trading 

and Catering in 1962-63 (in the 1980s it was renamed as 

Retail and Catering Services), to reflect a shift in 

emphasis and activities. These included, in addition to 

metropolitan and the remaining country refreshment 

rooms and on-board services, with new catering 

facilities opening at a number of mainly metropolitan 

locations. Under new arrangements, some of the major 

Triple Rs such as Dubbo, Grafton City, Junee, 

Wollongong, Gosford, Newcastle, Sydney and 

Tamworth survived into the 1990s. A number of the 

kiosks and stands still operated on metropolitan and 

country stations and a few of the original RRR facilities 

or reduced versions still operate in some locations, such 

as Wollongong, Newcastle, Dubbo, Junee and Glenn 

Innes. 

The decline in steam train travel resulted in the decline, 

and ultimately the demise of the Triple Rs. Diesel didn’t 

require long stops and the major interstate prestige trains 

(such as Southern Aurora, Spirit of Progress) all had onboard 

buffet or dining cars. 

Country passenger services further declined with 

increases in road and air travel. The Intercity XPT 

doesn’t stop long enough for passengers to get 

refreshments. Most of the remaining Railway 

Refreshment Rooms were closed by the mid 1970s. 

The Triple Rs are now just a part of railway nostalgia. 

The few remaining rooms that were kept were once 

more leased to private operators. Many of the grand old 

buildings have been taken over by historical societies or 

become part of the station offices; others retained their 

liquor licences and became pubs. 



Women at Eveleigh 

Lucy Taksa 

Women worked at Eveleigh from 1887. Admittedly, 

their numbers were extremely small. In that first year of 

full operations the ratio was 1,162 to 1. That one woman 

was Mrs. Jane Colgate McDougall, a laundress at 

Eveleigh in that year who was classified as a Cushion 

Cover Maker from 1 May 1888 and an upholstress in 

1890. 1 A year later she was joined in this occupation by 

her daughter Annie who only stayed at Eveleigh for one 

year. By contrast Jane remained there until her 

retirement on 3 September 1911, juggling upholstery 

work with office cleaning. 

Another couple of upholstresses joined Jane and Annie 

in 1891, and three more women worked as caretakers of 

various barracks at Eveleigh. In total 50 upholstresses 

were employed in the period before 1939. Like Jane, a 

number of them also cleaned offices and undertook 

laundry work. During the First World War their numbers 

were augmented further. Seven worked as machinists in 

the tarpaulin sheds and stores and five as shorthand 

writers and typists. In 1918, the first woman clerk 

appeared at Eveleigh and 

by the eve of World War 

Two forty-nine women 

had worked in its offices. 

Far from being temporary 

intruders in this industrial 

landscape, a large 

number of these women 

were Eveleigh stalwarts. 

Upholstress Maria Adair, 

for instance, worked 

there for thirty-eight 

years, her cousin Maggie 

Wauhop for thirty-six 

years. 2 Similarly, 

Gertrude May Dickson 

was a short-hand writer 

and typist in the Chief 

Mechanical Engineer’s 

office for 19 years, while 

Maria Imelda Healy was 

a clerk in the same office 


for 38 years. In some cases these women were related 

to each other or to men employed in other parts of the 

workshops. Generally they worked in very small groups, 

isolated from the majority of Eveleigh’s employees and 

often from each other as well. Such conditions were 

markedly different from those experienced by the 

women employed in Eveleigh’s Munitions Annexe 

during World War Two. 3 

Eveleigh was drawn into the war effort in 1939 after 

Defence Department officials made a request to the 

Commissioner for Railways for space to be made 

available to manufacture 18-pounder shells. Plans were 

prepared in August of that year and the Munitions 

Annexe was located in the Tender Shop of the 

Locomotive workshops under the Ministry of Munitions 

'Shadow Factory' Scheme. In May 1940 munitions work 

began there, although in January 1941 the plant was 

converted for the production of 25-pounder shells. In 

November 1942 female process workers were 

introduced into the Annexe after an additional gallery 

First Women Apprentices, Chullora Training Centre 

1 Jane Colgate McDougall, Railway Personal History Card, State Records NSW, CGS 12922. 

2 Maria Adair and Maggie Wauhop, Railway Personal History Cards, State Records NSW, CGS 12922. 

3 Information from Eveleigh Employee Database produced by Lucy Taksa using NSW Government Gazette Employee Lists 

obtained from the NSW State Railway Authority Archives (SRAA) 




was built consisting of a meal room, a change room with 

lockers, a rest room and hot water for washing and 

showers exclusively for the women. Records for 68 of 

these women were found in the State Rail Authority 

Archives. Some of them came from rural NSW. A 

number had already been railway employees. Others 

combined their munitions work with carriage cleaning at 

Eveleigh and also Central Station or waitressing in 

refreshment rooms. Their incursion into the workshops 

was, however, short-lived. On 12 June 1943 the Annexe 

ceased production. 4 

Although these women experienced the same sort of 

segregation and isolation as those who had previously 

performed various railway-related jobs at Eveleigh, they 

were more visible. Despite the hessian partitions that 

surrounded them, their numbers and their location in the 

very centre of the main locomotive workshops had an 

impact on the men, many of who thought it was 

inappropriate for women to be working in such large 

numbers so close to them. Bob Matthews, who was an 

apprentice in the locomotive workshop from 1940 

commented on how the influx of women munitions 

workers ‘dramatically’ changed the place, not only 

216 

because of the work they were doing but as importantly 

because they had what he referred to as ‘a separate 

identity’. ‘They were all fenced off’, he said, ‘and 

nobody was allowed in because security was very tight.’ 5 

These women experienced extremely dangerous 

conditions. The 35lb lifting restriction for female 

workers did little to protect them from hideous 

accidents. Quite a few had their fingers severed. Such 

dangerous conditions were the norm for the majority of 

Eveleigh’s male workers, whose representatives fought 

long and hard to improve first aid and medical 

resources. 6 

According to Frank Bollins the rank-and-file shop 

committee fought for improved conditions in the 

workshops from 1926 by raising ‘the whole concept of 

improved and more adequate first aid facilities’. As part 

of its campaign for an ambulance to take injured 

workers to hospital and fully qualified medical 

assistance in Eveleigh’s first aid rooms, the committees 

printed up the proposal in ‘a clearly legible form’ and 

‘circulated it amongst the workers’ who were asked to 

endorse it at a series of mass meetings. In Frank’s view, 

they succeeded in fulfilling the latter aim because it ‘fell 

4 NSW Government Railways, Railway At War: A Record of the Activities of the NSW Government Railways in the Second World 

War, Sydney, n.d., State Rail Authority Archives (SRAA) M27 [1], p. 22, p. 46, pp. 52-54 pp. 56-57; Personal Cards, 

Mechanical Branch, SRAA; NSW Department of Railways, 'History of the War Effort, Mechanical Branch, September 1939 - 

December 1942', typewritten mss., SRAA, M143, pp. 1-9, pp. 42-43; Annual Report (AR) of the Commissioner For Railways for 

the Year 1940, SRAA, R10/9, pp. 24-25; AR for 1941, SRAA R10/10, p. 11, p. 17. 

5 Interview: Bob Matthews conducted by Joan Kent on 20 February 1996. 

6 Women’s Employment Bureau (WEB), In the matter of an application by the Ministry of Munitions under regulation 11 of the 

National security (Employment of Women) Regulation’, pp. 3-4. Decisions of Women’s Employment Board, Manpower 

Directorate, Australian Archives Series: SP 191/1/0; Item 25621 Part 2, Box 5; Personal Cards, SRAA. 



in line with what the railways may have had in mind for 

the future of the medical service’. The result was the 

full-time appointment of industrial nurses. 7 

The first nurses were employed at Eveleigh in April 

1946. Heather Duffy lasted only four months before 

being transferred to another First Aid Station, while the 

services of Winifred Williams were terminated in May 

the following year ‘owing to her recent marriage’. Her 

replacement was Agnes Mary Lions, who became 

Senior Industrial Nurse in February 1947 and remained 

at Eveleigh until 1968. 8 A total of ten nurses worked at 

Eveleigh. One of these women, Lucia Anna Nardi, 

transferred there from the Chullora workshops in the 

late 1940s and stayed until she retired in 1973. These 

nurses worked in the First Aid Rooms that were adjacent 

to the Locomotive workshops, the Carriage workshops 

and the Running Sheds. 9 Their relationships with the 

men were always ambiguous, partly because they were 

women and partly because their employment closed off 

an avenue for promotion for men, who had previously 

occupied the salaried position of full-time First Aid 

officer. In addition, the nurses challenged the skills the 

men had acquired through their first aid training through 


the Ambulance Corps that had been established in the 

railways in the late nineteenth century. Those who had a 

long association with the Corps vehemently questioned 

the nurses’ expertise. 

This was simply one dimension of the men’s opposition 

to the employment of these women. Frank Bollins 

recalled being ‘on a platform at a mass meeting in the 

carriage works, defending the right for the nursing 

sisters to be there and arguing with some of the male 

workers as to why they should be retained.’ This ‘was 

quite an interesting fight’ led by those workers ‘who 

could see a little sinecure they had an eye on for a 

number of years going down a spout’. 10 But the hostility 

was more pervasive. There ‘was an immediate reaction’ 

to the women’s appointment, in his view, because of ‘the 

absolute conservatism’ of ‘the old… railway workers’ 

whose usual practice’ had been to ‘go to the first aid 

room’ and ‘have a bit of a yarn with the first aid officer’ 

about ‘any personal problems’ including ‘haemorrhoids 

or piles and a few other male problems’ which they 

found too embarrassing to ‘talk to a female nursing 

sister about’. 11 

Lifting the Engine, Eveleigh 

7Stan Jones, ‘Eveleigh - The Heart Of The Transport System’, Daily News: Feature for Transport Workers, 19 January, 1939; 

Interview with Frank Bollins conducted by Russ Herman in 1987 for the Combined Railway Unions Cultural Committee Oral 

History Project; Interview with Frank Bollins conducted by Lucy Taksa on 10 August 1998 for the Work, Technology, Gender 

and Citizenship at the Eveleigh Railway Workshops Oral History Project funded by the AustralianResearch Council. 

8Agnes Mary Lions referred to herself as Mary. File on Mary Lions held by the NSW College of Nursing Archives. 

9SRAA Personnel files. 

10Interview with Frank Bollins, 1987. 

11Interview with Bob Matthews. 




During the 1950s, the numbers of women working at 

Eveleigh also increased in the carriage cleaning 

sections. Before that time women engaged to clean 

trains worked at Central Station. During World War Two 

increasing numbers were directed into this work by the 

Railway Manpower Committee to replace men who had 

joined the armed forces. Some would later work at 

Flemington, Mortdale and the McDonaldtown Air 

Conditioning Depot located within Eveleigh’s 

boundaries and best known as ACDEP. In 1981 there 

were around 200 at ACDEP from a range of 

nationalities. Eva Dobrowolska, who came from Poland 

in 1965 and began cleaning at Punchbowl three years 

later, was elected the Australian Railways Union subbranch 

Secretary at ACDEP in the early 1980s, a 

position she lost after becoming pregnant. From 8.30am 

until 4.50pm she was responsible for cleaning two 

carriages ‘from top to bottom’. Those who worked the 

Women at work in Eveleigh Workshops (State Library of NSW) 

218 

day shift like Eva, and also those who worked the night 

shift, experienced awful working conditions and 

injuries. There were also major claims made of 

discrimination and harassment. Although conditions 

were gradually improved as the 1980s progressed, ‘in 

1986, the ARU’s traffic industrial officer, Nick Lewocki, 

reported that’ the carriage cleaning staff had been made 

redundant as a result of altered work practices. Some 

were transferred to other cleaning depots and others 

were retrained. Ironically, the large numbers of women 

cleaners rendered ‘surplus by the scaling down of 

operations at the Eveleigh Workshops’, were replaced 

by twenty-seven men who were trained to do the 

cleaning by the women themselves. As Mark Hearn 

puts it, history’s wheel had turned full circle. 12 

Associate Professor Taksa is Head of the School of 

Organisation and Management, and Director of the 

Industrial Relations Research Centre at UNSW. 

12 Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) Files for Case No. 2878 of 1981 - Public Transport Commission of New 

South Wales and Australian Railways Union.Mark Hearn, Working Lives: A history of the Australian Railways Union (NSW 

Branch), Hale & Iremonger, Marrickville, 1990, pp. 138-141; AIRC Files for Case No. 2878 of 1981 



A Few Good Women 

The following selection of women 

currently on the job has been chosen 

to illustrate both the diversity of 

women’s work within the rail 

industry, as well as touch on some of 

the issues that may be unique to 

women workers. Many of these 

issues are likely to take on greater 

significance as women occupy an 

increasingly diverse range of 

occupations within the industry and 

the unions representing these 

workers. 

It would not be surprising to see 

some of these women take on full-time roles within the 

union, as did Eileen Powell, and more recently Sallie 

Higgins. Sallie continues to push boundaries in the 

industry, first gaining the respect of her co-workers as a 

freight driver in the Hunter, then as an organiser in the 

Locomotive Division of the RTBU, and representing 

members on the union decision-making bodies at state 

and national levels. Most of the women here are 

similarly trailblazers or pushing the boundaries of their 

chosen jobs. 

One distinction that can be made about many women 

joining the railways, in contrast to many of their male 

counterparts who previously joined as first-job seekers 

following a family member, or accidentally or as one of 

the few secure jobs available, women are choosing the 

railways as a career. These women are coming to the job, 

not as inexperienced youth, but as older experienced 

workers who have done other jobs and have consciously 

chosen to seek a career in the industry. 

Cleaning Up Our Mess 

Diane Seymour – Carriage Cleaner 

Diane is a carriage cleaner at RailCorp’s Mortdale 

depot. She is the union delegate on the job, and a young 

single mother. In her short time on the job she has had a 

taste of difficult management, being sacked and then 

reinstated, as well as some frustrating moments around 

union matters. 

Before joining the railways as a ‘rover’ in 2000, Diane 

had worked in a number of retail jobs after leaving 

1 Interview with Diane Seymour, July 2005 


Diane Seymour 

school. The prospect of more stable 

work with better conditions led her 

to apply for a guard’s position, 

which was unsuccessful. She was 

later contacted and offered the 

position of a ‘rover’ train cleaner. 

This involved four-hour shifts, 

travelling on designated trains and 

cleaning loose rubbish in the 

carriages. “You would ride a train, 

clean it then get off. For example 

you might start at Hornsby, move 

through and clean, then get off at 

Pymble.” 

She was later offered the same ‘roving’ role on the City 

Circle, on 6-hour shifts for five days per week on a 

rotating roster. It was here that she came into conflict 

with one of her supervisors, who she eventually wrote a 

letter of complaint about, only to be sacked a week later 

for ‘performance and attendance’ reasons. In response to 

a situation that she considered simply as ‘unfair’, and 

having had no previous experience with unions, she took 

the matter to the RTBU. The union organiser, Andrew 

Baker pursued the matter with management and had 

commenced arbitration proceedings, when management 

offered to reinstate Diane. 

This initial and positive experience with the union 

encouraged Diane to nominate as union delegate at her 

new work location at Mortdale Depot. The depot 

employs approximately 120 workers, 30 of which are 

carriage cleaners. In the intervening period she took 

maternity leave to give birth and care for her son, Luke. 

When she returned to work, she was more alert of some 

of the poor conditions and the fact that the incumbent 

union delegate didn’t seem to be doing a lot to change 

the situation. 

As Diane describes it, “there was a lot of bullshit with 

management, there were rostering concerns, some 

health and safety issues, and people were as angry with 

the union as with management for doing nothing about 

it. I have a basic belief that you have to stand up for 

what you believe in, and fight for what is right and fair, 

whether it is with management or the union.” 1 




The carriage cleaners are mostly permanent-part-time 

employees, which has its own drawbacks for single 

parents such as Diane. Currently, they have been advised 

that the eight-hour roster they are working will be 

reduced to six hours on the next roster. For a single 

parent budgeting time and money, the reduction by ten 

hours per week is both disruptive in terms of routine 

planning such as child care, and reduces the household 

income by one quarter. This level of unpredictability and 

‘family unfriendly’ work practice can be vital. Diane 

gives the example of a single father on shift work at her 

depot. 

“If it wasn’t for his mum and family being available to 

care for his daughter at these times he wouldn’t be able 

to keep the job. Or, if he kept the job without these 

support networks, he wouldn’t be able to keep his 

daughter…This is an area that still needs a lot of work 

before we get close to anything like ‘family friendly’ 

workplaces. The people making decisions – usually male 

managers and union officials – mostly don’t have the 

same direct family or child rearing responsibilities. They 

are either older people, or their partners have the main 

responsibility.” 

These issues are some of the reasons that a single mother 

with more than enough to occupy her time and energy 

also finds it important to put in effort as a local union job 

delegate. She is also concerned that if more isn’t done in 

this area, many of her colleagues will become 

disenchanted with the job and the union and simply 

leave. 

Mother and Daughter Guard Team 

Nikki and Tina Edson 

Nikki has seniority over Tina in the job, yet Tina is 

Nikki’s mother. In a slight reversal of the story of so 

many male rail workers who went into the job because 

fathers, uncles and brothers had gone before them, Tina 

and Nikki Edson did it the other way round. Nikki 

joined the railways as a guard, then convinced her 

mother to make a career change to the railways. 

Tina was working in welfare and community service 

jobs, and liked the sound of a ‘mid-life’ career change. 

Their timing was also impeccable, they both joined prior 

to the Olympics and worked out of Homebush and 

around Sydney for that period before relocating to their 

home base of Newcastle. 

2 Interview with Nikki and Tina Edson, May 2005 

220 

Tina had been in her 

previous work for 22 

years – so it was a huge 

change, from welfare 

into the railways. Nikki 

was earning more as a 

guard than Tina had ever 

earned in welfare. Nikki 

remembers her mother 

working extra jobs to 

make ends meet. “The 

only problem I could see 

with the job was the 

hours and shift work – 

but mum was doing mad 

hours in youth work 

anyway and mostly not 

getting paid for it.” 2 

Nikki Edson 

Tina came to see the merit in her daughter’s argument. 

”It was a big change for me, and a complete change in 

work culture. The biggest thing that struck me was the 

difference in money, there wasn’t a big difference in 

hourly rate – but with overtime and shifts, in welfare you 

didn’t get paid for the extra hours, you could put in a 

hundred hours in a week and still take home your 

$30,000. When I started as a guard I was earning 

between $45,000 and $50,000, and when you work you 

get paid. I have no regrets, like the flexibility of hours 

and the work.” 

They both have similar perspectives and love the job. 

They can work hours they like and that suit their 

lifestyles. They agree that the people they work with are 

good, ‘in most depots drivers and guards get on well.’ 

They both insist that other factors permitting, they’ll 

both retire on the railways in Newcastle. Nikki says 

‘maybe not as a guard, but definitely as a rail worker.’ 

Tina will be happy to be the ‘old guard at Newcastle’ in 

years to come. 

Nikki would love to be a driver at some stage, but being 

in Newcastle is more important. “If I could keep 

Newcastle as my depot I’d love to be a driver. Its great 

fun, something I’d really like to do, as long as I can be 

close to home and my family and friends.” Tina has no 

ambition to be a driver, preferring the mixing and 

talking with people. “In Newcastle the personal and 

interpersonal stuff is wonderful – all grades get on well, 

inspectors, shunters, signals, drivers, guards all get on 

and are helpful.” 



On Guard Duty 

Tina and Nikki have worked busy 

times in Sydney, and dealt with 

some of the less attractive aspects 

of the travelling public, but don’t 

view the work as particularly hard 

or strenuous work – ‘you can have 

your bad days, and people can get 

aggressive and abusive, but 

mostly its pretty good.” Tina still 

pinches herself. She describes 

trips to Scone or Dungog, and 

sitting on the train taking in the 

countryside and scenery, and 

thinking to herself ‘I’m getting 

paid for this’. 

They both make light of some of the actual duties, and 

describe them as a part of a larger social event. “You 

sign on (talk to everyone first, chat and muck around), 

go into meal room – gotta have a chat there as well, 

discuss your first job. Then you’ll be up front with your 

driver – more chat.” 

As guards, they open and close doors, ensure that the 

train is safe and answer passenger questions. In the city 

they got a lot more annoying questions, and more 

abusive behaviour from passengers. ‘Its more laid back 

in Newcastle. People are more casual, a pleasure to go to 

work – in Sydney you’d cop the flack and abuse for 

whatever was going wrong.’ 

They describe being on the railways like belonging to a 

‘secret society’. “People that we’d worked with in 

Sydney still give a wave when you pass them on a trip. 

It’s the same all over the world, we have guys that go 

over to America, and railway workers their just welcome 

them as a part of the culture of the ‘railway society’.” 

They also identify negative aspects of the job. The main 

ones being fatalities and assaults – not common at 

Newcastle, but things that they had experienced in their 

time in Sydney. Tina and Nikki both describe their worst 

day on the job as when Tina was involved in a fatality. A 

passenger had taken a short-cut over an embankment at 

Casula and was hit by the train. “They sort of try to 

prepare you for that sort of thing, but it was a long 

fifteen minutes or so before finding the body. I had to get 

people off the back of the train so they didn’t witness the 

body. I then had to look for and I found the body – he 

was a mess and still alive by a few minutes…. I went 

back to the train and informed passengers what had 

happened”. 


Guards at Central 

“Everyone was so good. The passengers were so 

compassionate hugging and comforting. The driver was 

distressed – I found myself back in a counselling role 

with the driver – chatting and trying to get him calm”. 

The inspectors and supervisors were great – they were 

helpful – they knew what it was like for me. They put me 

in a cab back to Hornsby, picked up Nikki and went to 

meet up with my brother. The management was good – 

‘take as long as you like – whatever you need in terms of 

time, counselling’, lots of hugs and concern. People 

would call and check how you were”. 

In Newcastle there are about eight women guards now 

(out of total of about 70 workers). These women are 

staggered over different time frames and seniority. 

While some have been on the job for many years, the 

majority are reasonably new and started around the time 

of the Olympics. The representation of women in the 

guards’ ranks has also increased in Sydney and other 

locations since the Olympics. 

They both ‘lucked in’ with their transfers to Newcastle, 

people who were meant to come here ahead of them for 

different reasons didn’t, so they both got to move back 

to their home town. ‘People retire here, so it was hard to 

get a position. Then a lot of the older guys retired – so 

there is more opportunity now, but we won’t budge so 

there will be the same problem in future.’ 

The advantages they both see in working in Newcastle in 

contrast to Sydney is that its still smaller and closer than 

in Sydney, still enough of a country town. “There are 

too many people in Sydney – you can avoid people. Here 

you are in regular contact – you have to get on. In the 

city you might not see your roster clerk or inspector 

unless there is a problem, here you chat with them 

almost every day. People are more co-operative, more 

prepared to have a chat”. 




Working the Olympics 

Nikki and Tina started on the job just before the 

Olympics. Nikki in October 1999, and Tina in the 

Australia Day intake in 2000. At the time of the 

Olympics they were based at Homebush. They describe 

it as the most amazing time. 

“Working the Olympics was great – people from 

everywhere, a lot of different ethnic groups and 

languages – no problems – they were there to watch 

their teams and have fun. Events results would be 

announced through the train, people were singing their 

national songs and cheering. Wall to people – amazing 

to experience people in that setting. Their behaviour 

was so different compared to say football drunks and 

louts after a rugby match– people were so well behaved 

and civilised. There was a change immediately 

afterwards – it was like the drugs wore off – people went 

back to being aggro again.” 

Nikki describes it as a genuinely proud ‘moment’. “The 

fact that we blitzed it in terms of public transport – 

everything went without any obvious hitch – we were 

proud being a part of that. We did it! The feeling of 

getting through it and doing it so well and then we got 

the Minister for Transport Carl Scully coming out and 

giving us medals and certificates of appreciation. It’s 

the only time I’d seen any decent recognition of the job. 

It felt good.” 

They continue to enjoy their work experience and being 

able to share it with each other. “Working in the same job 

is great– we both benefit and support each other– we talk 

work. Check each other’s rosters – go to work together 

or meet up for lunch”. Nikki is an 

only child and the two have always 

shared a close relationship, and 

now their work adds to it. “We don’t 

have any problem spending the 

extra time together, it’s even 

improved our relationship. Not 

everyone sees the positives; they see 

us and often see ‘double trouble.’ Its 

great fun”. 

In Case of Emergency 

– Rebecca Ferguson 

Rebecca Ferguson is a Senior Fire 

Equipment Officer with State Rail 

Fire Service. She works as a part of 

a small dedicated team of ten 

3 Interview with Rebecca Ferguson, May 2003 

222 

people. The Fire Service was reinstated a few years ago 

after being disbanded. With the support of the NSW Fire 

Brigade and the Firefighters Union, the Service was reestablished 

in State Rail. 

Rebecca is the first woman to be employed in the role, 

which has traditionally been a male-dominated job. We 

are responsible for fire safety and management in the 

City Underground system, responding to fire, toxic 

substances, terrorism, and a range of other situations. 

Our work includes responsibility for the fire 

management system, monitoring / isolation of detectors, 

isolating sectors where maintenance or other work is 

being carried out, hot work permit issues, and any 

ordinary incident in the rail network. With the recent 

bombings on the Spanish railways and the London 

Underground, the job takes on a renewed significance as 

railway systems around the world look to improving 

security against such attacks. 

Rebecca is a relative newcomer to the industry. She has 

worked in State Rail for about 5 years. One year as a 

Customer Service Attendant, and the past 4 years with 

the State Rail Fire Service. 

She’d worked in a few jobs before joining State Rail, 

both while she was at school and after leaving school. 

She was looking for something challenging, with variety 

and responsibility – “a job that I could grow and 

develop in. I had completed qualifications in fire 

fighting, and when the job in Fire Services came up I 

jumped at it. I haven’t been disappointed- it is an 

interesting job with a great group of people.” 3 

Prior to starting with State rail, Rebecca had previously 

done a number of what you might 

Rebecca Ferguson describe as traditionally ‘feminine’ 

jobs. “These were interesting jobs 

with their good and bad points, but 

my job with Fire Services really is 

fantastic. It’s a diverse job with a lot 

of variety and responsibility, the 

money is good and the conditions 

suit my lifestyle. ….One of the 

positive aspects of the job is that I 

have been able, and encouraged to 

develop a range of skills and 

knowledge, through study and 

through the experience of my 

colleagues on-the-job. It is a great 

opportunity to pick up a range of 

new and useful skills.” 



An entry requirement is to have completed the 

Certificate II in Fire Fighting Operations. Rebecca 

completed this qualification through the NSW Fire 

Brigade. Once in the job there is a range of training and 

skills development that is required before you are able to 

perform the work. These include safeworking, electrical 

hazards, sub-station entry, gas detection operation, highrail, 

and first aid. 

The team works a 10/14 roster where we do 2 ten hour 

day shifts, then 2 fourteen hour night shifts, followed by 

four days off. “This wouldn’t suit everyone, but I found 

that once I got used to the hours and the body clock 

adjusted, it suits my lifestyle. I live in the country, and 

manage to get time to do things on the property and with 

my life, and so my time can be balanced between work 

and family and social commitments.” 

Rebecca has no hesitation in saying that she would 

recommend work in the industry generally and certainly 

within the Fire Service. “While the industry may have 

changed over the years through restructures and other 

changes, there are a lot of positive opportunities for 

people entering the industry. There may not be the 

guaranteed ‘job for life’ as there was in the past, but 

where does this exist nowadays. There is however, a 

range of opportunities where people can map out their 

own careers, learn new skills and get paid reasonable 

money to do interesting work. The opportunity exists to 

gain formal training and on-the-job skills and 

experience that can be used for progress within the 

industry as well as transferable to other jobs and 

industries.” 

Rebecca is also involved in the government’s 

‘spokeswoman program’ and has found satisfaction in 

being able to speak with people and offer advice and 

information on a range of issues. Many of these are 

union issues, where I can either advise or refer people to 

the appropriate Union source for information. She has 

also started to become more involved in the Union and 

would like to be more involved in future, and look 

forward to doing some of the Union training courses in 

the near future. 

“I have had family members who have been strong 

unionists and have impressed upon me the historical 

gains and benefits of unions and the roles that they can 

play in helping other people in different ways”….I see 

the Union as providing a source of empowerment to 

members through awareness, information and other 

resources. When you have reliable information you are 

less likely to be fooled or deceived in your work and you 


have much greater control over your work life.” 

The concepts of teamwork and trust are ones that we 

often hear in relation to most areas of work. Rarely are 

both achieved, however, Rebecca provides an insight 

and hope in the way her workplace operates. In other 

ways she describes an informal relationship that has 

existed in many rail workplaces for a long time. “ The 

Fire Services team is a tight and close unit, that spends 

a lot of time together. It is almost like a mini-family in 

some ways, and we have our squabbles and differences, 

but when things get tough you know you can trust and 

depend on the team to be there to back you up and to 

look out for you. The nature of the work is such that in a 

dangerous situation you are putting your personal safety 

and sometimes your life in the hands of the team. That 

requires an incredible trust and respect of the team 

members.” 

The Williamson Sisters 

Following railway and Werris Creek tradition, but with a 

gendered twist is the Williamson sisters. There are six of 

them, all from Werris Creek, and all but one followed 

their train driver father into the railways. Marsha and 

Lesley are the remaining two still on the job. 

Marsha joined the telegraphy section in Werris Creek in 

1966, and Lesley followed a dozen years later. The two 

sisters are currently working with ARTC in Newcastle, 

Werris Creek Station 




and are facing redundancy in the near future as the 

company has notified employees that only two of the 

current eleven positions will be retained, and the 2 will 

be located in Adelaide. 4 

It was a good secure job if you could get it. Marsha 

recalls her first attempt in applying for the job. “ I went 

to Sydney, got one question wrong in the exams, another 

girl got the job. Next time I got a perfect score and got 

the job.” Marsha’s starting salary was $23 per fortnight 

and had to pay her mum $15 board 

The telegraphy office at Werris Creek consisted of two 

on the switchboard, four in telegraph, supervisor, 

teleprinter operator – usually eight or nine just on day 

work. 

We had a lot of codes we had to use, we had to hand 

write, hand to have reasonably clear handwriting, then 

we thought we were the ants pants when we got a 

typewriter. 

The technology changed a lot in the time that the sisters 

have been there. “It was exciting – we had to learn the 

new systems, then teach others how to use it. Everything 

was hand written, the new switchboard was about 12 

inches wide compared to the big old one, telex became 

obsolete, we started using computers…. Just had to 

adjust – it was also exciting to learn the new things, and 

the computers – keyed in all the freight trains.” 

When Lesley joined the telegraphy office, Marsha was 

her supervisor at Werris Creek – they also live together. 

At one point there were 3 Williamson sisters in the 

office. Lesley insists that she didn’t get any special 

treatment, or at least not in the positive sense, and recalls 

a time when Marsha ‘took her into the boss once’. 

Marsha is unapologetic, ‘she had to respect the authority 

of the job, at home was different, what happened at work 

stayed at work’. 

Marsha was in Werris Creek between 1966 and 1983. 

She then transferred to Newcastle. “We were told then 

that Werris Creek would start winding back Previously, 

at its peak there would have been up to 1000 rail 

workers employed at Werris Creek, now there’s about 

20.The Station was the centre of town back then.” Lesley 

stayed at Werris Creek until 1990, then left the job for a 

while and returned and joined Marsha in Newcastle. 

They have worked in a number of jobs. Lesley was in the 

telegraph section from 1978 to 1990, and has worked as 

a station assistant, trainee signaller, and is currently 

employed as an Incident Information Officer. 

4 Interview with Marsha and Lesley Williamson, June 2005 

224 

More Playful Times 

Lesley and Marsha fondly remember times when there 

were many more light moments on the job. “Things 

have changed – not much play now - there was a time 

one night when they brought the football train up – 

David Hill [then CEO of State Rail] came over to the 

telegraph office – brought some grog with him, we had a 

drink. The main focus then was to get your job done”. 

Marsha also insists that when she was leaving Werris 

Creek for Newcastle “ the DS bought a carton over. Now 

you’d be out of the place, if you want to lose your job, 

that’s the way to do it now – have a drink” 

“Workers are becoming more selfish, you’ve got your 

friends who will look after you, but people are generally 

much more selfish now – its dog eat dog. The boss was 

part of your team; you’d look after each other. In the 

country you get on with people you work with. We’d all 

get in a car or two and go to the pictures on the 

weekend. Since they told us they are cutting our eleven 

jobs to two and moving them to Adelaide, things 

changed after that – nobody cares now, probably just 

take redundancy and see what happens”. 

Even though they are facing imminent redundancy, they 

would and do reluctantly and selectively advise friends 

or relatives to seek work on the railways. “Not with 

ARTC – their ethics are bad – they just don’t care about 

their workers. Wouldn’t give you two bob for ARTC. But 

there are areas, country stations and so on that are still 

good to work in.” Their nephew [the son of the sister 

who didn’t join the railways] started at Werris Creek as 

a trainee driver, maintaining a strong family tradition. 

They defend their co-workers as the real value and asset 

of the job, and a close-knit group and express concern 

that the future won’t hold the same loyalty to the job. 

“People outside the industry turn their nose up and say 

you ‘only’ work on the railways – but everyone that 

works there has got a bit of pride in their job. We can say 

what we want – like family – just don’t let an outsider 

knock it. Theirs a lifetime of railways in our family, its in 

the blood. The railways of the future won’t have many 

people in it, and people will come to the job purely for 

money. A lot of the railways will be in museums.” 

Whatever their future in the industry, the railways is all 

the richer for having the Williamson sisters in their 

family for the past decades. 



Women on the Freight Footplate 

The Pacific National Four 

Pacific National has four new drivers in the Hunter 

Valley (Leah Pearce, Suzanne Molattam, Amanda 

Butcher and Bronwen MacDonald)– all recent graduates 

from their initial driver training, and all of them women. 

The PN four were originally five, but one of their 

colleagues has since left the job. They all hope to soon 

be driving freight trains on the mainline. This is the 

patch that previously belonged to Sallie Higgins as the 

lone woman on the footplate of the Hunter freight locos. 

Suzanne Molattam & Bronwen MacDonald agreed to be 

interviewed and discuss the details and their thoughts on 

their new career choices. Until August of 2004, these 

women had headed off on different career paths. 

Suzanne was working in detention centres around the 

country for a private company. 

Bronwen had spent the past eight years with the local 

Council as a swimming coach and on the outdoors staff 

in parks and gardens, fire mitigation, waste services, 

employed as a full-time casual. Responding to the 

adverts for locomotive assistants meant a wage cut for 

Suzanne and an increase for Bronwen, but promised the 

possibility of stability and permanency for both. 

Bronwen has 2 teenage children, and since starting with 

Pacific National has ‘parented by mobile phone’. 

Suzanne, as a guard in detention centres was travelling 

away to different locations – ‘Christmas Island, Western 

Australia, South Australia – six weeks away, two weeks 

away – then the company lost the contract – new 

company were going to employ people locally. I had a 

house here, so decided to re-establish here. 

They thought that they were going to be a second person 

or ‘assistant’. Had no idea what it involved, so it was a 

pleasant surprise to learn that this was part of the 

training to become driver. Neither were interested in 

pursuing traditional ‘feminine jobs’ preferred what they 

describe as ’non-girly jobs’– prefer to get out and muck 

in get the hands on. 

However, as Bronwen explains “driving wasn’t a 

conscious career choice – if I want to be a train driver, 

rather a friend mentioned the job ad, so followed up 

with employment agency.” 5 

5 Interview with Suzanne Molattam and Bronwen MacDonald, June 2005 


Bronwen MacDonald & Suzanne Molattam 

Learning the Ropes 

The company was looking for twenty people, and five 

women applicants were selected. As part of the routine 

recruitment process they went through the preliminary 

testing – aptitude test, maths, English, comprehension, 

mechanical and logical sequences, in all about six tests. 

Then there was the mental, with interview and questions 

about work – then the physical – colour blindness, 

general physical ability. Cardio, hearing, and drug 

testing. 

After being notified that they had been selected, they 

started work at Port Waratah. The new learning curve 

started with two weeks in the classroom in the 

safeworking, fatigue course –then out on the mainline as 

second person – keeping log books, checking signals, 

water and oil. They were tested on basic areas covered 

by the training, then went out as ‘observers’ or third 

person on normal shifts on the locos until qualified as 

second person. During this time they underwent verbal / 

oral tests by driver trainer. They did this until April, and 

then all on-the-job learning, until they qualified as 

Competent Operator Grade 3. 

Then they were brought back in to Terminal Operator’s 

school. Two weeks course. Until 2 weeks ago [between 

April and June] both were classified as Terminal 

Operators Level 7. Now they have commenced the 

terminal drivers’ course, progressing then to become 

Level 10 Operators. This will enable Suzanne and 

Bronwen to perform limited driving duties within the 

yard, but not on mainline, with a view to eventually 

becoming fully qualified drivers. After completing all 

necessary training they will progress to mainline driver 

when a position eventuates – so will train up then 

progress as opportunity presents. 




‘When we first started even some of the management 

were not comfortable with bringing women onto the job. 

We work the same as the guys – we do the same work. 

Probably the most awkward thing now is for some of the 

guys not knowing how they should behave, in terms of 

language use and so on, that’s something they need to 

work out.’ 

Both agree that the job is good – even ‘excellent’ – the 

people are really great – and the variety of the work’. 

Not hard, sometimes challenging. Love the terminal 

work – the blokes have been great. More comfortable in 

terms of interactions with co-workers – honest, 

straightforward. 

Suzanne argues that there is no reason why women 

shouldn’t or can’t do this “we can still be women, still 

be feminine, giggle and carry on – but we can get in and 

do the work. There was some disquiet among some 

drivers. Some were a bit resentful. It was another major 

change they had to put up with.” 

Many argue that the previous progression through the 

ranks to the footplate was unnecessarily protracted. In 

this day and age it can be done more quickly. Suzanne 

thinks it too quick – drawing a distinction between 

competent and ‘competent’ and receiving basic training 

– not really addressing the full range of skill and 

knowledge required. Bronwen puts more trust in her 

own and others capability and confident that she can 

perform the work, but still has some reservations about 

whether the process is adequate. 

“It is one thing to ask about identifying a signal, and 

knowing whether it is functioning properly and 

indicating the right things”. 

Bronwen is cynical about the value of much of the 

classroom-based learning. “If I’ve got a query – people 

are only too ready to help – everybody has been 

fabulous, and most real learning happens on the job. I 

don’t learn a lot in the classroom, I wait until I get out 

on the job with a mentor” 

Suzanne, on the other hand, feels that more could be 

done both in the classroom and on-the-job. “I don’t feel 

prepared. I believe that they could prepare us better and 

teach us better, even in the classroom– in this job it is 

unforgiving – you don’t have the time to learn later. I am 

wary of the preparation. We can do the job, but we don’t 

necessarily know it.” 

There are shared concerns, not about their own personal 

capability, but whether the process prepares employees 

adequately to deal with a range of contingencies. 

226 

“What do you do in a situation as a second person when 

driver has a heart attack – as personality types we may 

be able to deal with it, but not sure that we are prepared 

well enough for these types of contingencies. We are 

succeeding because of who we are, we have good 

mentors, almost despite the training”. 

They are both concerned that they will be required to do 

things that we are not properly prepared for. ‘Pacific 

National doesn’t particularly want collaboration or 

mateship, looking out for each other – they are 

encouraging ‘looking out for yourself’ and focusing 

only on your own requirements’. The personal attributes 

described are those of experienced, adult, evolved 

people and employees The doubts are around whether an 

inexperienced worker would benefit from the process. 

Family Friendly 

The two women work 24 hour rotating rosters with 

variable start times, which under most circumstances is 

disruptive in terms of regular routines and family, social 

and community commitments. The work is all over the 

place and dependent on new rosters and allocations. 

Suzanne as a single person, quite enjoyed the hours, 

while Bronwen as a single parent simply ‘dealt with it’. 

Many male drivers on the railways were previously 

supported by their women – their mothers or their wives 

- allowing them to work erratic hours knowing that their 

children and homes were being cared for and 

maintained, and knowing that they would be fed and 

cared for on their return. 

Bronwen matter-of-factly says you just ‘wing it’. Her 

children are 14 and 16 years of age, are responsible, 

‘good kids’ and independent enough to cope. Her 

daughter competes in swimming at state and national 

level, requiring commitment to training, early mornings 

and all that goes with a regular sporting undertaking. 

Bronwen insists that while the hours can be disruptive 

Bronwen MacDonald 



Suzanne Molattam 

and inconvenient, 

they can also benefit. 

In some ways, she 

can now do more 

with her kids, 

because she can be 

there at some times 

when she couldn’t 

previously. 

Despite some of the 

drawbacks to the job, 

both Suzanne and 

Bronwen see 

themselves staying 

with the company for 

some time into the future, if not as a driver then 

‘somewhere within the company’. They don’t have any 

direct reference with dealing with ‘the company’ in a 

range of situations. Reflecting maturity and workforce 

experience, and an ‘open mind’ they are prepared to wait 

and see how their new area of employment goes. ‘A lot 

of the drivers want to tell you the bad stuff about the 

company, but nowadays there are a lot of companies like 

Pacific National.’ They are both happy with the 

opportunity presented, the fact that the company is 

prepared to train them, pay reasonably well and keep 

them in regular, secure employment. 

In many ways, Bronwen and Suzanne, and their other 

new colleagues at Pacific National represent a new 

generation of workers in the industry. They are not 

joining as naïve juniors, but with life and work 

experience in other industries. They have different 

expectations of their employer and the industry than 

existed last century. In other respects, they are the ‘meat 

in the sandwich’ of a transition period in the industry, 

where there are tensions around changes in conditions 

and practices of employment, of which they are a part. 

They will be embraced by some of their colleagues, 

while others will revive age-old suspicions around their 

work potentially being ‘devalued’ or eroded through the 

new practices and the new employees required to 

perform their jobs under the new arrangements. 

Organising on the Station 

– Joanne McCallum 

Joanne McCallum has worked in the industry for just 

over nine years and currently works as a Customer 

Service Attendant (CSA) at Tuggerah Station on the 

6 Candidate information in Rail & Road, December 2004, p13 


Central Coast. She has been an active union activist 

during much of that time, and has held positions as 

President of the CSA Sub-Division, and as the first 

female Secretary of the Rail Operations Division. In the 

recent union elections held in late 2004, Joanne was also 

elected as the RTBU National Vice-President 

(Affirmative Action – Women). 

The latter position allows Joanne the opportunity to 

pursue her interest and commitment to women union 

members. In her nomination for the position she stated: 

“I am standing for this position because I believe that 

women in the RTBU need strong and effective 

representation of their interests on the job and in 

industry generally at the highest levels of our union. 

In NSW women are campaigning for increased 

maternity leave provisions and leave sharing rights as 

part of the general campaign for a new Enterprise 

Agreement in RailCorp. These claims were developed by 

the women attending the NSW Branch Women’s 

Conference this year which was attended by women 

from all sections of the union.” 6 

As is the case with many more recent entrants to the 

industry [ten years as opposed to those with 30 or 40 

years service], Joanne came to the job as a mature and 

experienced person with other industry experience. 

Immediately prior to becoming a rail worker, she had 

worked in retail management, and decided it was time 

for a change. On the advice of her brother-in-law she 

applied unsuccessfully for a job at Hornsby, then shortly 

afterwards received a call offering her a job on the City 

Circle. Trying to get closer to home on the Central 

Coast, she applied for a position as relief Customer 

Service Attendant (CSA) for the Central Coast, which 

meant doing a range of jobs between the Hawkesbury 

Joanne McCallum 




and Morisset. She started at Morisset, but ended up 

working the signal box at Wyong, and for a while 

transcribing at Gosford. 

With the introduction of Network Control, she 

discovered that her paperwork had not been properly 

processed and as she describes, she ‘fell through the 

cracks’ and was required to go back to her home station 

of Town hall as Cleaner. Instead she applied for a CSA 

position at Berowra before taking up her current position 

at Tuggerah. In good railway tradition, she loves her job 

and hopes to retire, not only in the job, but also at 

Tuggerah. 

“The best thing about this job is the people, those you 

work with and those you get to deal with in the job. I love 

the interaction with people on the stations, that’s why I 

decided I couldn’t stay in the signal box, I need to get 

out and talk with people. There is also a lot of variety 

and responsibility in the job… I do everything from 

opening the station, cleaning, ticket sales, and range of 

customer service matters and enquiries. On the 

afternoon shift you work alone and are responsible for 

running the station.” 7 

Union Activism 

Joanne became active in the RTBU after a number of 

experiences early in her railway career. The mix up with 

her papers not being signed off and requiring her to relocate, 

made her realise that she didn’t understand the 

system she was working in well enough. Then there 

were other developments such as Job and Work Re- 

Design that exposed things that she and her colleagues 

were not happy with. 

She also describes being annoyed at people who would 

vote on a matter, agree to redundancy or some other 

personal benefit, then complain about loss of conditions 

or entitlements, then blame the union. “I first attended a 

union meeting in Sydney [didn’t even know where the 

office was then], and said my piece. Surprisingly, I was 

asked back, and as positions came up people encouraged 

me to nominate for them. Then it just went from there.” 

There are a lot of grievances and problems that Joanne 

sees need improvement in the industry. One such issue 

is the increase in ‘red tape’ and the unnecessary layers of 

reporting and accountability within the management of 

the stations. “When I was in retail, if there was 

something that could save money or resolve a problem, 

you just fixed it. In State Rail you had to go through all 

the hoops and levels of management. I had to learn how 

7 Interview with Joanne McCallum, July 2005 

228 

to work within that inefficient system. In recent times it 

has got worse rather than improved as even newer 

layers are added.” 

“It also became obvious that not enough women were 

actively involved in the union. It was very male 

dominated, and not particularly welcoming for most 

women, so I hoped that if I became more involved then 

this might also encourage other women to get involved, 

and it has.” 

Joanne sees these developments as healthy for the union 

and the industry. She argues essentially a ‘men are from 

Mars, women are from Venus’ argument to suggest that 

male and female workers approach things differently 

and often have different industrial priorities. “Quite 

often men will only look at the money side of an issue, 

where women might look at the same issue from a 

perspective of broader entitlements or the impact on 

family life.” 

Women’s Issues on the Railways 

Joanne describes many of the women coming to work on 

the railways as younger, better educated, and from a 

diverse range of ethnic, cultural and work backgrounds. 

This brings a set of workplace issues, as well as issues 

that need to be addressed within the union. She believes 

that if the priorities of these women are taken up by the 

union, and they are encouraged and supported in raising 

their concerns, then not only will they participate more 

in the union and industrial issues, but that it is also more 

likely that they will assist in finding good resolutions 

and innovations around these issues. 

Contrary to some scoffing from some quarters, the 

specific work with women members has the potential to 

provide non-threatening and comfortable environments 

Joanne McCallum addressing union women's conference 



for women to discuss a range of issues relating to their 

work. “Some women, whether it be because of ethnic 

differences or beliefs, or other reasons, don’t feel 

comfortable or confident to raise matters in a group of 

men. So, meetings of women members provides them 

with that opportunity and confidence.” 

The recently convened Women’s Campaign Committee, 

that Joanne has been centrally involved with hopes to 

both encourage greater participation of women union 

members, as well as develop campaigns to address key 

issues affecting women workers. Joanne sees the main 

priorities of this group as campaigning around “child 

care, especially for shift workers, and working out how 

Joanne McCallum, Kelly Budden, 

Linda Carruthers, Sallie Higgins 

and Wendy Wirth, 2005 


RTBU Women's Conference, 2004 

we can gain reliable and cost-effective access to child 

care that suit our members work requirements. The other 

major issue is the ‘family commitment’ type leave 

entitlements, whether it be for young children, or family 

illness, or single parent access in school holidays.” 

The necessity for working arrangements to tailor to 

social and family commitments has always been 

important in Joanne’s life. She describes how she and 

her husband Tom, who works for Energy Australia in 

High Voltage Protection, have supported and 

synchronised each other’s career choices. When Tom 

was doing his apprenticeship, Joanne stayed in retail 

management to ensure stable income and day work, 

while he did shiftwork. Then it reversed, when Joanne 

decided to move to the railways and work shifts, her 

husband changed to day work. Even with the demands 

of the job and her union work, Joanne insists on having 

allocated time that is hers, to indulge in her tapestry or 

other strictly leisure activities. 

Joanne reminds us that the industry, as one that has a 

high incidence of relationship breakdown and related 

issues, needs to look at creative ways of addressing these 

issues. The work of the Women’s Campaign Committee 

can only assist in bringing many of the issues to the fore, 

and in developing sensible solutions for existing and 

future human issues within the industry. 




230 

Carriage Cleaning, Central 

RRR staff Orange 

Buffet Counter, South Grafton, 1951 

Staff Coffee Break 

Diane Seymour, RTBU Delegate's Conference 2005 

Fruit & Veg, Central 1953 

Women attending International Transport Federation forum, Sydney 2003 



Baking for the RRR 


On-board services, 1961 

RRR Junee 




232 

Henry Lawson (Government Printing Office Collection, State Library of NSW) 

Chapter 7 - A Rich Mix

Chapter 6: - Rail, Tram and Bus Union of NSW

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