PRESENTING...A MEDAL FOR (OR FROM) COMMISSIONER THALLON

Photo: State Funeral for James Forsyth Thallon, Queensland Commissioner for Railways,

George Street, Brisbane, Queensland, 27 March 1911, provided from QR records.

This meeting will be a HYBRID MEETING, online and in person at the Research Centre.

A zoom link will be sent to registered attendees the evening before the meeting.

The Thallon Memorial Medal – “The golden gift from the Commissioner for Railways, and for generations of Queensland railway families.”

Greg Hallam will talk about two towns that stand on the Queensland Railways system, both now very much “at the end of the line”, one at the end of the Etheridge line in far northern Queensland, and the other at the end of the south western line from Warwick and Goondiwindi, in tribute to one of the Commissioners for Queensland Railways, James Forsayth (or Forsythe in older spellings) Thallon. Thallon died in 1911, and despite his death over a century ago, he maintains a legacy that continues with the railways in Queensland to the present time. Following his death, the fund from 1912, in memory of Thallon, was maintained by voluntary subscription, and the interest used to provide 3 gold medals annually.

SPEAKER: Greg Hallam has been with QR/Queensland Rail since 2000, and has been the Historian for the organisation for (nearly) all of the past 25 years. Greg is a third generation member of the Queensland Railways, with a grandfather commencing as a locomotive cleaner in Bundaberg in 1911. Greg is a post-graduate of the University of Queensland, and had been active professionally in the community history and cultural heritage field for nearly 30 years. Greg has some published work behind himself, has travelled Queensland extensively in times past documenting the story of the railways and their connection to the State, and has also been fortunate to have travelled from Brisbane to Mareeba, Longreach and Charleville behind steam locomotives for various anniversary events sponsored by Queensland Rail (and even had his ‘office’ set up for a while in the Guards Van of a steam train between Emerald and Longreach, and to Mareeba…)