Curran Wright History

Category: Port Augusta

Port Augusta – Michael Cullinan

Late 1870’s

Michael Cullinan has a number of jobs in Port Augusta, South Australia, Australia: horse-work, fencing, and wheat lumping (carrying bags of wheat on the shoulders).

He also works building railway lines for Barry Brooks and Fraser who were building a railway line through the wheat country north of Port Augusta (Source: Doug Curran, The History of James Cullinan, pp. 13, and Phyllis Plant, letter).

To serve the mining and pastoral industries in the far north of the state, the Great Northern Railway was built from Port Augusta to Quorn in 1879, with the line reaching Marree [outback town at the junction of the Birdsville and Oodnadatta Tracks] in 1883, and Oodnadatta in 1891.

Source: https://nrm.org.au/connect/blog/11-a-brief-history-on-railways-in-south-australia

Later, Michael works on the goods van that carted supplies to the head of the railway line (Source: Phyllis Plant, letter). He also works with a survey party in the hills around Adelaide (Source: Doug Curran).

Related:

1878: The South Australian Governor “turns the first sod of the Port Augusta and Government Gums Railway.” (Source: The Express and Telegraph, Adelaide, South Australia, 18 January 1878, p2)

Source: https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+9843

Locomotive no.53. Used on Port Augusta and Government Gums (Farina) Railway. Built in Manchester in 1877. Used on construction work by Barry, Brooks and Fraser until 1882 when sold to South Australian railways.” Source: https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+9843

Further information on Commonwealth Railway Locomotives can be found at: https://comrails.com/cr_locos/r_nf.html

November 13, 2016
Port Augusta

Michael Cullinan works on the rail lines in Port Augusta, South Australia in the late 1870s.

Port Augusta is Nukunu country. It is 310 km from Adelaide.

It was proclaimed on 24 May 1852 by Thomas Elder, named after the wife (Augusta Sophia) of the Governor of South Australia, Henry Edward Fox Young. Augusta was the daughter of Charles Marryat Senior who had been a slaveholder in the West Indies (source: Wikipedia).

Port Augusta was considered the ‘cross-roads of Australia’ since it was the junction of major roads and rail links at the head of Spencer Gulf (source: Wikipedia).

November 13, 2016
Michael Cullinan
Michael Cullinan is my Great Grandfather (father to Kelleen Lillian Cullinan, my paternal Grandmother). He was born in 1852 (2 August) and died in 1924 (20 August) at the age of 72 years. He is buried in Broken Hill cemetery in New South Wales, Australia.

Here is where Michael Cullinan lived:
- 1852 Corofin, County Clare, Ireland
- 1874 (31 March) Emigrates to Australia aboard The Glenlyon ship
- 1874 (3 July) Arrives Outer Harbour, South Australia with his sister, Bridget.
- 1874 Beltana Station, South Australia
- Port Augusta, South Australia
- Adelaide, South Australia
- Avoca Station, River Darling
- Wentworth, New South Wales
- 1886 Kapunda, South Australia (Marriage #1 – Betsy Wakefield)
- 1888 Kelleen Station, New South Wales
  - He bought this land
- 1907 Wentworth (Marriage #2, Ellen Dhann)
- 1914 Wentworth (Marriage #3, Mary Ann Cuff)
- 1920 or 1923 Bought Glenora Station (near Birchip, Victoria, Australia) for his son, Andy Cullinan
- 1921 Burungie Station, Broken Hill, New South Wales
  - He bought this station
- 1924 (August 20)- His vehicle became bogged in a creek and he got wet through. Following a chill, he became very ill and died of double lobar pneumonia, cardiac failure (G Henry Dobbyn – Medical Attendant) at Lourdes Private Hospital – Death Certificate 1924/012902
- 1924 Buried Roman Catholic Cemetery, Broken Hill cemetery
November 13, 2016