Rosewood History

BUILDING COUNTRY MAIN ROADS

At the monthly  Rosewood Shire Council meeting on 9th February 1933, the Engineer, Mr. John Wilson, reported on the progress of the Main Roads works being carried out in the Shire.

Regarding the work on the Brisbane-Toowoomba Road (job No. l06/5/10), he said that the earthworks were about 90 per cent complete. The pipe drains were complete except for concrete end walls, and the log drains had been completed. The bottom course metal was complete for about 3000 feet and had been blinded and consolidated. The crushing plant had been erected in position, and the crushing of the intermediate course metal would be in progress next week. There were employed on the job 20 men, six horses, a grader, power roller, two ploughs, three drag scoops, two drays, one motor truck, and a grader.

A man named Harsey was working on the crushing plant when he slipped and his left foot was dragged between the great steel rollers. His screams sent another man rushing to the driving engine, which he promptly stopped, and at great personal risk tore off the revolving driving belt. The rollers stopped, but not before Harsey’s foot had passed through well over the middle, crushing it almost to a pulp. Thanks to modern surgical skill, amputation was unnecessary, and after some months in the Ipswich Hospital the man was able to get about again and went to work on road construction on the North Coast.

I found the information about Harsey’s accident in this story.  BUILDING COUNTRY MAIN ROADS – ADVENTURES OF WORKERS  It gives the reader an insight into the road making process and the dangers the workers faced in the 1930s.