A Violet Town disaster, bank robbery and prison escape

Every year on the 1st of January, hundreds of state archival records are made public as part of Public Record Office Victoria’s annual Section 9 openings. Under Section 9 of the Public Records Act 1973, records of a private nature are closed to prevent the violation of personal privacy. A broad guide to time periods for closure under Section 9 is:

• Records primarily concerning adults may be closed for 75 years from the year they were created.
• Records concerning children as the primary subject may be closed for 99 years.
• Records such as staff records where the individuals concerned may still be in the workforce may be closed for a lesser period such as 30, 40, or 50 years as appropriate.

The 1st of January 2025 openings include the 1949 files of a Ferntree Gully bank robbery and a Pentridge prison escape. Also opened for the first time are three boxes of files collated by the Victorian Railways Commissioners Board of Inquiry into the 1969 Violet Town train crash. 

See below for a snapshot of these stories or scroll straight to the bottom of this page for the full list of newly opened records, also including divorce case files, hospital inpatient books, ward books and nurse record cards, to name a few.

Please note: as these records relate to deaths, injuries, and criminal activities, they may be upsetting for some readers. 
 

Board of Inquiry into the Southern Aurora Violet Town Train Accident, VPRS 13421/P1 Boxes 1-3

On 7 February 1969, the Sydney to Melbourne Express passenger train, the Southern Aurora, collided with a Melbourne to Albury goods train a mile from Violet Town. Sadly, nine people were killed (five passengers and four crew), and 117 people were injured.

Files to be opened on the 1st of January 2025 were created by the Victorian Railways Commissioners Board of Inquiry, consisting of representatives from the Investigations and Commercial Branches. 

Contained within three full archival boxes are various photos of the site, train controller charts, reports on staff, witness statements, newspaper clippings, track and signal plans, log books, maps and diagrams of the train and crash site, various letters and additional photo albums as well as the coroner’s findings.  

The reports on staff include lists of heroic rescuers including the Station Master at Violet Town, J.R. McQuillan and the Victorian Conductor, R.A.A Hyatt. 
 

In Hyatt’s witness statement, he said:

“…I was on duty in sleeping car No.6 on the Southern Aurora Passenger Train enroute from Sydney to Melbourne…Suddenly there was a terrific jolt, and I was thrown some distance along the corridor where I finished up on my back. I first thought the train was off the road as it continued to bump along for a short distance. Then it swayed, seemed to jump in the air and came to a stop with a terrific jolt. I attended to my passengers and did what I could to assist in rescue operations…”

Many of the photos show the rescue efforts of many people who came to the aid of passengers and crew of both trains. Aerial shots show the scale of the site.
 

The coroner found that the cause of the collision was that the driver of the Southern Aurora had died along the journey. The coroner laid some blame on two other members of the crew who failed to notice in time, and medical officers who had previously found the driver fit for work.

The commissioners board report found:

“…(the) driver of the Southern Aurora was suffering from coronary disease causing cardiac ischemia and was unfit to drive a locomotive.”

The commissioners agreed with the coroner that a crew member had failed to properly check Bowden was alert. “Had he done so and taken emergency action to stop the train when he saw the condition of Driver Bowden, the accident would not have occurred” and that a second crew member also failed to properly observe signals and take action to stop the train.

Meanwhile “The Driver, Fireman and Guard of the goods train No. 428 took all possible action to avoid the collision in the time available, and were not culpable in any way.”

To ensure another crash like this did not occur again, there were recommendations made including: reduced intervals between driver medical examinations, regular circulation of rules and regulations, and that the vigilance control system be modified to ensure drivers are fully alert at all times.    

Criminal trial brief of Albert Edward Skeggs, VPRS 30/P0 File 94, 1949

The E.S&A Bank in Ferntree Gully closed at midday on Saturday 23 October 1948. Bank manager Mr Scott and his colleague Mr Naylor secured the bank safe and strongroom, then locked the front door as they knocked off for the day. When they returned Monday morning... 

“We noticed the two glass doors wide open and held back by two chairs…there was a smell of burnt gas of some type. We went to the strongroom door (and) noticed oxy-acetylene bottles and a hole in the door of the strongroom. We eventually opened the strongroom. There was a big hole cut in the safe...After we opened the safe we saw that the drawers were burnt away…We looked at the ante room and saw a rope hanging through the manhole which was open,” Mr Scott said.

The police were called as an audit ascertained that £2139/8/7 was missing, along with three revolvers, one automatic pistol and safe custody envelopes containing certificates of £50 each.

Detectives Newton and Tremewen soon arrived. Seeing the rope hanging from the ceiling led Newton to the manhole where he found two sheets of galvanised iron had been pulled up several feet which “left a hole big enough for a man to get through.” 

Who could have pulled off such a crime? 
 

A few weeks later, tanner Leonard Joseph Robertson was at work when a man he was acquainted with stopped by. Albert Edward Skeggs offered “a little job I want you to do for me. I’ll make it worth your while.” Robertson didn’t ask questions. He’d been struggling financially, and the promise of some extra cash saw him meet Skeggs the following day, Tuesday 9 November, in Collins Street. Skeggs handed Robertson a certificate for £50, asking him to cash it at the nearby bank, and he would give him £5 for his troubles. 

“I entered the bank and presented it to teller at the War Savings counter and cashed the certificate…I met accused outside the bank and handed him the full amount. He gave me a £5 note. We walked along Collins Street easterly to E.S.A Bank. He (said) “I’ll tell you which bank to go in. We won’t go in that one.””

They continued to numerous other banks around Melbourne. Skeggs waiting outside as Robertson cashed the certificates each time. 

“I did not ask him why he did not go into the bank himself, I thought he was being generous to me,” Robertson said. 

The final two certificates Skeggs left with Robertson, planning to meet him later. 

“I went across road to National Bank. I presented two certificates to the teller at the counter. He examined the cert’s with a list of No’s. The teller left and…a man came along and he took me to a room at the rear. A police patrol arrived…”

Robertson was caught red-handed with two of the certificates stolen from Ferntree Gully. It wasn’t long before police tracked down the other cashed certificates. Robertson was quick to tell police who’d set him up.

Detectives Newton and Tremewen headed for Skeggs’ home. Skeggs seemed to be aware they may be waiting for him, he drove round the block a number of times before the Detectives finally stopped him. 

“You have driven past here twice tonight and you have not gone inside. It would appear that you are afraid to go home,” Newton said, before asking him whether he knows Robertson and gave him the certificates. Skeggs at first denied knowing Robertson, before admitting “Yes, I did see him today.” 

After a bit more back and forth Skeggs admitted giving him the certificates. But claimed to have gotten them at the last Mornington race meeting from a man named Snowy. 

The Detectives then searched Skeggs’ flat to find a nervous wife inside, but no stolen goods. They took him into custody regardless, his Mornington races excuse not holding much weight once the Detectives looked up the dates of the race meets. Newton told Skeggs:

“Do you realise the last Mornington race meeting was 21/10/48 which was at least two days before Ferntree Gully Bank was broken into and the certificates stolen…”

Skeggs responded “You think you’ve got me trapped but I have a bad memory.” The bad memory included not being able to remember anything about Snowy, or how many certificates he got off him. Why such a man would give them to Skeggs for a lesser price, he simply said: 

“Gamblers do funny things. The chap was going bad and wanted money… I only paid £35 each for them”. 

He denied robbing the Ferntree Gully Bank, and his story about Snowy and the Mornington races, held on a date that didn’t make sense, seemed to have swayed the jury at trial. Skeggs was found not guilty. 

Criminal trial brief of Gordan Thomas Howard, VPRS 30/P0 Case 437, 1949

It was a Monday morning, 18 April 1949, when Pentridge prison warder William Francis Palmer was on duty in the Reformatory Section of the gaol. At 8am while doing his rounds he arrived at cell 123, the cell of 49-year-old habitual criminal George Thomas Howard, and found a surprising scene.

“I went to cell No. 123 and tried to open the door with a key – it failed to open when I put my shoulder to it. When I got the door open I found a hole in the floor. It was the cell of the accused Howard. He was missing. I did not make an examination of the premises. I know that Howard could not be found.”

How was the warder so certain Howard was long gone? Because he’d done it once before, at Beechworth prison, two years prior. This was Howard’s second successful escape.

The police began their manhunt, Howard’s escape making the papers. 

“Police believe he made a hole in the floor of his cell with a tableknife, and lowered himself into the kitchen below by a rope made from blanket strips. He got out of the kitchen by removing the door from its hinges. He found a wheelbarrow, pushed this against the wall and scaled the parapet into the prison farm. With still one more wall to scale, he again used the blanket rope. He attached a weight to one end and threw it over the bottom rung of a ladder which descends form a watch-tower and ends some distance above the ground. Pulling himself up to the ladder, he climbed to the top of the wall and dropped into Gaffney Street, 20 feet below.” – Sydney Morning Herald, 19 April 1949.

From there, Howard didn’t get very far. By the afternoon of the 19th, Detectives Thomas and Shaw found him drinking at the Albion Hotel Northcote. Howard and the Detectives refute what happened next. According to Detective Thomas, the Detectives asked him to accompany them outside where he proclaimed: 

“I am George Thomas Howard, the man you are looking for, the man who escaped from Beechworth and Pentridge.”

The Detectives patted him down and found a large plug of gelignite, a smaller plug and a tin of detonators. Howard at first claimed to have found them at a Fitzroy park, but later, once at Northcote Police Station, police say that Howard admitted to breaking into a quarry where he stole “a few bob, some stamps and the explosives.”  
 

The Detectives arrested him and charged him with escaping of which he plead guilty, and breaking and stealing of which he plead not guilty. 

In court, Howard defended himself, questioning Detectives about his so-called confession. He accused Detectives of taking advantage of his drunken state and lying about him admitting to the break-in. He insinuated through questioning that indeed he could have found the explosives rather than stolen them.  

“Would you consider it possible for a person to find explosives?” Howard asked.

“Quite possible…but not very likely in Fitzroy,” Detective Thomas said. 

Seeming to sense that perhaps no one was buying that he simply found the explosives at a park, Howard changed tack when it came to his statement to the jury.
 

“Your Honor and Gentlemen of the Jury. I will endeavour to give you a brief outline of my movements from the time when I left the grounds of Pentridge at approximately 4.30. I left the Reformatory Prison on the morning of the 18th of April last. Taking into consideration the fact that I was still wearing prison clothes and running considerable risk I proceeded on foot to the Carlton Gardens. Deciding that I couldn’t go on I concealed myself under a vacant army hut. I stayed there until late Monday night. From there I went to a friend’s place in Fitzroy and left there about 8 o’clock Tuesday the 19th of April the day of my recapture... Your Honor and Gentlemen the most serious aspect of this case is the having in my possession explosives that I cannot account for. You have only my word that I was nowhere in the vicinity of the Merri Quarries, and Your Honor and Gentlemen the police haven’t given any conclusive proof to this court to prove otherwise. There is such a thing as harbouring an escaped prisoner, and for me to give conclusive proof would be against all common decency and principal for me to betray the trust of a friend. Your Honor and Gentlemen it is alleged by the police that I made an alleged statement to the extent of risking a severe sentence for breaking and entering in preference to unlawful possession. Your Honor and Gentlemen no man unless he was an idiot would say such a thing...”

The jury didn’t buy it. They took 15 minutes to find him guilty. 

Back to jail he went.      

A full list of files opened for the first time on 1 January 2025 can be found below:

• Geelong divorce case files, 1949 
• Attorney-General’s Department inward registered correspondence, 1949
• Melbourne divorce case files, 1949
• Criminal trial briefs, 1949
• Criminal trial briefs, 1948-49
• Malvern children’s court register, 1949
• Criminal trial brief register, 1949
• Alfred Hospital master patient index cards, 1949
• Children’s ward register, 1924-25
• Divorce cause book, 1948-49
• Index to divorce cause book, 1949
• Divorce case files (Supreme Court and Ballarat Court), 1949
• Oakleigh District and St Albans Hospital inpatient admission registers, 1947-49
• Fitzroy children’s court register, 1922-25
• Korumburra children’s court register, 1907-25
• Kew Asylum head attendant’s daily report books, male, 1948-49
• Royal Park Psychiatric Hospital trial leave register and escapes, 1940-49
• St Helens, Pleasant View and Sunnyside Licensed House Asylum records, 1906-49
• Kew Asylum head nurse’s daily report book, female, 1948-49
• Bound circulated photographs and criminal offences of convicted persons, 1948-49
• Register of appeals to County Court, 1944-49
• Sunbury and Ballarat asylum discharge registers, 1942-49
• Sunbury female admission warrants, 1947-49
• Caulfield children’s court registers, 1920-25
• Buln Buln Shire council minutes, 1989-94
• Public Service Board general correspondence, 1987-94
• Supreme Court presentments, 1949
• St Kilda children’s court register, 1922-25
• Richmond children’s court register, 1923-25
• Healesville children’s court register, 1908-25
• Euroa children’s court register, 1907-25
• Prahran children’s court register, 1922-25
• Capital sentence files, 1949
• Buln Buln Shire committee minutes, 1989-94
• Tramway employees record cards, 1968-69
• Sponsored migrants’ records, 1951-69
• Richmond register of infectious and contagious diseases, 1931-49
• Correspondence with Australian Railway Union regarding industrial issues, 1968-69
• Board of inquiry into Southern Aurora Violet Town train accident, 1969
• Victorian railways accident compensation claim register, 1968-69
• Victorian railways accident compensation claim book, 1968-69
• School council employees dead books, 1965-74
• Swinburne Technical College examination results, 1948-49
• Country Roads Board minutes, 1974
• Nurse record cards, 1925-74
• Dental Board minutes and papers, 1972-73
• Royal Children’s Hospital index to admission and discharge registers for in-patients, 1907-1925 
• Royal Children’s Hospital in-patient admission and discharge register, 1922-24
• Melbourne County Court criminal presentments and final orders, 1948-49 
• Royal Women’s Hospital extern case book, midwifery, 1924-25
• Country Roads Board wages records, 1948-49
• Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital admission and discharge register of patients, 1924-25
• Ballarat Asylum admission register of patients (Dana Receiving House), 1935-49
• Ballarat Asylum discharge register (Dana Receiving House), 1936-49
• Beechworth Asylum ward books of male patients, 1929-49
• Ballarat Asylum clinical notes and patient files, up to 1949
• Royal Park Psychiatric Hospital employee history cards, 1948-74
• Royal Melbourne Hospital secretary’s and manager’s subject correspondence files, 1947-1974
• Prince Henry’s Hospital inpatient books, Jul 1920 to Jun 1924