During the Scottish autumn of 1891, Irishman, Lucan Hayes, a coal miner, loses his wife to childbirth. In his darkest hour, he meets prostitute Meg-Anne Dunn. This brief encounter would alter their lives forevermore.
Lucan must find a way to rais...
Early the next morning they woke and made their way along Shields Street, past the Railway Hotel and across McLeod Street to the train station.
They settled in their seats. The steam train pulled away from the station. Covey and Riley squealed loudly when the whistle blew to signal the train's departure.
"How long did it take to finish the line, Thaiter?" Lucan asked. He stretched his legs out and leaned back against the seat.
"It ain't finished yet. They got plans to go all the way to a place called Herberton. The track runs as far as Myola now but the rest should be quicker because the challenging bit is done." Thaiter paused and rubbed his chin. "They started in eighty-six but I didn't come for the work until ah...would have been the end of eighty-seven. Section two they called it. Up the fuckin' mountain. Jesus I ain't worked so hard in all me life."
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He shook his head, looked out of the window, and then back at Lucan. "I went to Cairns for the job and they sent me to see Red Lynch, the foreman, out at the construction campsite." Thaiter laughed. "It's a frickin' town now. When it was a camp this fellow Lynch, an Irishman with bright red hair was running the place and it was him you had to see for a job. They ended up naming the place after him. Called it Redlynch. Can you believe that?" He laughed again. "Anyway the conditions were pretty bad but the men...best bunch you could ever work with. The trees we were cuttin' were dat big!" He leaned forward and stretched his arms wide. "Fuck! This big they were and I saw this fella get killed at a place they called Beard's Cutting. Hamilton his name was. Silly bugger stood on the wrong side of a log as it was being rolled into the fire. Crushed him. Heavy bastard it was. He was the first to die, but he wasn't the last. There was plenty more after him."
Thaiter stopped talking and gazed thoughtfully out of the window. "Big job! Small towns sprang up along the track. Especially at tunnel three. They say fifteen hundred men were on the payroll. We formed the Victorian Labour League in eighty-eight. Most of us Irish fellas. We wanted our wages increased. Fuck, for the work we did, we deserved it. I quit in eighty-nine. April if I remember rightly. Just after one of the tunnels came down. Biggest tragedy on the rail. Seven men killed." Thaiter went quiet, and then continued, "The maritime strike spread to the rail workers in ninety. They called themselves The United Sons of Toil and a month later the wages went up. Finished it to Kuranda in ninety-one." Thaiter leaned back and rested his hands on his knees in silent thought.
Lucan felt his eyes getting heavy. The motion of the train and his lack of sleep were invading his senses and the last thing he heard was Thaiter saying, "Section three's in the works now...to Mareeba. They reckon it'll be finished by the end of next year."
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