Breaking A Record - Making History

It was a highlight for the boys…...You can see them boys move different, they move with one spirit.

John Culear Kennell Snr, world record railway worker, 2011

**Caption: The front steel gang were responsible for placing the rails and sleepers before the spiking crews, shown here, went into action, Mt Newman Railway Line, 1968.**
Credit: BHP Collection, BA2948/8, State Library of WA

On 8 May 1968, after six months of solid tracklaying on the Port Hedland to Mt Newman railway in the Pilbara, a crew largely composed of Torres Strait Islanders broke a world record by laying the greatest length of railway track in a single day.

In the blistering heat of the northwest, they laid 7 kilometres of track in 11 hours and 40 minutes. Their incredible efforts defeated the previous record of 4.6 kilometres set in the United States in 1962.

Tracklaying required teamwork. The 137-strong crew was divided into different gangs according to the stages of the process. Torres Strait Islander men supervised three of the key work ‘gangs’: Patrick Levi on the front steel gang, John Kennell on the back steel gang and Percy Mallie on the ballast and surfacing gang.

Caption: The workers were told that breaking the world record relied on the efficiency of the back steel gang, but it was the spirit and cooperation of all crews together that led to their success. Nelson Point, 30 January 1969.
Credit: Aerials Survey Australia, Adrian Watson, State Library of WA, 267374PD

In the course of that one day the crews laid, spiked and anchored approximately 896 tons of rail, 11,880 sleepers, 23,760 rail plates, 47,280 rail anchors, 4,280 dog spikes and many tons of track ballast. That evening, the Torres Strait Islanders and their co-workers celebrated back at their camps with beers courtesy of their bosses.

In all, completion of the entire 400 km railway line from Port Hedland to Mt Newman took nine months.