On January 13, 1880 the Shepparton Railway Station was officially opened and the first steam train departed from Shepparton on January 15, bound for Melbourne.
One Alfred Leahy had been influential in winning the fight from other rural centres to secure the all-important railway for Shepparton.
Leahy, later dubbed the ‘Father of Shepparton’ and even the ‘Lion of Shepparton’, was only 29 years old when he first arrived in the town in 1873.
It was by his deputation to Melbourne, heard by the Chief Secretary on May 11, 1878, that won the day.
With the aid of cheap transport, wheat farms and orchards far from the Melbourne port could now further flourish.
The steam locomotives, however, had one major unexpected defect.
The locos emitted such a stream of fiery sparks that grasslands, bushlands, ripe orchards, grain crops and even haystacks alongside the railway line sometimes caught fire.
It took rail officials only one week to realise they faced placing £6000 in their coffers for potential compensation to landowners affected by the fires caused from showering embers spewing from the steam engine stacks.
The so-called ‘iron horses’ were renowned for belching out showers of sparks and unintentionally setting fire to lands adjacent to the rail corridor.
Within a year, the railway officials had to withdraw this “insurance”, realising belatedly that canny farmers were placing haystacks close to the rail line in the hope that fire would deliver them better compensation than they might otherwise gain for their stored hay.
