Mr. Hordern left England in 1886, after floating the West Australian Land Company, to organise operations in this colony. While in the Red Sea he received such a severe sunstroke that he died before his steamer reached Albany. A handsome granite monument has been erected in a commanding position at that port in memory of one who would probably have become a great philanthropist. He was yet young, and had he lived a few more years Western Australian development probably would have been materially fostered by his organising genius and sanguine, yet shrewd, intelligence. His various schemes would either have been immensely successful or have disastrously collapsed. His scheme to introduce immigrants under the auspices of the West Australian Land Company was not furthered by the directors, and after the arrival of several large bands the company informed the Government in June, 1887, that it could not absorb any more, and asked to be relieved of the fulfilment of the clause thereto in the contract. In April, 1888, an Act passed the Legislative Council sanctioning the transfer of Mr. Hordern's contract to the West Australian Land Company.
Messrs. Millar Brothers, of Melbourne, were awarded the contract to build the railway, and began operations at Beverley and Albany. The line was gradually carried through the untamed forest country, and was completed in 1889. On the 1st June of that year, sixty years after the foundation of the colony, the formal opening of the railway took place, and the country so laboriously discovered by Captain Bannister in 1830-1 was traversed in a few hours. The company did not flourish; the hopes of its projectors that their land would be largely purchased or rented from them were doomed to disappointment, and only a very small area was cleared. The town-sites declared along the route were Lakeside, Mount Barker, Cranbrook, Broomehill, Katanning, Wagin, Narrogin, and Pingelly. Apart from the interests of the company, this chief trunk line proved of considerable service to the colony.
Other land-grant railway schemes were meanwhile before the public. The proposal to construct a line from Esperance Bay to Hampton Plains was revived in 1885. In September the Colonial Secretary moved in the Legislative Council that it was desirable to accept terms offered by an English syndicate. Several members expressed the opinion that only a small pastoral industry would be served, and Mr. Lee-Steere carried an amendment against the line. In 1887 its supporters were much more active. It was advocated in Parliament and in the press by people who believed the Hampton Plains to contain rich agricultural country. Mr. Alexander Forrest moved in the Council in 1888 in favour of accepting the syndicate's proposals—similar to those of Mr. Hordern—provided that the Government received satisfactory assurance that it could carry out the contract, but he lost on the voices. The syndicate already held at Hampton Plains and Esperance Bay land which they intended to purchase. A provisional agreement was entered into in 1889, but was not carried out. Dr. Boyd submitted proposals in 1888 for the construction of a railway connecting the eastern terminus of the Government lines with Eucla, but the scheme was abandoned after the appointment of select committees, which suggested that the railway should be on the 5 feet 3-inch gauge, and that a grant of 20,000 acres should be allowed for every mile constructed, and after the Legislative Council carried a resolution in favour of the line on condition that a guarantee of £50,000 be deposited. Had it been built, the highly desirable advantage of having every Australian colony connected by railway would have been attained, and Fremantle would have become the Brindisi of Australia. In 1886 a London syndicate offered to construct a line from Derby to the Kimberley goldfields, under a Government guarantee. A second syndicate proposed to build a railway to the same place on the land-grant principle; a third, a railway (under Government guarantee) from Wyndham to the Kimberley goldfields. All were refused.
But terms for a second land-grant railway were already entered into. In 1884 Mr. John Waddington submitted to the Government a proposal to construct a railway from York to Geraldton via Northam and Newcastle. The syndicate he represented was guided and assisted by the terms of the report upon the proposal of Mr. Hordern. The Commissioner of Railways, Commissioner of Lands, Sir T.C. Campbell, Messrs. Lee-Steere, Brown, Marmion, Randell, Crowther, and Loton, acting as a Select Committee, considered that the line should start from Guildford rather than from York. The route chosen by them ran from Guildford, Victoria Plains, Upper Irwin, to or near Walkaway, the southern terminus of the Government line from Geraldton. They agreed that the Government should be empowered to negotiate with Mr. Waddington for the construction of the railway on the basis of the contract entered into with Mr. Hordern, with modifications, such as: that the land taken for the railway, when passing through freehold or town-sites, should be of no greater width than one chain, except by consent of the Commissioner of Railways; and that no land should be reserved from sale in view of the proposed construction until after the signing of the contract.
An agreement was signed in February, 1886, which stipulated that the general route should run from Guildford, via Gingin, Victoria Plains, Upper Irwin, and Dongara, to Walkaway. The concessionnaire was to receive 12,000 acres per mile of railway constructed, to be selected by him in blocks of not less than 12,000 acres, within forty miles on either side of the line. The Government could not alienate any lands within the forty miles until the work was completed. A portion of the country to be traversed was already alienated which compelled the concessionnaire to choose his selections around such grants. Half the frontage of the railway was reserved to the Government. The cost of the line was estimated at a little over a million sterling. The Waddington syndicate was not so successful in obtaining the necessary capital in London as it anticipated. The contract for building the railway was let to Mr. E. Keane, who proceeded vigorously to push on the work; but owing to the non-success of the company he had to discontinue operations in 1887, and little further was done until after 1888. The whole undertaking would have fallen through but for the energy of one or two capitalists in London.
Considerable telegraph extension works were carried out while these new railways—Government and private—were being built. An offer was made in 1881 to lay a line from Geraldton to Roebourne on the land-grant system, but in 1882 it was decided to construct the work out of loan funds. A contract was let to Messrs. J. and W. Bateman in January, 1883, at £65 12s. per mile (including stations). The line was opened on 1st October, 1885, and cost £56,531. On the following 17th November, Cossack was connected with Roebourne. Sharks Bay, the Gascoyne, Ashburton, and Fortescue were all included in the telegraph system. Derby (500 miles) was connected in 1889, and the line was eventually carried from there to Hall's Creek, and Wyndham. Gingin, Mandurah, Pinjarra, Bridgetown, Bunbury, and Busselton—in short, all the principal centres of the colony were now connected by telegraph, and the magnetic current ran from east to west and south to north, and branched of into the country in various places.
