page_title: 1915 Picnic Train Attack and White Rocks Reserve
section_title: The attack
hierarchical_section_title: 1915 Picnic Train Attack and White Rocks Reserve / History / The attack
caption_attribution_description: English: Riflemen returning to town after wikiping the Turks out, Broken Hill, 1915
context_page_description: 1915 Picnic Train Attack and White Rocks Reserve is a heritage-listed former tramway and now visitor attraction at Hynes Street, Broken Hill, City of Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia. It was the site of the only attack during World War I that occurred on Australian soil. The property is owned by NSW Department of Industry - Lands and Silverlea Services. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 29 June 2018.
context_section_description: The only documented World War I assault to take place in Australia happened in Broken Hill on New Year's Day 1915.  The Silverton Tramway Company lent its service to the Manchester Unity Order of Oddfellows to transport them out to Silverton for their annual celebration of 1 January.  The 1200 members of men, women and children were seated in forty one open ore carriages that had been modified with temporary bench seating.
  The train pulled out from the Sulphide Street railway station at approximately 10 am and passed through the Railway Town Station where it made a brief stop and then continued on its intended journey out to Silverton.  Approximately 1.2 kilometres from the Railway Town Station, on a curve in the railway line, several passengers noticed Gool Mahomed and Mullah Abdulla sitting in the trench housing of Umberumberka water pipeline on the northern side of the track opposite the cemetery.  Both of the men were known to some of the passengers, especially Gool Mahomed as he made a living pushing an ice-cream cart has become a representation of the attack as this is where they had mounted the Ottoman flag and is how the two men were able to transport their rifles and ammunition to the site without being noticed.
  When Mahomed and Abdulla began firing shots at the train some passengers initially thought that they were firing off blank bullets in a display for New Year's Day and others thought that they were shooting at rabbits.  The first shots fired were aimed at the engine of the train missing the crew in the cabin.  One bullet landed hitting the sand beside the track and a second bullet hit the bottom of the brake van.
  As the men kept firing at the train the realism of their intentions set in and with the passengers having very little protection, 17 year old Alma Cowie was hit by a bullet while trying to take cover.  Alma had been sitting beside her companion, Clarence O'Brien and as she was about to take cover she was hit in the head by a bullet and died approximately 45 minutes later.  William Shaw who was seated beside his wife Alice was also struck down.  Alice heard her husband say "I'm shot" and he then fell forward into Alice's arms.  Passengers on the train came to his aide but he died a short time after.  Fifteen year old Lucy Shaw, the daughter of William and Alice, was also shot (in the elbow) but her injury was not fatal.  Alfred Millard, who worked for the Broken Hill Water Supply Company, was riding his bike down alongside the train line on his way to inspect a pipe leak.  Alfred was also intending to take photos of the train carriages full of picnic goers when he was shot in the back.  It is unclear if Alfred died instantly but it was reported he was not alive by the time he was brought back to town.
  The locomotive crew moved the train a further 850 yards down the line to the Picton railway siding in an attempt to distance themselves from their attackers but continued to come under fire so they advanced a further 1.2 kilometres towards Silverton until they reached the Silverton Tramway Company's reservoir.  Assistance Guard Mr Elsegood ran a short distance ahead to the company's pumping station where he was able to make a call requesting assistance be sent from Broken Hill.  It was at this stop that injured passengers were removed from the train to wait for medical assistance to arrive; Mary Kavanhagh shot in the head, George Stokes shot in shoulder and chest, Lucy Shaw shot in elbow and Rose Crabb shot through the shoulder.  There is no found record to say that any of these people had succumbed to their injuries so it is assumed that they survived.
  Mullah Abdullah and Gool Mahomed had fled the scene on foot heading in a north east direction where they knocked on the door of a house near the Allendale Hotel on the corner of Jones and Morgan Streets to seek refuge.  Some words were exchanged between the two men and the resident, 70 year old Thomas Campbell, which resulted in one of the men firing a shot at Campbell with the bullet passing through the side of his abdomen (Campbell survived).  By th
caption: Riflemen returning to town after "wiping the Turks out"
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