From The Sydney Morning Herald
Sydney, New South Wales
4 November 1947

RAIL ACCIDENT CHARGE
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Officer’s Alleged Admission
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   GYMPIE, Monday. -- Mervyn Douglas Gilliland, 20, railway night officer, who is charged with manslaughter following the collision of two mail trains at Tamaree, was alleged to-day to have admitted the accident was due to an error by him.
   Detective-sergeant Edwin Hird said in a Gympie Police Court that Gilliland told him: “Nobody else can be blamed. I have made a clean breast of it to the Railways and admitted that I had all the signals at clear position for the main line while the other mail train was on the main line at the platform.”
   Gilliland was night officer at Tamaree station, five miles north of Gympie, on October 18, when the Brisbane-Townsville mail crashed into the Rockhampton-Brisbane mail, which was stationary at the platform. Eight people lost their lives and 13 others were injured in the smash.
 Gilliland is charged with having unlawfully killed Royden Kenneth Smith, who, with his sister, Bessie Goldston, was killed while returning to Mackay from a Brisbane holiday.
ALLEGED STATEMENT
   Gilliland, according to Detective Hird, said that after the Rockhampton-Brisbane train came in he pulled all the signals to the clear position for the main line. He then got the staff for the Townsville mail driver and went out to wait for him. The points were set at the normal position for the main line.
   Detective Hird said he asked Gilliland could he give any explanation for failing to set the signal and points to allow the Townsville mail to pass the Rockhampton-Brisbane mail by the loop line.
   Gilliland allegedly replied: “I forgot I had the Rockhampton-Brisbane mail at the platform at the time. It is a practice where possible to bring all passenger trains in to the platform. I got so used to doing it that I forgot I had the Rockhampton mail standing at the platform. I crossed over the stationary train between the carriages to give the staff to the driver.
   Asked if crossing over the stationary train had not reminded him that all the signals were in the clear position for the main line, Gilliland allegedly replied: “I was between the Rockhampton mail and the loop line before I realised it. It was too late then and the crash came.”
   The hearing will continue tomorrow.
   
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From The Canberra Times
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
19 November 1947

RAIL OFFICER CHARGED
WITH MURDER
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GYMPIE, Tuesday
   The trial began at Gympie to-day of Mervyn Douglas Gilliland, 20, who is charged with having unlawfully killed Royden Kenneth Smith as the result of negligence which caused the death of eight passengers in a train collision at Tamaree on October 18.
   It is alleged that Gilliland brought the Rockhampton Mail into Tamaree station to wait for the Townsville Mail to pass on a loop line and forgot to shift the points.
   The trial is expected to last three days.

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From The Argus
Melbourne, Victoria
20 November 1947

CROWD CHEERED
ACQUITTAL
OF RAIL MAN

   BRISBANE, Wed.: Men and women in the gallery of the Gympie Circuit Court cheered and some women cried today when the foreman of the jury acquitted a 20-year-old railway night officer on a charge of manslaughter arising from the Townsville mail train crash on October 18, when eight persons were killed.
   The railway night officer Mervyn Douglas Gilliland was on duty at Tamaree station on the morning of the crash.
   Detective-sergeant Hird told the Court that when he asked Gilliland, after the crash, what had caused it, Gilliland said: “I forgot I had the Rockhampton Mail standing at the platform.”
   Detective-sergeant Hird said it was the practice to allow one express to pass the other by using a loop line.

-- transcriptions by Kate Maynard, 2010