This locomotive was built by the Hunslet Engine Company in Leeds in 1913
It operated at Inkerman Mill, Home Hill where it carried the No 1.
It is said that the town was originally going to be named Holmehill after a battle in the Crimean War. However, so the story goes, the signwriter couldn’t spell and the town became known as Home Hill. In fairness there is an alternative version of this story which says that the town was named after a certain Colonel Home who had distinguished himself in the Crimean War.
Home Hill was originally part of the Inkerman Downs Cattle Station. In August 1910, the Inkerman estate was resumed by the Queensland Government under the Closer Settlement Act and subdivided into farming allotments. Although the town of Ayr was very close by, there was no bridge across the Burdekin River and it was necessary to establish a separate town at Home Hill to support the new farming community.
The Inkerman Sugar Mill is still located in Home Hill, Queensland on the banks of the Burdekin River south of Townsville. The mill was designed and built by the Scottish engineer J Pickering under the instruction of John Drysdale, using machinery manufactured by Geo Fletcher and Company of Derby, England.
Drysdale, had already attained control and management of the sugar industry north of the Burdekin River around Ayr. He acquired 1280 acres of sugar-growing land south of the river and bargained with the government to build a mill for the subdivided Inkerman freehold. The cattle station was converted to sugar cane in 1911 and the mill crushed the first crop in 1914.
The farms needed irrigation and the Inkerman Water Supply Board was formed in 1917. Wells were sunk for the electric pumping of water, but costs exceeded the budget. Not until the system was connected to the Townsville electricity grid in the 1950s did it run economically.
It is believed that the locomotive was on display on a plinth at the Inkerman Mill for several years after being taken out of service there.
Home Hill was served by the North Coast railway which runs between Brisbane and Cairns in Queensland. The 3ft 6in gauge line was opened in sections between 1881 and 1924. The Inkerman Bridge which carried the North Coast railway line over the Burdekin River to McDesme officially opened in September 1913.
It is thought that the locomotive is now privately owned and kept at a private site at Burdekin, near Home Hill and is being restored there.
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Preserved British Steam Locomotives 