Phantoms of the Line - Australian Mystery
Australian Train Heist Mysteries
In December 1973, two men in black stopped a train in the rainforest above Cairns, took the track workers' wages off it at gunpoint and vanished down a drain into the scrub. Thirty-five years earlier and half a state away, a mine payroll was lifted out of a locked mail van on the dark run to Mount Isa, so cleanly that a full day went by before anyone knew it was gone. Two railways, two payrolls, and two impeccable railway heists.
This week on Strewth, the Phantoms of the Line.
Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast
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Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay
Sources:
• "MAIL TRAIN ROBBERY. £3,000 IN NOTES STOLEN. North Queensland Haul." Brisbane, 31 August 1938.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/42110600
• "MAIL TRAIN ROBBERY. BRISBANE DETECTIVES. Called In To Assist." Brisbane, 4 September 1938. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/62172323
• ABC News, "Mystery of Australia's Great Kuranda rail robbery remains unsolved 50 years on," 2023.
• Queensland Police Museum, "FROM the VAULT - Silk Yards and a Railway Guard,"
• The Workshops Rail Museum (Queensland Museum), "Railway Mysteries," David Mewes, 25 June 2014. https://blog.qm.qld.gov.au/2014/06/25/railway-mysteries/ Secondary (retrospective features)
• The Cairns Post, "Cairns mystery: 1973 Kuranda rail armed robbery," Pete Martinelli, 2018.
• ABC News, "Deathbed confession solves 66-year-old robbery case," 10 February 2005.
In December 1973, two men in black stopped a train in the rainforest above Cairns, took the track workers' wages off it at gunpoint and vanished down a drain into the scrub. Thirty-five years earlier and half a state away, a mine payroll was lifted out of a locked mail van on the dark run to Mount Isa, so cleanly that a full day went by before anyone knew it was gone. Two railways, two payrolls, and two impeccable railway heists.
This week on Strewth, the Phantoms of the Line.
Subscribe now to Strewth Premium on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/cw/StrewthPodcast
Strewth social media links - https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast
Contact me - [email protected]
Theme Music - Jesse Frank on Pixabay
Sources:
• "MAIL TRAIN ROBBERY. £3,000 IN NOTES STOLEN. North Queensland Haul." Brisbane, 31 August 1938.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/42110600
• "MAIL TRAIN ROBBERY. BRISBANE DETECTIVES. Called In To Assist." Brisbane, 4 September 1938. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/62172323
• ABC News, "Mystery of Australia's Great Kuranda rail robbery remains unsolved 50 years on," 2023.
• Queensland Police Museum, "FROM the VAULT - Silk Yards and a Railway Guard,"
• The Workshops Rail Museum (Queensland Museum), "Railway Mysteries," David Mewes, 25 June 2014. https://blog.qm.qld.gov.au/2014/06/25/railway-mysteries/ Secondary (retrospective features)
• The Cairns Post, "Cairns mystery: 1973 Kuranda rail armed robbery," Pete Martinelli, 2018.
• ABC News, "Deathbed confession solves 66-year-old robbery case," 10 February 2005.