Interview with the train driver

An enigmatic freight train driver regularly traverses the swamp - and has some stories to tell.

Journalist (J): Thanks for coming to chat.

Train driver (TD): No worries, it's my pleasure.

J: You're one of the few people that spends authorised time in the swamp.

TD: I used to spend more time in the swamp, but these days I do spend a lot of time in the swamp, yes.

J: What are your thoughts about the swamp?

TD: Look, I love going down to the swamp to be honest. Especially that swampy bit in the port is really quite interesting. It's amazing how they have transformed the swamp into, just, this massive logistics centre where things go all over the world... but you can still see the swamp.

J: What can you see?

TD: Well, I heard a rumour that you were down at Ron Barassi Senior Park the other day and that's at the edge of the swamp which is just near where all this logistics magic happens.

J: Yes, that used to be the Dudley Flats where people used to live.

TD: Is that right? I didn't know that.

J: There was a shanty town there.

TD: Underneath where the Bolte Bridge is? Wow. And do you think—just off topic for a bit—do you think that the naming of that park after Ron Barassi Senior is a dis? It's not a very good park and it's soccer. Wasn't Barassi into football?

J: That's a very good point. Ron Barassi Senior, how many Ron Barassis are there?

TD: At least two, obviously.

J: Obviously.

TD: In my anonymity, I stay down there when I'm here for work and I had a wonder around Rob Barassi. It always occurred to me that Ron obviously wasn't very well liked because they named this shitty little soccer oval after him. So we'll have to look into that. Did he play for Essendon?

J [to a random bystander]: Do you know who Ron Barassi played for?

Random Bystander (RB): I used to play soccer with Ron Hitler Barassi.

TD: So Ron Barassi was into soccer?

RB: Ron Hitler Barassi was into soccer.

TD: Maybe that's who it was named after.

RB: Who the swamp was named after?

TD: This isn't relevant to the swamp really. But it is an interesting thought process.

J: Fascinating. So, what's it like? You drive a train that comes over the Bunbury Street Bridge, talk us through it.

TD: So you go over the bridge. That bridge, that Bunbury Street tunnel is quite interesting actually. You come through all the Metro stuff through Tottenham there, and just before you get to Footscray—you think you're going to Footscray—but you can't go to Footscray because it's broad gauge and we're on standard gauge. You come down and half of the tunnel is carved out of rock. And then the second half is cut and cover, they dug a big trench and covered it over, and it's quite an interesting transition in there. And the other interesting part is there's a lot of very good graffiti, or street art I should say, in the tunnel. A lot of shit as well, but there's a lot of good art. Interestingly, ARTC who's in charge of the tunnel installed lights in it recently a couple of years ago so that now the people doing graffiti on the walls can have light while they're doing it.

J: That's very convenient. Very thoughtful.

TD: So you come over there, over the Maribyrnong River, lots of different places—all swamp places—that you can go. You could go to North Dynon yard, which is across the other side of Dynon Road: that's swamp. Down to the Melbourne Freight Terminal: also a swamp. Or you can go down to the docks: all swamp. Or you can even go straight through to Southern Cross Station, like the XPT and Overland and all that sort of stuff do, all the big trains. And down through a viaduct, over a little ditch, and you go across Moonee Ponds Creek—part of the swamp—into Southern Cross. It's actually very interesting, there are lots of different swamp destinations you can get to.

J: And can you see any signs of the swamp?

TD: Yes you can, so there's Moonee Ponds Creek, you can see that little reserve as you go around to North Dynon past the waste centre, where that excellent park is that you did a great story on.

J: The wildlife sanctuary.

TD: The wildlife sanctuary, which looks scary.

J: It's terrifying.

TD: You wouldn't want to go there by yourself.

J: Absolutely not.

TD: And that's probably one of the reasons I've never been there, because I'm always going past there by myself. Freaky. So you can see that bit from the railway line. And interestingly, a few years ago, the swamp reappeared in the Melbourne Freight Terminal where there was a shutdown for some reason of the Long Island Colorbond factory and there were lots of rolls of steel from Port Kembla being stored in the Melbourne Freight Terminal. They had them stacked up. They're really big, they get up to about 21 tonnes each. And they discovered early one morning that the swamp had decided it wanted all those steel coils, and all the concrete underneath the steel coils had collapsed and the coils fell about five or six rolls deep, into a big piece of swamp that had opened up underneath the Melbourne Freight Terminal.

J: Oh my god.

TD: It was all muddy swamp underneath. It was amazing.

J: This is important.

TD: This was probably six years ago, during covid. There is drone footage of it and photos from the drone which hopefully I'd be able to track down for you. Because I think they would make very interesting photos for your readership.

J: Would you be able to mark on this map approximately where this happened?

TD: [Points at the map.] It was in North Dynon, so there's two yards on Dynon Road, it was on the southern North Dynon bit, which is the Melbourne Freight Terminal. The bit that's in between Footscray Road and North Dynon, so right alongside Dynon Road.

J: Do you know about the blue lake?

TD: No I don't.

J: When the settlers first built the city of Melbourne and this was still a swamp, they could see what they described as a beautiful blue lake, it had geese, and it was in the bit where Lloyd Street comes off Dynon Road and there's a pile of dirt with a wreckers up there now. That pile of dirt was Batman Hill which they moved because they didn't want it in the city, and they chucked it on this lake and ruined it.

TD: Why would you do that?!

J: It's where there's a wreckers, there's a brothel, and there used to be a really good kebab van.

TD: Out in front of the brothel. We used to go there all the time. He moved out somewhere north. He'd be open when we were out on shift work. We'd go get kebabs there. Why would you do that?! That's a lot of effort moving a hill. You might know this, at some stage didn't they use it as a dump as well?

J: It was a rubbish dump, before that it was also where they put all the shit from all the tanneries, it was a beautiful area where people use to hunt birds for eating and all that kind of stuff, and they filled it with literal shit, and rubbish, and treated it like Melbourne's armpit.

TD: Interesting you should mention that because after all the steel coils fell into the swamp, they had to go back to Port Kembla to be re-smeltered. They got them out and they filled it in with I don't know what, and all of those coils had to go back on a train, back to Port Kembla to be smeltered again because they couldn't be used for Colorbond because they'd fallen in the swamp.

J: Who knows what...

TD: ...all of the tannery shit, they don't want that in their production process.

J: Or a curse.

TD: There might be some cursed Colorbond already.

J: You don't want your Colorbond cursed. I certainly don't.

TD: Is that a Colorbond colour? Cursed?

J: Probably. Do you still drive your train past where this happened?

TD: Yes! I did this morning in fact.

J: Did you notice anything this morning?

TD: No.

J: Well keep your eyes on the swamp and let us know if any more intersting things happen.

TD: Of course. I will.

J: Thank you for your time, enigmatic train driver.