On Monday last the Dungog to Maitland mail coach driver James Brereton left Dungog around 2.30pm and after picking up mail at Seaham, Clarence Town and Glen Oak, arrived at Hinton Post Office, in Paterson Street, about 9pm with 5 passengers and 14 bags of mail.
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Two men were on the box and one inside with a woman and her son.
Soon after the coach left the Post Office the leading reins got caught up in the leading bar and the driver had to alight to fix them.
Then, soon after as the driver pulled to one side to pass a buggy ahead of him, the wheels of the coach struck a culvert near Watson’s store.
The driver was thrown off and the horses bolted down towards the punt, came into the punt yard, onto the punt, straight through the punt and into the river.
The male passengers managed to escape but 48-year-old Emily Cross and 7-year-and-10-months-old son David were drowned. Bodies were recovered when the coach was pulled from the river about 3am Tuesday and bodies were locked together with the boy cradled in his mother’s arms.
Three horses also drowned.
Mails recovered were taken by Morpeth Postmaster Mr. C. F. Wakely and dried out. One bag contained £600.
Mr. J. N. Brooks, Coroner, held an inquest at M’Carthy’s Victoria Hotel where John William Storey, punt man, stated: “I first saw them coming through the big gates in the punt yard the speed was terrific, and they came on the punt without checking themselves, and I went to close the outer punt gates; I undid the right hand gate, and sprang across to the other gate, and then the leader of the coach rushed past me, and all went into the water.”
Joachim August Tronier, an artist from Balmain, who was on the box with the driver stated, “the driver was perfectly sober, and was a good and careful man.”
Evidence was also taken from Dr Oscar Bloch, who had been inside the coach, Dr Frank Albert Bennett from Morpeth, Senior-constable John Ritchie of Morpeth and George Cross of Dungog, husband and father of deceased.
Jury found: “The driver was not to blame.”
Victoria Hotel still stands on corner of Hinton road and Old Punt Road.
- Peter Bogan for Maitland and District Historical Society
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