Major General The Hon. Sir Harry Ord GCMG CB RE Governor 1877-80.
In 1877 Fremantle was much perturbed over the question of a railway route to Perth. The matter was keenly discussed by the town councillors on July 27, and the desire on the part of a few interested people in the Legislative Council to have the line constructed on the north side of the river was scathingly condemned. Councillors were of opinion that the most direct and easily constructed route would be by keeping near the road to Canning Bridge, thence through South Perth and across the river near the Bazaar Terrace jetty. That opinion was emphasised by the statement that such a route would offer the least obstruction to the navigation of the river, but all the protestations were of no avail.
December . Telegraph communication with South Australia opened.
Arrival from the United Kingdom of the schooner Airlie (236 tons), which had been bought by her owner and captain, JM Ferguson, who had been master of various craft on the coast for many years. He was a son of Dr Ferguson, an old colonist of Perth, and later established a business in Fremantle and for many years did good work for the welfare of the town. At one time he was president of the Chamber of Commerce. The Airlie was burnt after years of service at Cossack.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 6 August, 2015 and hosted at freotopia.org/timeline/1877.html (it was last updated on 19 December, 2018), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.