Douglas MacArthur, J.P. McGowan, oddity of three gauges echo from South Australian rail ghost town of Terowie
Terowie, pictured in its busy three-gauge railways era, was the birthplace of J.P. McGowan, pioneering Hollywood actor, director, screenwriter and producer (top left), and where United States general Douglas MacArthur made headlines while changing trains in 1942.
US General Douglas MacArthur made his famous "I shall return" speech regarding the Battle of the Philippines while changing trains on March 20, 1942, at the now-railway-ghost-town Terowie in South Australia.
General Douglas MacArthur, coming south from the Philippines, via Alice Springs to Adelaide, had to change, like all travellers, from narrow to broad gauge at then-busy Terowie. The general was surprised on his “secret” journey to be greeted by Terowie locals and the press as he changed trains.
MacArthur responded to the locals’ cheers by striding towards an opening between a line of railway carriages and saluting the people of Terowie on the other side of the carriages and some passengers on a nearby train. He declared: “The President of the United States ordered me to break through the Japanese lines and proceed to Corregidor to Australia for the purpose, as I understand it, of organising an American offensive against Japan, the primary purpose of which is the relief of the Philippines. I came through and I shall return.”
During World War II, a large military camp near Terowie railway station transferred men and materials to the north. Ammunition factories in Adelaide’s northwest and an explosives factory in Salisbury produced war materials that were transported by rail through Terowie.
Terowie-born J.P. (John Paterson) McGowan became a pioneering Hollywood actor, director and occasional screenwriter and producer from 1910. He is the only Australian life member of the Screen Directors Guild (now Directors Guild of America).
Terowie was McGowan's childhood home when his father worked for the town's then-bustling railway activity. As a Hollywood film director, McGowan specialised in serials with a railways theme, including one that introduced actor John Wayne.
After early years in Terowie, McGowan grew up in the Adelaide railways workshop suburb of Islington and later Sydney. He served in the second Boer War as a special dispatch rider. McGowan was recruited for a Boer War exhibit in the USA at the 1904 World’s Fair. This led in 1910 to joining Kalem film studios in New York City. His horse riding suited him for film stunts.
McGowan directed and often acted in Kalem's 1914 adventure film series The hazards of Helen. While filming he began a relationship and married its star Helen Holmes. They left Kalem to set up their own company, Signal Films, that made mainly railroad melodrama serials. While never a major star, McGowan over four decades acted in 232 films, wrote 26 screenplays and directed 242 productions. In 1932, he directed a young John Wayne in 12-episodes of the railway-theme serialThe Hurricane Express.
Terowie township grew with railways from 1880 and boomed as a railways changeover point – part of another South Australian oddity: three railway gauges. Different choices between the Australian colonies in the 19th Century left them with the narrow, broad and, later, standard gauges. South Australia became caught in between with all three gauges.
Terowie declined to a ghost town when the railway lines through it were converted to broad gauge
