The strange tale of the man found on top of the Korumburra train

It was a bitterly cold 1919 night, and Frederick Mills was aboard the steam train from Melbourne to Korumburra, shovelling coal into the fire to maintain the broilers.

As the locomotive passed through Nyora, Mills climbed on top of the coal pile and, with the bright moonlight reflecting down on the train, noticed an unusual bundle on the roof of a carriage.

Mills reported his discovery to the train driver and when they reached Korumburra, the body of 20-year-old Alexander Eastman was found face down on the carriage roof.

How a body got on top of a night steam train running from Melbourne to Korumburra in 1919, no one is really sure.

Annie O’Riley wrote about the history of the corpse on the Korumburra train on her Odd Australian History website, compiling much of the information from old newspaper articles.

Eastman, a butcher from Prahran, was taking the 6:30pm train trip from Hawksburn station with his aunt Annie Smith to visit relatives in Koo Wee Rup.

Smith told a newspaper that Eastman had boarded the train with a rifle and a bag. When they stopped at Dandenong station Smith said her nephew had left their compartment “saying that a friend of his was on the train, and that he desired to have a chat with him”.

On reaching Koo Wee Rup, Eastman was nowhere to be found. Smith said she made inquiries but assumed her nephew had missed the train and would follow her on the next one.

The train departed Koo Wee Rup on its way to Korumburra and Smith assumed she would see her nephew in the morning.

The cause of Eastman’s demise and how he ended up on top of the train is still unclear, with one newspaper saying the case was “regarded by the detectives as one of the most remarkable sets of mysterious circumstances”.

Authorities thought “death had occurred only a very short time previously, as the body was warm and the night was bitterly cold”.

Initially foul play was suspected, as a gold band ring with his Eastman’s initials engraved on it, which Smith said he was wearing at Dandenong, was missing from the body.

Smith also said he had more money than the 3 1/2 pence found in his pockets - suggesting he had given away, lost or been relieved of some cash - however a gold and silver watch, and gold cufflinks were still on his person.

Another theory printed in The Argus newspaper was that Eastman had climbed on top of the train and been struck by one of the “four or five railway bridges” on the journey.

The Argus wrote off this theory however as “if the man struck his head against one of them it is regarded as practically certain that he would have been thrown off the carriage roof”.

Eastman’s hands were also blackened with soot, which is thought to have come from the roof of the carriage, suggesting he had been on his hands and knees on top of the train.

The coroner ruled out foul play and said “whatever the deceased's man's intentions were it was impossible to say. There is no evidence to show how he got on to the roof, but I am of the opinion that it was by his own act”.