John T. Short

In 1878 he left his ship at Port Adelaide and joined the South Australian Railways, and after a rapid series of promotions was in 1881 appointed stationmaster at Petersburg (now Peterborough),[2] between Adelaide and Broken Hill — a major terminal in the age of steam and when the South Australian railway network was more extensive than today.

In 1889 he left for Western Australia to take charge of the Great Southern Railways, which ran from Beverley to Albany,[3] owned by the West Australian Land Company.

In 1906 a royal commission was held to investigate allegations raised in parliament by H. E. Bolton that Short and George Alfred Julius, another high railways official, had engaged railway tradesmen to do work for them on government time, and that the Commissioner, W. J. George (ex-MLA), had colluded by suppressing the information.

[5] In 1907 Short succeeded George, first as acting Commissioner, and in July 1908 to the substantive position, and made permanent in 1913.

His tenure of eleven years was notable as a period of great expansion (190 miles of line in 1896 to 1,516 in 1904),[3] but he created considerable resentment in the goldfields area of Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie when some passenger services were cancelled.