b'A dispute that ran for fifty yearsMerry v The Queen During the gold rush Melbourne and its surroundsbetween the company and the workers did not improve underwent a radical transformation as money and peopleand by March 1860, the contract was transferred to Messrs flooded in. According to the census of the time, VictoriasWilliams & Little.population in 1841 (then Port Phillip) was 11,738; by 1871, it had grown to 731,528.A long series of legal disputes between Evans and Merry and the workers followed. Evans and Merry then filed a Melbourne was abuzz with change new railwayclaim against the government seeking damages of 9,700, lines connected the city to the goldfields of Ballarat andwhich they asserted was their share of the profit from the Bendigo, opening up new industrial and residential areas.railway line. Crisp Lewis & Hedderwick represented the Marvellous Melbourne was a city in a hurry, with a headyCrown. Notwithstanding the firms role, in 1883 Thomas atmosphere of advancement and optimism. While SydneyCrisp went to London, having been appointed by the was growing slowly and steadily, Melbourne was racing.Supreme Court of Victoria to take evidence from witnesses there. By 1889 Merrys claim had escalated to 500,000 The construction of the GeelongBallarat railway line was ain damages. When the dispute was heard, the procession significant part of this development, transforming Ballaratto the courthouse along Chancery Lane (now Little Collins into a major urban hub. Evans Merry & Company (led byStreet) was quite a spectacle. Melbourne magazine Table George Evans and William Merry) was awarded the contractTalk reported: huge documents measuring some three feet to build the railway line. It would stretch 87 kilometres andhigh were carried along by three solicitors clerks to the feature seven bluestone arch bridges and a 10-span viaductchambers of the barristers.over the Moorabool River. When work on the project began on 26 August 1858 there was immediate unrest amongIn 1911 a Parliamentary Select Committee awarded Evans members of the large workforce, who opposed being paidand Merry an allowance of 10,000 as compensation for part of their salary in rations. Ballarats Eureka Stockade fourtheir losses. By this time Merry was eighty-f our years old years earlier had left a deep sense of injustice and abidingand in feeble health. The payment came too late for Evans, rebellion. Emboldened, the 300 railway workers marchedwho had died fifteen years earlier; his share was divided towards Geelong to stand up for their rights. Relationsamong his children.Huge documents measuring some three feet high were carried along by three solicitors clerks to the chambers of the barristers.Table Talk, 27 September 188952'