The Castlereagh Line
MONDAY TO FRIDAY 4.40AM AND 10.40PM

Written by Ross Napier and produced in the 1980's, The Castlereagh Line is hugely popular with 2CH listeners.

The Castlereagh Line commences in 1880 with the establishment of a Coach Line in northern New South Wales. The partners in the venture are Lottie Long, Jacke Seager and Mat Gore.

Lottie arrived in northern Queensland to act as a governess only to find the man who employed her had no children but was expecting her to bear them for him. When he attempts to rape her, she kills him and escapes on a beautiful mare. She becomes a barmaid in Cloncurry, near a gold mining area.

Jack is an unscrupulous villain who Lottie meets in the bar. He is as much taken by her horse as he is with her and after seducing her, convinces Lottie to travel south with him. On the way they are confronted by some miners from whom Jack has stolen gold. He kills them all then Jack and Lottie journey south to Tamworth.

Mat Gore is a nice person on the surface, but who is a horse trader and equally as villainous as Jack. He doesn't care what happens, as long as he doesn't know about it.

To obtain a mail contract Jack marries the daughter of the Queensland Post Master General, even though he has promised to marry Lottie who has already borne his child.

From here the story moves quickly in a number of directions. Lottie falls in love with Jim Holly who joins The Castlereagh Line after having been wrongly convicted of complicity with the Ned Kelly gang. Jim has a son, William, who eventually becomes one of the central characters, along with Lottie and Jack's son Gordon.

The second generation of characters is completed by Allison, Jack's daughter by his wife Grace, and an illegitimate daughter Meredith, whose mother Edwina Hamilton, plays a very strong part in the story.

After her break with Jack Seager, Lottie starts a hotel chain, buying them in towns where The Castlereagh Line is being established. Jack and Lottie go on in their own way occasionally meeting as their Empires develop. Jack eventually goes into politics and is knighted by Queen Victoria.