The Warwick railway station in Queensland has long been the scene of many great events, including over a century ago when Swiss love came to town. I told a version of this story on radio 4WK.

In 1917, the Australian prime minister Billy Hughes stepped onto the platform at the Warwick railway station and into the middle of a howling mob. An egg was thrown which knocked off his hat, pandemonium broke out, and the Warwick train station’s fame quickly spread across Australia.

In 1920, the future King Edward VIII visited Warwick for about an hour, he was greeted at the Warwick railway station by the mayor, a band played the national anthem, and the prince was escorted along the platform to the main entrance of the station to where he spent the time chatting with returned soldiers. 

And just two years later in 1922, the Warwick railway station was where a magnificent Swiss romance unfolded.

So the story went, Hermann Kocher was a twenty-three-year-old from Switzerland described as being “a fine, strapping young man”. He was an experienced watchmaker having been employed in a respected watchmaking factory in Switzerland. It was at the jeweller’s that Kocher fell in love and eloped with the boss’s daughter.

The subject of his love was Miss Marie Clare who was said to be as beautiful as their Swiss love story itself.

The couple arrived in Sydney but were unable to find employment, so they went to the Mackay district where Kocher worked in the cane fields. He saved enough money for them to return to Sydney and bide their time as he patiently looked for work in his trade.

In Brisbane the loving couple boarded the mail train to Sydney. As the train drew into the Warwick station enroute, however, sensational events stunned onlookers. It was Kocher who jumped through an open window of a carriage and fell on his head.

There was a great commotion amongst the passengers, as Kocher, then running to the end of the train, crossed the rails and threw himself down in front of a stationary engine in a praying position. All the while he was calling out that he wanted it all to finish.

Miss Clare, who had been in the same carriage as Kocher, called out for him to be stopped as he ran down the platform.

Two railwaymen, who were nearby, pulled Kocher away from the train. Two policemen and the railway’s head porter then took Kocher back to the platform.

Kocher was distraught and while struggling with his captors he put his head through a glass door to the ladies waiting room. He screamed and cried while he was being taken through the streets on his way to the lockup. The poor young man was had clearly had his heart broken.

The truth of the matter was that the couple, whose names were actually Herman Toter (not Kocher) and Miss Marie Clerc (not Clare), came out from Switzerland together. They were to work for Monsieur Francois Tecon who was a Swiss school teacher at Mt Jukes just north of Mackay.

Herman and Marie were set to join a noble family. That’s because M. Tecon’s wife Aline had been the governess of the Prussian emperor’s granddaughter who by this time was Sweden’s Queen Victoria.

Herman and Marie were expected to have been married before they left Switzerland, but they eloped and were still not married months later. Marie’s parents were hotel keepers on the border of Switzerland and France. From their hotel they had seen both German and French armies during the recently finished First World War. Neither Herman nor Marie were Swiss jewellers as reported.

In any case, the heartbroken Herman was checked into the Willowburn Asylum at Toowoomba.

And Marie, well she married another man that same year and gave birth to a son nine months later. Her Australian husband had served in the Australian Army at Gallipoli in the First World War, and he would sign up again for the Second World War.

When a romantic Swiss love story was revealed on the platform of the Warwick railway station one hundred and one years ago, history then morphed into an Australian scandal that no one saw coming.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON RADIO 4WK.

Photo credits:
Strange ban in France: You can’t kiss at the train station – nevsedoma com ua.
Warwick Railway Station during the visit from His Royal Highness Edward Prince of Wales, 1920 – State Library of Queensland.
Cane fields of North Queensland, 2024 – Harold Peacock.
Queen Victoria of Sweden in German uniform, 1910 – Wikipedia.